NASHVILLE -- Tennessee capped the 2016 season in style today, thrashing Nebraska 38-24 in the Music City Bowl to finish the year at 9-4. Here are four blindingly quick takes on what we just witnessed in the Vols’ finale.

1 — Josh Dobbs — Today’s performance in the Music City Bowl was an absolutely fitting way for Dobbs to close out his Tennessee career. He showed it all to you Tennessee fans. Everything you’ve loved and hated about him as a quarterback for the last three years was on full display.

He made some great throws to keep drives alive. He missed a couple of throws your third grader could make that looked like they would have turned into huge plays. And he totally befuddled the Nebraska defense all afternoon long with his agility.

Dobbs led the Vols with 118 yards rushing on just 11 carries. He scored three rushing touchdowns and had four carries on the day that went for more than 10 yards.

He completed 23-of-38 throws for 291 yards and he saved his best throw for last. After Nebraska cut the lead down to 31-24, Dobbs dropped a bomb right in the lap of Josh Malone who cruised in with a 59-yard touchdown that iced the game.

Nebraska had no answer for him. He kept plays alive with his feet, he made some throws with guys all over him and he looked to do an excellent job with his decision making on the zone read.

He was the X-factor for the Vols’ offense today, as he has been just about anytime they’ve played well against quality competition.

It was a nice way to go out for a guy who, who I would argue, has been a tad under appreciated in his career.

2 — Defense — Let’s be clear. This was not a good Nebraska offense. I’m not sure they were very good before they lost their starting quarterback and their best receiver. Certainly, they weren’t very good after those developments.

Nevertheless, as bad as this Tennessee defense was in November, to come out and throttle an opponent like they did Nebraska today was noteworthy.

Did they benefit from facing Ryker Fife, who came into the game completing 49% of his throws on the year? Of course they did. But this is the same defense that gave up over 400 yards rushing to Missouri and Kentucky in consecutive weeks in November and followed that by allowing Vandy’s Kyle Shurmur to throw for a career best 416 yards.

It wasn’t a good month, to put it mildly.

Tennessee was much better today, no matter what sort of personnel issues the opponent was dealing with.

The Vols gave up a couple of big plays—most notably on Nebraska’s lone touchdown drive in the first half—but by and large they were sound on defense. Missed tackles weren’t the obvious problem they had been at various points this year and pressure on Fyke was consistent

3 — Last drive of the first half — Tennessee had thoroughly dominated the first half. Thoroughly. But thanks to a 38 yard touchdown catch from Brandon Reilly the Vols led only 14-7 with 1:27 left in the second quarter.

Enter Dobbs, who proceeded to lead a 75 yard scoring drive which he capped off himself when he waltzed in from two yards out.

Dobbs jump-started the drive with a 15-yard completion to Josh Malone out to the Vols’ 40. That development gave Butch Jones the confidence, and the field position, to aggressively press the issue.

The biggest play of the drive was a 12 yard completion to Alvin Kamara on 3rd and 10 from the Tennessee that Kamara got mostly on his own.

Dobbs officially put the Vols’ in business when he scrambled for 14 yards to the Cornhusker 25. A pass interference all in the end zone on Nebraska put the ball on the door step and the Vols cashed it in for a two touchdown lead at the half.

That drive really changed the entire feel of the game and stole whatever momentum Nebraska may have generated with its lone first half score. The Vols looked like the (much) better team from the start but the scoreboard didn’t reflect that at 14-7.

That late touchdown before the half would loom very large later in the fourth quarter after Nebraska cut the lead to 31-24.

4 — Butch Jones — Let’s give the Vols’ head man some credit here. He’s been dodging metaphorical bullets and ‘Fahr Butch’ sentiments since his team choked away a Sugar Bowl berth at Vandy to close the regular season.

Jones had his team ready to play today, and frankly, that was something that no one was sure would be the case. That’s not to suggest there was any grumbling or red flags from the players themselves in the weeks leading up to the bowl, quite the contrary, but you never know.

Given how the season ended though, for a team that has only itself to blame for not winning an SEC East division title, you just had to wonder how fired up they would be to play in the Music City Bowl against an unranked Nebraska team.

As it turns out, pretty fired up.

Jones deserves a great deal of credit for that. Sure, team leaders like Josh Dobbs and Derek Barnett do as well for the example they set with their preparation and approach, but it starts with the head coach.

It hasn’t been a fantastic month in terms of perception for the program and few would have been shocked if the team looked disinterested today. That wasn’t the case at all. Props to Jones for building the kind of culture that takes enough pride in performance to go out today and play with the kind of effort and intensity fans could appreciate.

5 — Derek Freaking Barnett — What a perfect way for Derek Barnett to end his career. He killed Nebraska’s next to last drive of the day with his 33rd career sack, breaking the long time school record held by NFL Hall of Famer Reggie White.

Even without that sack, I can promise you that Nebraska’s Ryker Fife and a couple offensive linemen were of the opinion that No. 9 was the best player on the field.

Fife was running for his life virtually all afternoon because Barnett just kept coming off the edge like a lion with a wounded wildebeest in his sights. In addition to his record setting sack, he was credited with five quarterback hurries, anyone of which could have easily been a sack had he been just a half-step sooner

He finished the day with six tackles, one sack and one TFL, but that simply doesn’t describe the impact he had.

Nebraska hit a couple of big plays down the field in the passing game. Given how acrobatic Nebraska’s Brad Reilly looked on a couple of deep balls, it’s safe to think the Huskers might have made a couple of more big plays in the passing game if Fife wasn’t running from Barnett in fear of having bodily harm inflicted on him just about every time he dropped back.

Also, don’t underestimate how much of an impact Barnett has on his teammates just from the way he plays the game. His mindset and attitude set the standard for what a football player should be and that kind of thing means something in this sport.

I doubt we’ll be seeing him in Orange after today, but it has certainly been a pleasure to watch him grow and develop over these past three years.

I’ve been covering this program for 15 years now and prior to 2016, my Vols football Mt. Rushmore included only Eric Berry and Jason Witten. We’re getting the sculptors ready to get Barnett on there as we speak.