Citrus Bowl Game Report: Tennessee Volunteers 35, Iowa Hawkeyes 0

ORLANDO, Fla. — A closer look at Iowa’s 35-0 Cheez-It Citrus Bowl loss to Tennessee Monday at Camping World Stadium:

Turning point

It was Iowa’s second possession in a scoreless game, and field position was good. A Tennessee punt of just 26 yards put Iowa at its 47, and the Hawkeyes drove nicely to a first-and-goal at the 4.

The next two plays were runs that totaled nothing. Then, Hawkeye quarterback Deacon Hill dropped back and had time to throw. But his shot to Nico Ragaini in the end zone was double-teamed with a third Volunteer defender in the near vicinity.

Sophomore safety Andre Turrentine got his first career interception.

Iowa didn’t get into Tennessee territory the rest of the first half, and went to its dressing room down 14-0 on the way to the one-sided defeat.

Would the game have had a different ending had the Hawkeyes found a way to punch it in on one of those three plays after first-and-goal? It seems unlikely. But at least the Hawkeyes would have maintained hope for a while.

By the numbers

0 — Iowa suffered a third shutout in a season for the first time since 1972.

3 — Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava rushed for three touchdowns, the first three of his college career.

8 — This was the eighth-straight game in which Iowa didn’t score a first-quarter touchdown. It didn’t score a touchdown in its last 10 quarters of this season.

9 — The “under” paid for the ninth-straight time in a game involving the Hawkeyes. The over/under for this game was 35.5 points.

15 — Tennessee had four rushes of 15 yards or more on its 73-yard touchdown drive that concluded on the first play of the second quarter.

171 — Hawkeye linebacker Jay Higgins had 16 tackles to give him 171 this season, tying the Iowa mark set by Andre Jackson in n1972.

299 — Tight end Erick All led Iowa in receiving yards this season with 299. He was injured and didn’t play in his team’s last seven games. It’s the lowest total for an Iowa receiving yardage leader since 1979 when Brad Reid had 290 yards. The Hawkeyes played 11 games that season.

Notebook

* Hawkeye defensive end Joe Evans came to Iowa as a walk-on. He leaves with 22.5 career quarterback sacks after collecting four Monday for a team-high 9.5 this season.

“Somebody in the NFL is going to be very, very lucky to have Joe Evans on their team,” Iowa linebacker Nick Jackson said. “I’m really lucky to have him as a teammate.”

Whether Jackson will return for another season at Iowa is a question he said he has yet to answer. He had 11 tackles Monday for a season total of 110.

* Iowa’s Tory Taylor broke a 76-year old college football record with his first punt of the game. He passed the 4,138 yards Johnny Pingel of Michigan State kicked for in 1938 and went on to finish with 4,479

“It looks kind of sharp on the stat sheet,” Taylor said. “I’m not sure if it’ll ever be broken. I don’t know whether it’s a good or a bad thing. But it obviously is pretty cool to go into the record books.”

Pingel punted 99 times that season. Taylor had 93 this season. Pingel also passed for 571 yards and seven touchdowns and rushed for 555 yards in 1938. He is an inductee in the College Football Hall of Fame.

* Sickos Committee had two front-row seats in the press box.

The world keeps changing.

For the unfamiliar, that’s a self-described committee of “depraved college football fans” who call themselves Sickos “because we watch every game possible and we love it all no matter the teams.”

Next game

The Hawkeyes begin a three-game homestand with an Aug. 31 home game against FCS Illinois State. The Redbirds were 6-5 in 2023, with four of their losses by three points or less.