Iowa Football Citrus Bowl Takeaways

Tennessee Dominates Hawkeyes Monday in Orlando

It seemed like Iowa’s offense all season found a way to top its own futility.

How the Hawkeyes closed the season was the peak, or the depth if you prefer.

Iowa lost to Tennessee 35-0 in Monday’s Cheez-It Citrus Bowl, the second consecutive shutout for the Hawkeyes to close the season.

Iowa’s last points of 2023 came on Marshall Meeder’s field goal in the closing seconds to defeat Nebraska, 13-10, in the final regular-season game. The Hawkeyes were then shut out a week later against Michigan in the Big Ten championship game, and now they add this defeat, a collection of mistakes that added up to an ugly loss.

Quarterback Deacon Hill made three costly turnovers that had points attached to them. His interception in the first quarter when the Hawkeyes were inside the Tennessee 5-yard line cost Iowa a chance to get an early lead. His third-quarter fumble led to a Tennessee touchdown, and an interception on the next series was returned for a score.

“Clearly, self-inflicted things,” Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said. “Things you can’t do if you want to win a football game. … Turnovers are the most important stat there is, and certainly they impacted the game today.”

Iowa, which finished the season 10-4, had just 173 yards of offense. Hill threw for just 56 yards and was sacked four times before being removed from the game for true freshman Marco Lainez, who rushed for 51 yards but was 2-of-7 passing for four yards.

The Hawkeyes head into the offseason with plenty of questions on the offensive side of the ball, including who will be the next offensive coordinator.

The offseason starts now, but how this season ended will hang over the program for a while.

LAINEZ SPARK

Lainez at least provided some life to Iowa’s offense, even if he didn’t get any points for the Hawkeyes.

Still, it led to questions about why he wasn’t in the game earlier, or even why he didn’t get a look earlier in the season as Hill struggled.

“Obviously, we felt our best chance to win (was Hill) because we started Deacon and played Deacon the majority of the game,” Ferentz said. “At some point, you just felt like making a change to be the best thing. That is what drives every personnel decision."

Lainez should get the majority of the No. 1 snaps this spring while Cade McNamara continues to recover from the knee injury that ended his season. This season showed the importance of developing a second quarterback, because Plan A doesn’t always work out.

Hill, for the experience he got, never seemed to grow into the position. And he was turnover-prone, something that can’t happen if he wants to be considered a viable candidate for the job.

EVANS FAREWELL

Joe Evans stuck around for a sixth season with the Hawkeyes, and the defensive end got a record in his final game.

Evans had four sacks, setting an Iowa bowl record. Evans finished with 28 career sacks, in fourth place all-time in program history.

Iowa’s defense had six sacks, tying the program’s bowl record set in last season’s Music City Bowl.

THE HIGGINS-JACKSON DUO

Jay Higgins and Nick Jackson worked well together all season as Iowa’s linebackers, but it remains to be seen whether the two will be together next season.

Higgins, who has already announced that he is returning next season, had 16 tackles in the game. Jackson, who can come back next season but hasn’t decided if he will enter the NFL draft, had 11.

Higgins finished the season with 171 tackles, tying with Andre Jackson for the most in a single season in program history.

TAYLOR’S RECORD-SETTING CAREER

Punter Tory Taylor played his final game with the Hawkeyes and left with an impressive list of accomplishments.

— With his 62-yard punt in the first quarter, Taylor broke Michigan State’s Johnny Pingel’s 85-year single-season yardage record that was set in 1938. Taylor finished his career with 93 punts for 4,479 yards.

— Taylor’s 48.2 punting average on 93 punts this season is an NCAA record (minimum 75 punts), breaking Idaho’s Austin Rehkow’s 47.8 average that was set in 2018.

— Taylor finished with a 46.3 career average on 295 career punts (13,657 yards), breaking Baylor’s Daniel Sepulveda’s record of 42.5 yards.

— Taylor averaged 40 or more yards per punt in 43 career games – an NCAA record.