The 23rd ranked Iowa football team will get a final chance to beat a ranked opponent when the Hawkeyes take on 14th ranked Vanderbilt in the ReliaQuest Bowl in Tampa on Wednesday. Iowa is 8-4 in a season of near misses. The four losses were to rated foes by a total of 15 points.

That’s Iowa quarterback Mark Gronowski. In an era of bowl game opt outs the Hawkeyes have had none.

Gronowski’s counterpart in this game will be Vanderbilt’s Diego Pavia. The Heisman Trophy runner-up has passed for nearly 32 hundred yards and rushed for more than 800.

Against a team that averages nearly 40 points per game the Hawkeyes will need to score a lot to have a chance. Gronowski says the Commodore defense will try to confuse them.