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Iowa wide receiver Marvin McNutt catches a 4-yard-touchdown over Georgia Tech’s Jerrard Tarrant during the first half of the Orange Bowl Tuesday in Miami.
AP photo
MIAMI — Stymied by the Iowa Hawkeyes’ swarming defense, Georgia Tech found itself out of options.
No. 10 Iowa solved Tech’s explosive triple option and Ricky Stanzi threw two early touchdown passes for a 24-14 victory Tuesday night in the coldest Orange Bowl ever.
Temperature at kickoff was 49 degrees, and Tech’s offense was slow to warm up. The ninth-ranked Yellow Jackets averaged 35 points during the regular season, but their only score in the first three quarters came on Jerrard Tarrant’s 40-yard interception return.
By halftime, Georgia Tech had already matched a season high with six punts, a stunning development for a team that had a total of seven in its previous five games. The Yellow Jackets entered with the nation’s second-ranked rushing offense, the spread option piling up more than 300 yards per game.
The Hawkeyes (11-2) earned their first Bowl Championship Series bowl win, matched the school record for victories and could claim their highest final ranking since finishing No. 3 in 1960.
Playing for the first time since Nov. 7 after surgery on a badly sprained right ankle, Stanzi completed 17 of 29 passes, with one big mistake — an interception Jerrard Tarrant ran back 40 yards for a touchdown with 24 seconds left in the first quarter, Stanzi’s only incompletion in his first 10 attempts.