The Hawkeyes, ranked 12^th by the coaches and 13^th in the AP sportswriters poll, played their finest football game of the season today with an impressive performance that resulted in a 37-17 manhandling of No. 17 Florida in the Outback Bowl at Tampa, Fla.

Among Iowa’s many standouts were Nathan Chandler, the much-maligned senior quarterback who spent most of the regular season trying to convince fans that he deserved to keep the job, and tailback Fred Russell.

Chandler completed 13 of 25 passes for 169 yards, passed for a 3-yard touchdown to Mo Brown in the first quarter and ran for a 5-yard score in the second period.

Russell, who has a year of eligibility remaining but says he’s going to try his luck at the professional level, was named the game’s MVP after leading all rushers with 150 yards in 21 carries—including a 34-yard touchdown run in the third quarter that increased Iowa’s lead to 34-10.

It was an embarrassing loss for the Gators, who were booed when they left the field at halftime. And coach Ron Zook will likely be looking over his shoulder in the upcoming days because of what has recently transpired.

Steve Spurrier, who preceded Zook as the Gators’ coach, quit this week as the Washington Redskins’ coach and is in the middle of all sorts of speculation about what his next move will be.

He has tried to deflect talk that he’d be interested in moving to such collegiate jobs as Nebraska and—well, sure—Florida, too. Zook certainly didn’t help his situation today by getting thoroughly outcoached by Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz.

Zook wasn’t exactly welcomed to Florida with open arms when Spurrier left. Now, after a shabby performance in the Outback Bowl for the second straight year in the state where his university is located, Zook’s status could, indeed, be shaky.

But that doesn’t mean Iowa’s faithful can lick their chops and look forward with glee to the 2004 opener against Kent Stadium at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City. What they’d probably better be wondering is how many NFL jobs Ferentz will interview for in the next few weeks, and if he might take one of them.

The Iowa coach is one of the hottest commodities in coaching—certainly collegiate coaching--and there will be plenty of NFL general managers and owners who might be calling his cell phone soon.

Oh, I know. Ferentz keeps saying he likes it at Iowa. Well, sure he does. Most of the rest of us like it in Iowa, too. But that doesn’t mean we wouldn’t listen if someone called us and asked if we’d like to earn a million or two more.

But let’s assume he stays. If that happens, we can also assume that he has built the Iowa program into something that’s very, very big. After an 11-2 season in 2002 and the 10-3 record this season, he has erected the best two-year mark in school history.

Ferentz did an even better coaching job this season than he did when he had quarterback Brad Banks (who finished second in the Heisman Trophy voting) included on a more talented team in 2002.

Iowa scored 27 consecutive points in today’s game after Florida, operating out of a no-huddle offense, broke to a 7-0 lead with 7:18 left in the first quarter on a 70-yard touchdown pass from freshman quarterback Chris Leak to Kelvin Kight.

Iowa knew all about Leak. When Leak was making his decision on where to attend college last year, it came down to either Florida or Iowa. The Hawkeyes got into the picture only after Leak paid attention the day they clobbered Michigan.

So he called Ferentz to see if he could vicit the Iowa campus. Ferentz probably said, "I’ll leave the door to my office open. Come anytime. Call me where you get here and I’ll be right over."

Just kidding, but the Iowa coach was obviously thrilled to get the interest of a talent like Leak. But the kid ended up picking Florida after all.

However, he showed in today’s game that he’s not yet ready for prime time. He wound up completing 22 of 41 passes for 269 yards and two touchdowns, but seemed rattled in a number of situations and some of his teammates also seemed to be playing like they had stage fright.

Hey, don’t Miami, Florida State and Florida always have talent?

It made no difference. People kept talking about how Ferentz polled other coaches after his Hawkeyes were embarrased, 38-17, in the Orange Bowl last Jan. 2 and tried to find the proper way to prepare for a January bowl.

He let his players go home for Christmas last year, he didn’t this year. Judging by what happened today, I guess the Hawkeyes won’t be going home to spend any time under the mistletoe any time soon when they’re headed to a January bowl game.

Iowa’s special teams again were outstanding today. Matt Melloy blocked a punt and fell on the ball for a touchdown in the first minute of the third quarter—Iowa’s third touchdown of the season on a punt block.

Nate Kaeding, another Hawkeye playing his final game, kicked field goals of 47, 32 and 38 yards.

New Year’s Day turned out to be big for a lot of Iowans. The always-sensational Valley High School marching band from West Des Moines got some great network TV time this morning with its appearance in the Rose Bowl parade at Pasadena, Calif. As far as I’m concerned, they didn’t miss a beat.