Tennessee 45, Iowa 28: Over before it started

JACKSONVILLE, Fla., — On Tennessee's second play of the game, Volunteers running back Jalen Hurd sprinted to the left and up Iowa's sideline. Near the end of the 25-yard gain, Iowa cornerback Desmond King swooped in to push Hurd out of bounds and in the process took out Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz.

Ferentz hit the deck, lost his headphones and ended up with a nasty-looking cut about his right eye.

And then it really got bad for the Hawkeyes.

Tennessee (7-6) did whatever it wanted on offense, piled up hits on both Iowa quarterbacks and ran the Hawkeyes (7-6) out of EverBank Stadium, 45-28, in Friday's TaxSlayer Bowl before 56,310 mostly orange-clad Tennessee fans.

The Volunteers scored on their first four possessions and took a 28-0 lead on quarterback Joshua Dobbs' 8-yard run with 12:02 left in the second quarter. Dobbs, a sophomore who didn't start until the eighth game of the season, was the game MVP, completing 16 of 21 passes for 129 yards, a TD and an interception. He also rushed 13 times for 76 yards and two TDs. Hurd rushed 16 times for 122 yards and two TDs.

Hurd scored on a 29-yard run up the middle of Iowa's defense. The Vols scored on a 49-yard double pass from running back Marlin Lane to wide receiver Vic Wharton. And then Dobbs' 8-yard run and then that was basically it just 18 minutes into the game.

Ferentz conducted the postgame interview with a Band-Aid above his right eye. As far as metaphors go, that about covers it.

'We're 7-6,' Ferentz said. 'We've been 7-6 before. We've been 4-8. We've been 11-1, 11-2. That's where we're at. Your record says what you are.'

So, really, here's what Iowa is: The Hawkeyes are 7-6 for the second time since 2010. Iowa has stuck two 8-5s and a 4-8 on the board since then. Coming off 8-5 in 2013, expectations were high for this team. The Hawkeyes finished with losses to Wisconsin, Nebraska and Tennessee, no wins over FBS teams with records above .500 and a quarterback tango that played out tragicomically in the postgame.

'We had a coach to the west of us (Nebraska's Bo Pelini) who won a lot of football games and got fired,' said Ferentz, in response to a question about the temperature surrounding Iowa football. 'If I'm going to sit around listening to the temperature, reading the temperature on the outside ... what I need to do is take the energy that I can [and] put it put it toward the job and put it on our improvement. That's typically what we've tried to do for 16 years.'

If you think the heat is higher than it was when the Hawkeyes flamed out at 4-8 in 2012, you're not the only one.

'I haven't seen it this intense,' Iowa athletics director Gary Barta said after the game. 'Even when we were 4-8, it didn't get to this level of angst. At the same time, the expectations are higher. Because we had eight wins a year ago, because we had a good nucleus returning, the expectations were high. Because we didn't meet those expectations, people are disappointed, I'm disappointed.

'My gut churns when we lose a game like this, and it's felt like that a couple of times during this season. I still have confidence in the guys coming back. We have a good returning nucleus, and we started tomorrow on 2015.'

Will that good returning nucleus include quarterback C.J. Beathard? We don't know. Junior Jake Rudock, who completed 2 of 8 passes, started the game, but Beathard, a sophomore, played the majority of snaps, finishing 13 of 23 for 145 yards, two TDs, an interception and a fumble.

In early December, Bethard and his father, Casey, told The Tennessean (the Nashville newspaper, Beathard's hometown) that a transfer would be a possibility and hoped for clarity on the QB situation during the TaxSlayer Bowl.

We don't know that sits. Neither quarterback was made available for interviews in the postgame. Beathard, who also rushed eight times for 82 yards, was actually escorted out by an Iowa security detail.

'I think they did some good things,' Ferentz said. 'They both had some down plays, too. That's part of it. The way the game got away early, it's tough to evaluate anything in a real great fashion.'

Make no mistake, Iowa football is definitely being evaluated. Security details, Band-Aids, it all kind of goes together.

l Comments: (319) 398-8256; marc.morehouse@thegazette.com