Simply put, there is zero history between GT and Iowa. GT has only played one team from Iowa ever and that was Iowa State in the Eddie McAshan-less Liberty Bowl. I'm pretty sure the last time we played an Iowa squad in one of the big three sports was 2003 when we beat the Hawkeyes on a last second shot by B.J. Elder. The shot took us to the quarterfinals of the Post-season NIT. Also, we beat the Lady Hawkeyes in the first round of the Women's version of March Madness last year.
Returning to football, GT has only faced 4 teams from the current Big 10 with an overall record of 6-6. GT's last "Big 10" meeting was a loss to Joe Pa in 1991's Kickoff Classic. The attendance of 77,409 was the best attendance for a Kickoff Classic in its 20 year lifespan.
Iowa has never faced a team from Georgia. Iowa is 0-7 against current ACC members all time and has been outscored 210-91 in those 7 debacles to NC State and Miami. Interestingly enough, Iowa's last ACC out of conference game was against NC State in the 1992 Kickoff Classic. Iowa and NC State brought roughly 30,000 less people than Penn State and GT, which accounted for the second worst attendance in Kickoff Classic History. The argument that GT/PSU came off of better seasons is debatable as NCSU and Iowa went into 1992 coming off of 9 and 10 win seasons, respectively.
This is Georgia Tech's sixth appearance in the Orange Bowl and first since the 1967 game against Steve Spurrier. This is Iowa's second Orange Bowl appearance. Their first was in 2003 against a Carson Palmer-led Southern Cal. Both teams are a combined 3-3 in Orange Bowls since 1940. GT has played in 37 bowl games all time with a 22-15 record all time. Iowa has been to 23 bowl games with a 12-10-1 record all time. This is Iowa's second consecutive bowl birth as opposed to GT playing in their thirteenth straight bowl game.
There were zero common opponents between the two schools in 2009. The only ACC-Big 10 matchup was a 47-7 blow out of Indiana by UVA. An interesting idea of how the teams' respective fan bases will evaluate the matchups are the games that were actually watchable. GT and Iowa kickoffs overlapped five times. Five other games were regionally telecast so neither fan base could watch the other team. This leaves about 10 games that any reasonable college football fan could've watched. The games GT fans were able to watch were Arizona, Penn State, Indiana, Northwestern, and Minnesota. Take away Penn State and Indiana's epic collapses and GT fans saw little to no offense from the Hawkeyes on television outside of highlight reels. The games Hawkeyes could've watched for GT were Clemson Parts I and II, Miami, Wake Forest, and Georgie. So the Hawkeyes saw three of our worst defensive efforts of the season and three fourth quarter comeback wins. Needless to say, both fan bases should have pretty negative opinions of eachother's program leading up to the game.
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