Rose Bowl facts and figures

Notable facts and figures as Stanford and Iowa meet in the Rose Bowl on Friday:

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Black and gold could be the dominant color scheme in the stadium, with Iowa expecting more than 50,000 fans for its first Rose Bowl game since 1991. The school received 55,000 requests for its allotment of 22,000 tickets, “but from what I’m hearing, anyone who really wants to go is finding a way to get their foot in the stadium,� Iowa Athletic Director Gary Barta said. The Hawkeyes have always had a strong local following. So many families emigrated from the state to Southern California in the early part of the last century that Long Beach became known as “Iowa by the Sea.�

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The fathers of nine current Iowa players were members of Rose Bowl teams: LeShun Daniels Sr., father of Hawkeyes running back LeShun Jr., and offensive lineman James Daniels, played for Ohio State in the 1997 game. The fathers of offensive lineman Cole Croston (Dave) and reserve quarterback Drew Cook (Marv) played for Iowa in the 1986 game; the fathers of offensive lineman Mitch Keppy (Myron) and tight ends Peter Pekar (James) and George Kittle (Bruce) played on Iowa’s 1982 Rose Bowl team, and the father of offensive lineman Ryan Ward and defensive back Kevin Ward (Brian) played for Illinois in the 1984 game.

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In 2012, Stanford became the first college program to use iPad playbooks, saving countless trees, dollars and man-hours.

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Iowa is making its sixth Rose Bowl appearance and is 2-3 in the game. Stanford is appearing in its 15th Rose Bowl and is 6-7-1. Iowa is also making its first appearance in the state of California since a 13-13 tie against Brigham Young at the 1991 Holiday Bowl in San Diego.

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Stanford, which has won at least 10 games in four of five seasons under Coach David Shaw, is 23-29-5 all-time against Big Ten programs. Iowa is 28-36-1 all-time against current members of the Pac-12 Conference. The Pac-12 is 49-43-2 in the Rose Bowl; the Big Ten is 31-36.

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Iowa offensive coordinator Greg Davis and wide receivers coach Bobby Kennedy have both coached in three Rose Bowls for Texas, including the 2006 game in which the Longhorns beat USC, 41-38, to win the Bowl Championship Series title.

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With the help of the Cardinal football team, Stanford doctors and neuroscientists have been working to quantify the head trauma that players sustain during a game. The researchers developed custom mouthguards equipped with accelerometers and gyrometers that measure how violently the head gets whipped around during a game. The data from the sensors provide critical baseline information on how many jarring hits players typically experience.

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Stanford ranked first in the nation in time of possession, holding the ball for an average of 35 minutes, 23 seconds a game. “We love having those 12-play drives where you eat up seven or eight minutes of the clock,� Cardinal quarterback Kevin Hogan said. “That’s our style of football. It’s defeating for the defense to be out there for seven minutes and it ends with a touchdown.�

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Since 1999, Kirk Ferentz’s first year as Iowa’s head coach, the Hawkeyes have had a future NFL player start on the offensive line in every season. In each of the last eight years, an eventual NFL first-round pick started on the line, including Brandon Scherff, the fifth overall pick by the Washington Redskins in 2015.

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No program in the nation has a higher graduation rate over the last five years than Stanford (99%). And no Pac-12 team has had more players picked in the NFL draft in the past four years than Stanford (19).

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Stanford has six representatives in the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame: Jim Plunkett, Bob Reynolds, Ernie Nevers, Frank Albert, Ted Shipkey and John Ralston; Iowa has three: Bob Jeter, Ken Ploen and Hayden Fry.

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Times staff writer Houston Mitchell contributed to this report.