Countdown to Kickoff - Iowa - Boston College Athletics

A pair of 7-5 programs are ready to culminate their seasons at the New Era Pinstripe Bowl on Wednesday when Boston College and Iowa clash for the first time in history.

Yankee Stadium provides a majestic, unique setting to the affair as the Eagles look for their first eight-win seasons since 2009 and back-to-back bowl victories for the first time since 2006 and 2007.

Three years to the day since Boston College lost to Penn State, 31-30 in overtime, in their last trip to the Bronx, the Eagles are ready for another Big Ten opponent in the Hawkeyes, who present a physical challenge in all facets of the game.

"On offense, it's as good an offensive line as I've seen this year playing," said Eagles head coach Steve Addazio. "Very talented, very explosive tight ends. Excellent, dynamic players with speed. Really outstanding running back. Quarterback has a big arm. Very well-coached, very good at attacking defenses schematically.

"Their defense (is) really fundamentally sound. Couple of All-Americans on defense. Obviously, everybody knows Josey Jewell and Josh Jackson in the back end, and physical up front, play with great pad level. Very, very tough team; physical, tough team."

The Eagles earned their second straight bowl bid by rattling off five wins in their last six games, using a punishing running attack lead by freshman A.J. Dillon.

"You look at the impact this young guy had on their team, and you look at the way they played in the last six ballgames, his production during that time," Iowa head coach Ferentz told the Boston Herald. "So, I think my sister could figure out that we have to find a way to slow him down a little bit, or at least try and contain him, for us to have a chance to win this football game."

For Ferentz, an Iowa win would tie him with the legendary Hayden Fry as the all-time winningest coaches in program history with 143 Hawkeye victories.

"I have known Coach Ferentz for a long time, and I sincerely have always admired coach and his career, what he's done, what's he's accomplished," Addazio said. "I've watched the Iowa program and what's gotten done with longevity. He is regarded as one of the finest coaches in the country and a man with great integrity. And there's no one that will not tell you that, which I think is really unbelievable,"

ESPN will handle the call nationally, with Kevin Negandhi (play-by-play), Mack Brown (color), Booger McFarland (color) and Jen Lada (sideline) handling the television broadcast, while Kevin Winter (play-by-play), Jack Ford (color) and Paul Carcaterra (sideline) tackle ESPN Radio duties.

The Boston College IMG Radio Network will begin their local coverage at 4:45 p.m., with Jon Meterparel (play-by-play), Pete Cronan (color) and Scott Mutryn (sideline) filling the WEEI 93.7 FM airwaves on game day for the 13^th time this season.

What they're saying

"This is a typical Iowa team. That's why I respect it so much. They're very fundamentally sound. Everything is fundamental sound and schematic sound. You're not going to catch them schematically or anything else. They play physical, hard, run to the football on defense. Tough, offensive mindset and they want to establish the run, as well. This is a good, solid, strong football team. You've seen that through the years. You watch the tape of all the games. They've played some phenomenal football games. None short of the ones they played against Ohio State at home. It's a good team, very, very good team." – Boston College head coach Steve Addazio

"Boston College, very impressive football team. We've had a chance to see them on film now. They're a good football team, strong, physical. I think in a lot of ways, the style of football they play is a little bit like ours. Should be a really intriguing matchup that way. They've done really an excellent job. They have good football players on their team. They've got excellent football coaches. Again, for us to win this football game, we're really going to have to be focused, be very detail oriented from here on in, going to have to work extremely hard on the game field to bring home a victory." – Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz

"Ecstatic; our whole team is ecstatic. We went there my freshman year and it was an absolute ball. It was so much fun. They did a great job hosting us. I'm ecstatic. I'm ready to play this game. I'm ready to play Iowa. It's going to be smash-mouth football game. And the whole atmosphere is really exciting. I started there as a freshman, and I'm happy to end there as a senior." – Boston College senior linebacker Ty Schwab

"They've got some good players. They play very sound football. They know what they're doing. They don't make a lot of mistakes. We think it's going to be a really technique game. It's going to be mono-a-mono, we know what they're doing. They probably have a good idea of what we're doing. Whoever has the best techniques is going to win. Whoever plays toughest is going to win. Whoever is better prepared. So they've got a great team. We respect them. We hold them in high regard. But we're not going to sit back and play scared or anything. We're going to go at them pretty good, so it's going to be a lot of fun." – Boston College senior wide receiver and captain Charlie Callinan

Countdown to kickoff

10…Boston College quarterback Darius Wade connected with 10 different receivers in the regular-season finale versus Syracuse, the most receivers to catch a pass in a game this season for the Eagles.

9…Tight end Tommy Sweeney had nine games with at least two receptions, including each of the final six games. The junior leads the team with three touchdown receptions and is second on the Eagles with 29 catches on the year.

8…The Eagles are in search of consecutive bowl victories for the first time since 2007 when they capped their program-record eighth straight bowl win by beating Big Ten school Michigan State in the Citrus Bowl.

7…The Hawkeyes will enter the game one day and seven years shy of their last bowl victory. Iowa has dropped five straight bowl appearances since their last win at the 2010 Insight Bowl when they edged Missouri, 27-24.

6…The Boston College offense line has yielded just 13 sacks over 12 games this season, tied for sixth fewest in the nation. In half of those games they did not allow any sacks on their quarterback and, over their final five wins, they gave up just three.

5…Iowa senior linebacker Josey Jewell, a first-team All-American, is fifth in the nation and first in the Big Ten with 125 total tackles in 11 games.

4…Safety Will Harris tops the ACC with four fumbles recovered. The Eagles junior is fourth on the team with 74 total tackles and fifth with 5.5 tackles for a loss.

3…The Boston College run game has 2,690 yards on the ground in 12 games, third most in the ACC. Their 224.2 rushing yards per game places them 24th in the country.

2…Boston College freshman running back A.J. Dillon is second in the nation among freshman with 1,432 rushing yards, a program record at The Heights. His 272-yard day at Louisville was the second-highest total by a freshman in ACC history and, in tacking on a 200-yard game versus UConn, Dillon became only the second freshman in conference history to record two 200+ yard games. Dillon is also second in the ACC in rushing, just 11 yards behind 2016 Heisman Trophy winner, Louisville quarterback Lamar Jackson.

1…The game will feature two of the nation's best pass defenders in Boston College junior free safety Lukas Denis and Iowa junior defensive back Joshua Jackson, who together lead the nation with seven interceptions apiece. Jackson, a first team All-American selection, also leads the nation with 25 passes defended, and is second in the country with two interceptions returned for touchdowns. Denis, a second-team All American, is 11th in the nation with 16 passes defended.

Boston College Athletics

Countdown to Kickoff - Iowa

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Players Mentioned

Charlie Callinan

Lukas Denis

Will Harris

Ty Schwab

Tommy Sweeney

Darius Wade

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