Tennessee football: Remembering all four Vols bowl games played in 2010s decade

2. Jan. 2, 2015 – TaxSlayer Bowl (Jacksonville, Fla.)

Defeated Iowa Hawkeyes 45-28

Vols final 2014 record: 7-6 (3-5)

The fallout of the Music City Bowl loss combined with all the other issues facing the program and Derek Dooley’s own mistakes meant that Tennessee football wouldn’t make a bowl for the next three years, two under Dooley and one under Butch Jones. But in Jones’s second year, with an extremely young team, his kids rebounded from 3-5 to get  to 6-6 behind Joshua Dobbs.

This time, the Vols got a bid to the TaxSlayer Bowl, which was what the Gator Bowl was called at the time. Dobbs was the future of the program at this point, and with this game being played on Jan. 2, it was the first New Years bowl game for Rocky Top since they made the Outback Bowl after winning the SEC East in 2007.

Jones’s kids did not take the bowl game for granted. Set to meet the 6-6 Vols were the 7-5 Iowa Hawkeyes. The game was a blowout from the start. UT forced a punt and went up 7-0 early on an 80-yard drive. Then they forced a turnover on downs and went up 14-0 on a 67-yard drive. After that, the Vols forced two more punts and scored on both of them.

Just like that, they were up 28-0. After Iowa scored its first touchdown, the Vols responded with another one to go up 35-7 at halftime. In the second half, they slowed things down with a touchdown and a field goal, and after calling off the dogs, they won 45-28.

Dobbs had 76 yards rushing, 129 yards passing and three total touchdowns, and Jalen Hurd had 122 yards rushing and two touchdowns. The win marked Rocky Top’s first winning season since 2009 and first bowl win since that Outback Bowl to end 2007.