TAMPA, Fla. – Tennessee would like to come back to Tampa next January.
And not for the Outback Bowl.
The 2016 College Football Playoff championship game is in Raymond James Stadium, the same place the Volunteers blasted Northwestern 45-6 in Friday’s Outback Bowl, and the Vols already know the expectations for next season.
“You come to Tennessee to win championships,” quarterback Josh Dobbs told the Times Free Press nearly an hour after the Vols wrapped a 9-4 season by hammering the Wildcats (10-3), who were ranked 13th in this season’s final CFP rankings; Tennessee was 23rd.
“Our goal was to get Tennessee back to where it should be when we first got here,” Dobbs added. “And now the goal is to take that next step moving forward. We’re definitely excited for the journey ahead, and we’ll be ready come next September.”
It’s dangerous to put too much stock into one game when the next one – Tennessee opens the 2016 season against Appalachian State on Sept 3. – isn’t for nine months. After all, Iowa was on the wrong end of a bowl bashing at Tennessee’s hands a year ago but nearly won the Big Ten championship this season.
Tennessee, however, will go into another offseason with momentum after an impressive bowl win.
“This football team defines resolve,” Butch Jones said after concluding his third season as head coach of the Vols. “There was a lot of individuals that wanted to bury us, wanted to look for everything out there, and this team just kept staying in it. Actually, the adversity brought us closer and closer together.”
Jalen Hurd rushed for 130 yards, and Dobbs ran and passed for 214 yards with two rushing touchdowns.
An offensive line that will lose one starter and has some young talent waiting its turn paved the way for 226 rushing yards against the Wildcats, who entered the game ranked 11th nationally in total defense.
Derek Barnett and Jalen Reeves-Maybin had key sacks for the Vols, and the secondary – which was missing its best player for most of the game after cornerback Cameron Sutton left with a hamstring injury in the first quarter – intercepted Northwestern four times.
Tennessee started slow, totaling just 19 yards on its first three possessions and helping Northwestern with some dumb penalties. The Wildcats nearly took the lead, but Jack Mitchell missed a field goal late in the third quarter. Tennessee scored on the ensuing possession and took control of the game for good.
“It means a lot,” Vols cornerback Emmanuel Moseley said, “because we beat a team that was ranked higher than us. It gives us confidence going into the spring and the summer. When August comes, it’s game time.
“We always expect to win big.”
After the game, senior safety Brian Randolph, who played in his program-record 53rd game, grabbed the big orange Power T flag and danced around like a jubilant child before running all the way down the field and giving it to fans in the front row at the far end zone.
“It means everything,” Randolph said. “It’s definitely a great way to go out. I feel very blessed. I couldn’t ask for a better ending.”
The Vols will go on without him, but he’ll be watching.
“You can’t have the best of both worlds,” Randolph said. “It’s definitely exciting to go into the next chapter of my life, but I’m excited for the rest of the team. They see what they’ve got to do next year.”
“They going to be right back here in Tampa. They’re going to be in the playoffs next year.”
It’s a bold statement from an outgoing player.
Jones said the Vols must keep building.
“You’re always under construction,” he said. “The road to success is always under construction, and we need to continue to recruit and develop and continue to grow and elevate our football program. Where we’ve come in three short years is amazing, and I owe it to all of our players, our staff, our support staff and our seniors.”
The Vols know what the next step is, and they’ll have learned some lessons from the losses that delayed them taking that step this season, when their four losses came by a combined 17 points.
“Finishing out close games,” defensive end Derek Barnett said, “is the big step for us.”
Like any program, Tennessee faces some offseason questions. Three players – running back Alvin Kamara, Reeves-Maybin and Sutton – are considering early entries into the NFL draft. There’s one staff vacancy to fill, and there may be more as new head coaches make their hires and Jones reviews all facets of his program.
The Vols will go into the unknown thinking big.
“The sky’s the limit, definitely,” Dobbs said. “We understand that. We know that we’re just scratching the surface. Today was a great win, a statement win, and we realize that.
“We have to become ready to play in 2016 if we want to reach the goals we want to reach.”
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.