For the first time since the 2015 season, Hawkeye football has the chance to earn 10 wins when it faces USC on Dec. 27 in San Diego.

Even before the name, location, and date of its Holiday Bowl bid were known, Hawkeye head coach Kirk Ferentz reminded the team of the importance of a double-digit number in the win column.

“There hasn’t been a lot of lot of 10-win seasons here,” Iowa offensive tackle Tristan Wirfs said. “Coach Ferentz talked about it the other day in a team meeting. I can’t remember the number… So, it’s big. It’s really big.”

That number is actually eight, with the ninth season to potentially come before the new year.

Five of those seasons have come under Ferentz since he took the helm in 1999. Two of them resulted in 10-win finishes — in 2003 and 2004 — and both of those required wins in bowl games to reach double figures.

Success happened fairly quickly for Ferentz, who achieved double-figure finishes in his fourth, fifth, and sixth years as head coach. But it hasn’t happened since the Rose Bowl team in the 2015 season, so the current true seniors haven’t experienced even a 10-win result.

“Tenth wins haven’t come often across during Coach Ferentz’s tenure, so getting this 10th win and going out with a bang and getting momentum into the springtime and the next camp is going to be big for this whole program and the whole state,” Iowa cornerback Michael Ojemudia said.

Veterans of the team may not have joined the 10-win club yet, but one thing they have experienced is consistent growth as a team through their years with the program.

Ever since Iowa’s loss to Wisconsin on Nov. 9 ­— the team’s most recent loss — junior Geno Stone said the team has realized it had the chance to continue toward this benchmark. Since then, it has beaten top-10 Minnesota, a red-hot Illinois team, and rival Nebraska.

“We always talk about wanting to improve,” Stone said. “My first year, we won eight games, and last year we won nine. This year, we have a chance to get to that 10th win. Really, since Wisconsin, that was the main focus, making sure we could finish out, and I feel like we’re on the right track.”

Iowa has the chance to do this against a USC program that has recorded more 10-wins season in the 2000s than Iowa has in its entire history.

One of Ferentz’s five seasons of at least 10 wins happened in 2002, and coincidentally, the Hawkeyes faced the Trojans in the Orange Bowl. Iowa earned 11 wins in the regular season that year but fell handily to Southern California, 38-17, in Orlando.

The road to this opportunity has been close at times, with some narrow finishes giving Iowa the chance to do it again.

Each of Iowa’s last three wins ­ — including Keith Duncan’s last-second field goal to lift Iowa over Nebraska — have been by single digits. This battle-hardened Hawkeye squad will try to put those experiences to good use when it faces the Trojans for the first time since that Orange Bowl loss, as it tries to reach 10 wins and cap an undeniably strong season.