Iowa entered the 2014 season with plenty of preseason hype and did very little to back it up. Tennessee entered 2014 with very low expectations and exceeded most of them while showing the future of the program has its best days in front of them. Iowa was the popular preseason Big Ten pick because of their roster, but finished the year 7-5 after losing four of their final six games. Tennessee was picked to finished close to last in the SEC, but showed great signs of life that could push to a bowl game win in the Taxslayer Bowl.
Tennessee is playing in their first bowl game since a double-overtime loss to North Carolina in 2010's Music City Bowl. The team finished 6-6 to get to Jacksonville which was considered overachieving. Butch Jones is still rebuilding the roster in his second season as head coach so a bowl game is a big win considering they played five ranked opponents and got off to a 3-5 start to begin the year. The finished earned them a bowl berth and an extension for Jones through 2020.
The Volunteers will continue with Josh Dobbs at quarterback who took over at the end of the season and has 1,077 yards and eight touchdowns to his name. He is also second on the team in rushing with 383 yards and six touchdowns. However he will be playing without two of the team's three leading wide receivers as Marquez North and Jason Croom will not be available. Running back Jalen Hurd will carry the load after finishing the year with 777 yards. He was a big reason the Volunteers ended the season scoring an average of 35.0 points in their final four games.
Iowa's ground game went quiet ending the season averaging just 3.1 yards per carry. Mark Weisman had 802 yards on the year, but did not score in the final three games despite having 14 touchdowns prior to that. Iowa's defense will be the difference maker in this game. They allowed opponents to convert 28 of 59 third downs in their final four games.