JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- How about that start to the new year for Tennessee's football program?
The Volunteers will head into an offseason leading into a 2015 season that will feature elevated expectations on the heels of an impressive showing in the program's first bowl game since 2010.
Tennessee jumped all over Iowa in the game's first 18 minutes and made a quick 28-0 lead stand up in a 45-28 win against the Hawkeyes in the TaxSlayer Bowl in front of an announced crowd at EverBank Field of 56,310 that was more than 80 percent orange.
In its second season under head coach Butch Jones, Tennessee ended the 2014 season with a 7-6 record for the program's first winning year since 2009, when coach Lane Kiffin's Vols went 7-5 and lost to Virginia Tech in the Chick-fil-A Bowl in Atlanta on New Year's Eve.
Freshman tailback Jalen Hurd broke free for a 25-yard run on the second play of Friday's game for the Vols, who won a bowl for the first time since beating Wisconsin in the Outback Bowl at the end of the 2007 season, and finished the drive with a 3-yard run.
Hurd bounced off a couple more tacklers for a 29-yard touchdown on Tennessee's next series.
Tailback Marlin Lane threw a 49-yard pass to freshman receiver Vic Wharton to make it 21-0 at the end of the first quarter.
Quarterback Josh Dobbs got in on the fun in the second quarter with an 8-yard touchdown run and a 19-yard touchdown pass to Von Pearson.
Tennessee's defense did its part in the onslaught, too, stopping Iowa once on fourth-and-short and forcing two three-and-outs before the Hawkeyes got on the board with a little more than three minutes left in the first half.
The 35 points by the Vols were their most in a bowl game since running out to a 35-10 lead against Virginia Tech in the 1994 version of this bowl, then known as the Gator Bowl. Tennessee held a 321-153 advantage in total offense at the break and averaged 9.2 yards per play before the break.
In the third quarter, Dobbs added a second touchdown run, and safeties Brian Randolph and LaDarrell McNeil came up with turnovers as Tennessee entered the final quarter with a 42-7 lead.
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com