2015 TaxSlayer Bowl results: Tennessee slaughters Iowa

In Friday’s four bowls, the losing teams heading into the fourth quarter outscored the winning teams, 72-22. Washington trailed Oklahoma State by 27-14, Kansas State trailed UCLA, 34-21, Iowa trailed Tennessee, 42-7, and Houston trailed Pitt, 24-6. Only one of those came back to win (Houston), but three games became interesting.

Comebacks are what we will remember most about this bowl season (aside from, you know, the first Playoff). We had seen Central Michigan make up 34 points of a 35-point fourth quarter deficit in the Bahamas Bowl, and we had seen Michigan State come back from 20 down in the fourth. That KSU almost came back from down 31-6 at halftime, and that Houston DID come back from down 34-13 with four minutes left, just added to the lore.

Tennessee has made a strong statement ahead of its 2015 season, showcasing its young talent in full force in Friday’s 45-28 win over Iowa in the Taxslayer Bowl. It’s the Volunteers’ first winning season since 2009 and first bowl win since 2007.

The win sets Tennessee up for what could be an interesting 2015. The Volunteers lose just three starters from this year’s squad, which saw 23 freshmen play and 11 start. After bringing in the seventh-best recruiting class in the country in 2014, Tennessee is on track to bring in a top-five class this season. The talent is growing in Knoxville, and Friday looked like a preview of what’s to come for the program.

John Lowdermilk, Josey Jewell, and Quinton Alston all saw an errant Tennessee pass that they could catch. None of them caught it:

(GIF via ESPN)

Jonathan Parker caught a kickoff near the sideline with Iowa already down 28-0 and realized he was about to run out of bounds, which wouldn’t be a good return. But then he did this:

(GIF via ESPN)

The first quarter of the TaxSlayer Bowl has featured a number of hard hits on both sides, but one was more incidental than others. Iowa defensive back Desmond King accidentally ran into head coach Kirk Ferentz on the sideline, causing the head coach to develop a cut above his right eye.

via ESPN

The first game gives us a double dose of interim coaches. Houston defensive coordinator David Gibbs steps in for fired head coach Tony Levine, while Pitt offensive coordinator will fill in on the Panthers’ sideline after head man Paul Chryst left for Wisconsin.

If experience playing for interims means anything (and it almost certainly does not), give Pitt the edge; fifth-year Panther seniors are now under their third interim. But dual interims make motivation a huge question mark.

Despite their strong regular season play in recent years, the Kansas State Wildcats are just 1-5 straight up and against the spread over their last six bowl appearances. The Wildcats will be looking for more favorable results in the Alamo Bowl at 6:45 p.m. ET on Friday against the UCLA Bruins.

Kansas State is a 1.5-point underdog in the Alamo Bowl, according to sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com. Both teams finished the season with 9-3 SU records, but Kansas State held the clear ATS edge at 8-4 over UCLA at 4-8 ATS. The betting favorite is 5-1 ATS over the last six Alamo Bowl games.

Every year, there’s at least one bowl game where one team is thrilled to be there and the other can’t help but think where else they might have been had the regular season gone different. This is a prime candidate to be that game.

Iowa came into the season as a legitimate Big Ten West contender, thanks to a lot of returning talent on offense and an incredibly easy schedule. However, the Hawkeyes’ play left a lot to be desired this year, culminating with a blowout loss to Minnesota, a failed comeback against Wisconsin and a huge blown lead against Nebraska, all in November. With that, the Hawkeyes fell to 7-5, and their stubborn offensive philosophies led to some losses that shouldn’t have happened.

The SEC’s recent domination of postseason play is pretty widely known. Until Florida State beat Auburn last season, the conference had produced the last seven national champions in a row, and these numbers show just how dominant the SEC has been since 2007.

The only other conference with a winning record in January bowls during that timeframe is the Pac-12, with less than a quarter of the games the SEC has played. Sure, the SEC is getting more opportunities in marquee bowl games than the other conferences, but they’re also doing a much better job of taking advantage of them.

Fun fact! The Gator Bowl is not played at the home of the Florida Gators, in Gainesville. It is played in Jacksonville, and is one of the oldest bowl games still running. This year, we’ll see Iowa and Tennessee, two teams that don’t usually score a lot of points.

Started in 1946, the Gator Bowl was the first college bowl televised nationally. It has gone through a litany of sponsors -- Mazda, Outback Steakhouse, Toyota and Progressive are among the companies who have seen their names title the bowl -- and TaxSlayer.com has owned the naming rights for the game since 2012. Previously the TaxSlayer.com Gator Bowl, the name has been changed this year to simply the TaxSlayer Bowl.