‘It’s almost like looking in the mirror.’ UK football’s final foe more familiar than not.

If not for their threads — black and gold versus blue and white — you might have a hard time telling Iowa and Kentucky apart.

Both teams pride themselves on their physicality. Their offensive lines are consistently among the best in the nation. When push comes to shove in close games, stout defensive play helps both get the edge in the end.

“I mean, it’s almost like looking in the mirror,” Hawkeyes head coach Kirk Ferentz said during a joint news conference with Kentucky’s Mark Stoops on Friday ahead of their VRBO Citrus Bowl showdown. “We don’t run the same exact schemes, but there are a lot of similar traits in the programs.”

That’s no accident. While Stoops’ attitudes and philosophies about football were sparked in Youngstown, Ohio, the fine-tuning thereof began in Iowa City under the late Hayden Fry, whom Ferentz succeeded in 1999. The second of three brothers who came through Iowa’s program in the 1980s, Stoops was in the midst of a breakout season before a knee injury sidelined him and eventually cut his playing career short.

When Ferentz was asked about Stoops’ days as a player, the junior head coach standing 8 feet to his left interjected — “Not very good” — to laughter. Ferentz was more gracious in his assessment.

“He was an excellent football player,” he said. “… The University of Iowa was just so fortunate to have Mark and his brothers. Just great, great people. I’m not surprised at all by the success everybody in that group has had in the profession of coaching. It’s great for coaching that they are involved, and not only as good coaches, but the kind of people they are. That’s probably more important.”

Longevity in the captain’s chair is another mark of commonality between Iowa and Kentucky, ranked No. 15 and No. 22 respectively, in the final College Football Playoff rankings released this month. Ferentz, 66, is the longest-tenured head coach in the country. Stoops, 54, is at the end of his ninth season at UK, the first school to take a chance on him as a head coach and the only school in the Southeastern Conference other than Alabama, Georgia and Texas A&M to have the same head coach for more than two years.

Kentucky’s commitment to Stoops, of course, exists because of the relatively unprecedented success it has had under his leadership. UK is in a school-record sixth straight bowl game and on Saturday will look to extend a record streak for postseason wins to four. Iowa, which saw a streak of seven straight bowl trips end last season due to a COVID-19 cancellation, also will attempt a record fourth-straight bowl win in its 18th appearance under Ferentz (9-8).

One presumes the bowl trips — and, if it’s fortunate, wins — will pile up for Kentucky football as long as Stoops remains in place. Despite possible opportunities to jump elsewhere this offseason, he earlier this month affirmed his own commitment via a contract extension signed alongside a handshake agreement for further facility improvements and an increased salary pool for his assistants.

It’s not hard to speculate that Stoops might be the first call Iowa would make whenever Ferentz retires, and it’s hard to think Stoops wouldn’t at least entertain the notion of leading his alma mater. For now, though, he’s running a good facsimile of the program in which he was forged.

“I want opposing coaches to put on film and feel the same way about our team (as they do Iowa),” Stoops said. “And that’s a team that is fundamentally sound and that plays the game with great technique. There’s a lot of cute stuff you can do, but it’s about being physical and being fundamental and playing extremely hard. Yes, we have to put ‘em in a position strategically to be successful, but the game of football is not going to change.

“It’s about blocking. It’s about being physical. It’s about getting off blocks, containing the football, playing with leverage, all the basics. That’s what you see when you see Iowa, and hopefully that’s what you see (from us) when you put on the film on Sunday after we play this game.”

Josh Paschal update

Josh Paschal, UK’s starting defensive end, probably won’t play against Iowa.

Stoops during Friday’s news conference said it was “highly questionable” that Paschal will play. He was among a few players that Stoops described as being “down to the wire” in terms of their availability.

“He really wants to play,” Stoops said. “I don’t feel like I could play him with a clear conscience.”

Paschal re-aggravated an undisclosed injury during the second half of the Wildcats’ win over Louisville on Nov. 27. He also dealt with some other health problems earlier in the week that delayed his travel to Orlando, Fla. Paschal was observed going through some workouts with the team Wednesday.

“He’s given us everything,” Stoops said. “Just like Coach (Ferentz) said, you talk about these guys laying it on the line for you every day for years, and Josh, you folks that cover Kentucky, you’ve heard me talk about it many times, but Josh is a guy that just absolutely empties his tank each and every practice, each and every game.”

Paschal had 15.5 tackles for loss in the regular season, second most among all players in the SEC.

This story was originally published December 31, 2021 at 12:41 PM.

Josh Moore

Lexington Herald-Leader

Josh Moore covers the University of Kentucky football team for the Lexington Herald-Leader, where he’s been employed since 2009. Moore, a Martin County native, graduated from UK with a B.A. in Integrated Strategic Communication and English in 2013. He’s a fan of the NBA, Power Rangers and Pokémon. Support my work with a digital subscription