Iowa football: Where is the 2003 Orange Bowl team at today

The 2002 Iowa football team put the program back on the map as they made it to the 2003 Orange Bowl. Where are key members of that team today?

The 2002  Iowa football season was truly special. After sputtering out of the gate in his first two seasons as the head coach of the Hawks, Kirk Ferentz and his staff were slowly building a winner.

In 2001, the Iowa football team went 7-5 and won the Alamo Bowl, but the following season was something not many saw coming. It wasn’t until the Hawks started the season 4-1 and beat #12 Penn State that they were even ranked, and even then, they came in at #24, but as the wins piled up, Iowa soared in the rankings.

After finishing the regular season 11-1, the Iowa football team was selected to play in the 2003 Orange Bowl against #5 USC. While Iowa would go on to lose that game to Heisman Trophy winner Carson Palmer and the rest of his Trojan squad, it was the start of something great in Iowa City.

From that season on, the Hawks have had just four seasons with ten wins or more and just one season with less than six wins. They’ve also finished the season ranked in the top-25 six times since then.

That 2002 Iowa football team had quite a few memorable names including four that made our recently released top-30 Hawkeyes of all-time list and several more who were under consideration.

Here’s what five of the key contributors to that special season are up to today.