2015 TaxSlayer Bowl

The 2015 TaxSlayer Bowl was an American college football bowl game played on January 2, 2015, at EverBank Field in Jacksonville, Florida. The 70th edition of the Gator Bowl featured the Iowa Hawkeyes from the Big Ten Conference and the Tennessee Volunteers of the Southeastern Conference. The game was one of the 2014–15 NCAA football bowl games that concluded the 2014 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The game began at 3:20 p.m. EST and was nationally televised by ESPN. It was sponsored by tax preparation software company TaxSlayer.com,^[5] and for sponsorship reasons was officially known as the TaxSlayer Bowl.

2015 TaxSlayer Bowl
70th Gator Bowl
Iowa Hawkeyes Tennessee Volunteers (7–5) (6–6) Big Ten SEC 28 45 Head coach:  Kirk Ferentz Head coach:  Butch Jones
1 2 3 4 Total Iowa 0 7 0 21 28 Tennessee 21 14 7 3 45
Date	January 2, 2015
Season	2014
Stadium	EverBank Field
Location	Jacksonville, Florida
MVP	Joshua Dobbs (QB, Tennessee)[1] & Josey Jewell (LB, Iowa)[2]
Favorite	Tennessee by 3.5[3]
Referee	Mike Mothershed (Pac-12)[4]
Halftime show	Pride of The Southland Marching Band
Attendance	56,310[4]
United States TV coverage
Network	ESPN/ESPN Radio
Announcers	Mark Jones, Rod Gilmore, and Jessica Mendoza (ESPN) Adam Amin, John Congemi, & Dawn Davenport (ESPN Radio)
TaxSlayer Bowl  < 2014 2016 (Jan.) >

Teams

This was the third overall meeting between these two teams, with the series tied 1–1. The previous time these two teams met was in 1987. The only other bowl game these two played against each other was the 1982 Peach Bowl, which Iowa won 28–22.

The Volunteers took the momentum early, scoring on their first four possessions and leading 28–0 before Iowa managed to reach 70 yards. Sophomore quarterback and game MVP Joshua Dobbs ran for two touchdowns and threw for another as the Vols posted their first winning season since going 7–6 in 2009, and earned its first postseason victory since the Phillip Fulmer era, the last being the 2008 Outback Bowl over the Wisconsin Badgers.^[6]

Game summary

Scoring summary

Scoring summary

Quarter Time Drive Team Scoring information Score Plays Yards TOP IOWA TENN 1 9:27 9 80 3:28 TENN Jalen Hurd 3-yard touchdown run, Aaron Medley kick good 0 7 1 2:54 5 67 1:41 TENN Jalen Hurd 29-yard touchdown run, Aaron Medley kick good 0 14 1 1:31 1 49 0:13 TENN Vic Wharton 49-yard touchdown reception from Marlin Lane, Aaron Medley kick good 0 21 2 12:02 8 62 3:23 TENN Joshua Dobbs 8-yard touchdown run, Aaron Medley kick good 0 28 2 3:43 9 71 4:30 IOWA Mark Weisman 3-yard touchdown run, Marshall Koehn kick good 7 28 2 0:21 9 75 3:22 TENN Von Pearson 19-yard touchdown reception from Joshua Dobbs, Aaron Medley kick good 7 35 3 7:46 9 75 3:13 TENN Joshua Dobbs 11-yard touchdown run, Aaron Medley kick good 7 42 4 14:29 4 46 1:24 IOWA Mark Weisman 1-yard touchdown run, Marshall Koehn kick good 14 42 4 8:31 11 34 5:58 TENN 28-yard field goal by Aaron Medley 14 45 4 3:30 6 80 2:13 IOWA Ray Hamilton 31-yard touchdown reception from C. J. Beathard, Marshall Koehn kick good 21 45 4 0:20 4 75 1:02 IOWA Matt VandeBerg 18-yard touchdown reception from C. J. Beathard, Marshall Koehn kick good 28 45 "TOP" = time of possession. For other American football terms, see Glossary of American football. 28 45

Source: ^[4]

Statistics

Statistics[4]	Iowa	TENN
First downs	23	27
Plays–yards	66–421	73–461
Rushes–yards	35–244	51–283
Passing yards	177	178
Passing: Comp–Att–Int	15–31–1	17–22–1
Time of possession	27:52	32:08

References

1. Coble, Don (January 2, 2015). "Tennessee turns TaxSlayer Bowl win over Iowa into a long-needed celebration". jacksonville.com. The Florida Times-Union. Retrieved January 2, 2015.
2. "2014". Archived from the original on December 31, 2017. Retrieved December 31, 2017.
3. "College Football Lines, NCAA College Football Lines At Bovada Online Sportsbook". Bovada. Archived from the original on December 2, 2014.
4. "2015 TaxSlayer Bowl Official Game Stats" (PDF). Stat Broadcast.
5. "TaxSlayer.com Announces New Sponsorship". Archived from the original on December 7, 2014. Retrieved December 6, 2014.
6. "Outback Bowl News". www.outbackbowl.com. Retrieved November 14, 2017.