It still can be special

TEMPE, Ariz., -- The choreography couldn't have been any more perfect.

At the postgame news conference, Insight Bowl personnel placed Micah Hyde and Marcus Coker on the left, while Ricky Stanzi and Adrian Clayborn were on the right.

New faces on the left, veterans on the right. Present and, about midnight central on Tuesday, past. Hyde and Coker are in; Stanzi and Clayborn are NFL-bound.

The Hawkeyes' 27-24 Insight Bowl victory over No. 12 Missouri (10-3) was a hello and a goodbye.

Hyde you already had a pretty good idea about. The sophomore cornerback wowed with his interception return for a TD against Michigan State on Oct. 30. Tuesday night, his 72-yard interception return gave the Hawkeyes their winning margin and landed as ESPN's top play of the day.

It also earned him Insight Bowl defensive MVP.

"That's what it takes when you're going to try to upset a team as good as Missouri," Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said. "It takes some great efforts, individual efforts."

Coker set Iowa bowl records with 219 yards and 33 rushes, topping venerable Iowa names Bob Jeter (194 yards vs. California in the '59 Rose Bowl) and Shonn Greene (29 rushes vs. South Carolina in the '09 Outback).

His 62-yard run in the first half set the table for the Iowa upset. Hyde's interception return cleared it.

"It's bizarre how we keep recruiting and keep coming up with these running backs," senior guard Julian Vandervelde said. "They're not the biggest recruits coming out of high school, but they get here and we throw them in game situations and they just play their [bleeps] off.

"They absolutely just fight and strain. They do everything we ask them to do and they do it at such a high level. Marcus is the absolute epitome of that."

Coker, a 6-foot, 230-pound true freshman, was named the Insight's offensive MVP.

"That doesn't mean nearly as much as getting the win for our seniors," Coker said. "Not nearly as much."

Iowa waved goodbye to 25 seniors Tuesday night. Stanzi, Clayborn, Vandervelde, defensive tackle Karl Klug, punter Ryan Donahue and so on.

The new faces showed their respect.

"They're our leaders," Hyde said. "Day in and day out, they led us in the right direction. The seniors, they're great. Any one of us can hang out with any one of the seniors, that's how close our team is."

It kind of had to be that way, especially during this weighty month.

One more time with the mention of wide receiver Derrell Johnson-Koulianos' drug-related arrest and running back Jewel Hampton's departure and running back Adam Robinson's suspension and marijuana citation on Monday night.

There, no more.

Ferentz stridently stated the objective during a month where so much happened on the field and then, at the end, so much happened on.

"December was December," said Ferentz, who became the first coach at Iowa to win three straight bowl games. "We had a bowl bid, we went back to work. . . . I have been focused on the players who have been out on the field every day.

". . .  Just thrilled with all the guys the job they did on this trip from start to finish, from the time they got off the plane to the end of the game here."

The Hawkeyes finished 8-5. That's not the sky-high preseason everyone who deals in preseason thought predicted, especially coming off an 11-2, Orange Bowl, top-10 finish. Three consecutive losses in November and then the off-field troubles, the Insight had the potential to be ugly. Stanzi credited Ferentz for setting a schedule with little or no time for woe on who wasn't in Arizona.

Fueled by a couple white-hot performances by some new faces, the 25 seniors went out winners.

"I'm not naive, I understand you've got to win enough games and all that stuff," Ferentz said.

Then, he talked about the 16 seniors who graduated earlier this month.

"The Stanzis and the Clayborns, those guys get a lot of the notoriety," Ferentz said, "but a guy like Josh Koeppel [senior who sat a lot of the season before starting the last five games at guard], go right down the list.

"[Senior O-lineman] Kyle Haganman, who barely played but was out there working, doing all the same things, that's what makes coaching so much of a pleasure."

The month from hell ends with Ferentz running off a list of former players in the postgame lockerroom scene and saying, "That's what makes being an Iowa Hawkeye so special."

It still can be special.

Junior Jordan Bernstine threw the last block that sprung Hyde on his big return. Sophomore Greg Castillo sprinted alongside in case of one last Missouri attempt at a tackle. Riley Reiff, Markus Zusevics and James Ferentz were part of the O-line that Coker had such high praise for in the postgame.

All those names are back next season.

When it was time for the coach to talk, the players got up and exited to the right. Seniors first, following the perfect choreography.

It still can be special.