KNOXVILLE – Tennessee’s football team had a trip to Tampa, Fla., and the program’s first New Year’s Day bowl in eight years in its crosshairs all week long.
On Sunday, the Volunteers got the postseason game and destination they wanted.
Tennessee, 23rd in the College Football Playoff committee’s final rankings, will wrap the 2015 season with a clash against No. 13 Northwestern in the Outback Bowl at Raymond James Stadium on Jan. 1.
“This was a destination we were working toward,” Vols coach Butch Jones said Sunday night during a conference call.
The matchup – with two top-25 teams on five-game winning streaks from two conferences that often go at each other in bowl games – was one the Outback Bowl was hoping to grab, too. Five of the past six Outback Bowls have been decided by seven or fewer points, and the Southeastern Conference has won nine of the past 15 games dating to 1999.
“We were hoping to get these guys in our matchup,” Outback Bowl president and CEO Jim McVay told the Times Free Press Sunday evening.
Tennessee will play in its 51st bowl game and its 26th held on Jan. 1. The Vols are 12-13 on that date. The most recent game was the 2008 Outback Bowl, won 21-17 by the Vols on Antonio Wardlow’s interception at the goal line with 32 seconds left.
The Vols made two previous bowl trips to Tampa, beating Boston College 38-23 in 1993 (when it was called the Hall of Fame Bowl) and losing 20-10 to Penn State in 2007.
Following a busy weekend of hosting recruits on official visits, Jones informed his team of its bowl assignment following Sunday’s first practice of the postseason.
“No question it shows what we’re building here at Tennessee and the process that we’re going through and the building progress,” Jones said. “Now to be playing two January bowl games in Florida and going to the Outback Bowl, it’s just another illustration of the things that are being built here at Tennessee. It is very, very important, and it’s a reward for our team.”
The Outback Bowl’s payout of $3.5 million is one of the highest among the non-CFP bowls, and the bowl bonus given to Jones reflects the financial gain of playing in this game. He receives $200,000 for getting Tennessee to the Outback (or Citrus) Bowl. It’s $100,000 for the other non-playoff bowls.
Tennessee’s assistant coaches receive a bowl bonus of 8.33 percent of their annual salaries.
“We’re really excited,” athletic director Dave Hart told “The Nation” radio show on WNML Radio in Knoxville on Sunday, “and I’m personally really excited to see our team, first and foremost, rewarded for their hard work and perseverance through the ups and downs of a long football season.”
Northwestern opened the season with an impressive 16-6 home win against eventual Pac-12 champion Stanford and also won 19-10 at Duke. But after a 5-0 start, the Wildcats were blanked 38-0 at Michigan and lost 40-10 to Iowa at home in consecutive weeks.
Northwestern rebounded by winning out, with four of the five victories coming by seven or fewer points. The Wildcats stopped a potential game-tying two-point conversion with 4:23 left to win 30-28 at Nebraska and kicked a field goal with nine seconds left to beat Penn State. A goal-line stand preserved a 13-7 win at then-No. 25 Wisconsin.
“We got spanked in two games, but I think we played two outstanding football teams that played great against us, maybe two of their better games of the year,” said Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald, who is 70-55 in 10 seasons leading the Wildcats. “We just got back to work, and the guys knew that we needed to improve. We’re a very young football team in some areas, and that group of young guys just rolled their sleeves up and went to work.”
The Wildcats are 112th nationally in scoring and 115th in total offense, but Fitzgerald’s team boasts a stout defense that allows an average of just 16.4 points per game and ranks 11th nationally in yards allowed.
This is Northwestern’s first bowl game since beating Mississippi State in the Gator Bowl to wrap the program’s third 10-win season in 2012, and the Wildcats have never had an 11-win season.
“We feel like,” Fitzgerald said, “this is a huge opportunity for us and for our program.”
The same can be said for Tennessee.
“I guarantee you the players are going to want to play this game,” McVay said. “You’ve got that Big Ten-SEC thing that everybody likes to argue about. We get two teams that can play.
“To get two teams that are certainly deserving and performing at a high level and let them go after each other on New Year’s Day I can’t wait for the game.”
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.