Northwestern, Vols take 5-game win streaks into Outback Bowl

The Wildcats will face No. 23 Tennessee at Noon ET on January 1 in Tampa, Fla. You can also watch the game live on ESPN2.

As a 6-foot-4, 275-pound high schooler, Ray Raulerson spent three seasons anchoring Plant’s offensive line, helping the Panthers record at least 4,200 yards of offense in each of those seasons. The Rebels absorbed a 42-3 loss in last season’s Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl against TCU and now must contend with another talented team from the Big 12. Quarterback Joshua Dobbs completed 59.9 percent of his passes for 2,125 yards and 15 touchdowns against five interceptions.

PROUD TRADITION: Tennessee is appearing in a bowl game for the 52nd time, tied for fourth all-time behind Alabama (63), Texas (52) and Nebraska (5-2). Justin Jackson rushed for 1,344 yards and four touchdowns. There was plenty of it surrounding the program a year ago too after the Vols trounced Iowa in the TaxSlayer Bowl, but a 3-4 start to this season quickly squelched the team’s SEC title hopes.

Not only does the senior class have a chance to become NU’s first to win two bowl games (they were freshmen when the Wildcats beat Mississippi State in the 2013 Gator Bowl), but the Wildcats have a chance to win 11 games for the first time in program history. It’s kind of similar to a game pitting a major conference foe against a non-power 5 team because of the incredible talent on Tennessee.

The Northwestern rushing defense has been wildly inconsistent this season, making this matchup a hard one to predict.

The Tennessee Volunteers could have had a very special season this year but blown double-digit leads in the first part of the year cost them dearly.

But the Vols regrouped, posting a five game winning streak to get to Tampa. Jalen Hurd has 1158 rushing yards and 11 touchdowns for the Volunteers.

Tomorrow, the Vols are finally back in action, taking on #13 Northwestern in the Outback Bowl.

The Wildcats are 11th in the nation in total defense, have registered a pair of shutouts and limited ranked teams Stanford and Wisconsin to just six and seven points respectively.

Tennessee outgained Northwestern 197-129 in the first half, and though the Wildcats had a 83-73, they passed for just 46 yards, while Dobbs was 10-of-16 for 124 yards with a rushing touchdown. I know that’s a different team, but it proved to me that the bowl game meant something to the Volunteers.

The Tennessee Volunteers were 8-4 and finished 3rd in the SEC East Division standings. Hurd also is the first Tennessee sophomore with 2,000 career rushing yards. Evan Berry put a punctuation mark on the blowout by returning one of Tennessee’s four interceptions 100 yards for a TD in the closing seconds. He has a 70-55 record in his time as coach of the Wildcats.