Tennessee Football: Last Year's UGA Game Turned Corner for Vols

As the Volunteers get set to face the Georgia Bulldogs in Athens Saturday, here’s a look at last year’s game that turned the corner for Tennessee football.

In the midst of a 10-game winning streak, a 4-0 record with a win over the Florida Gators, and a chance to lock up the SEC East on Saturday, Tennessee football fans are appreciating every minute of the position they’re in.

The incredible appreciation comes from the fact that it’s not long ago when the morale of the program was the exact opposite.

Going into last year’s Georgia game, the Vols were 2-3. Remember, at the time, they had not had more than seven wins in a season since 2007. They had not finished in the Top 25 since that point either.

And despite beginning the 2015 season in the Top 25, that 2-3 record knocked them out of it. All three losses, highlighted by a heartbreaker at Florida, came after Tennessee blew a two-touchdown lead.

In his third year, fans were getting ready to turn on Butch Jones. And the Georgia Bulldogs game changed everything.

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Coming out of the gate in their Smokey Gray uniforms, the morale of the program hit an even lower point in the middle of that game. Tennessee had fallen behind to Georgia 24-3 in the first half. They were facing a fourth-and-eight with three minutes to go in the second quarter.

If they lost this game, they’d fall to 2-4, and then they’d be 2-5 after losing to Alabama. That’s when Joshua Dobbs made a play that became the turning point for the program.

Dobbs hit Josh Smith, who took the ball in for a touchdown. All of a sudden, after a disastrous start to the season and that game, Tennessee had new life.

Georgia fumbled the kickoff after that, and Tennessee scored a touchdown again to go into the half.

We all know the story of the second half. Tennessee scored three touchdowns and came back to beat the Dawgs on the final play, 38-31. And just like that, the Vols turned the corner.

Make no mistake about it, that remains the most important win of Butch Jones’s career in Knoxville to this point. As great as the Florida game was this year, last year’s Georgia game changed everything.

Had the Vols lost that game, they would’ve finished the year 7-5. That’s hardly better than their 7-6 record in 2014. But by winning that game, the prospect of going 8-4 and finishing with a bowl win to get into the Top 25 was real.

Sure, Tennessee lost to Alabama the next game after taking the Tide down to the wire on the road. But there was no shame in that game.

And after that, they won their final six games of the year. That winning streak has continued to this year.

But everything Tennessee football has done to this point can be traced back to a change in mentality during that Georgia game. There are so many things that changed that day on the field.

We already talked about the wins. But beating a ranked team at home was also a huge deal. And that was the program’s first win against the Big Three (Florida, Georgia, Alabama) since Lane Kiffin did it in 2009. It’s the first time they beat one of those teams when they were ranked since 2007 (when Georgia was ranked).

And after blowing three two-score leads leading up to that game, the Vols showed their mental toughness by coming back from a three-score deficit. In the 10-game winning streak that the Vols began after the Alabama loss last year, they have won five games in which they trailed or the game was tied late in the fourth.

They have two wins that were within one score. And they have three wins, all this year, in which they trailed by two scores or more at one point.

All of these things happened against the Georgia Bulldogs last year.

Must Read: Tennessee vs Georgia: 10 Keys to the Game

Tennessee football travels to Athens to face the Dawgs once again Saturday in a very different spot. The Vols have switched from playing the role of turning the corner to playing the role of favorites.

They have championships on their mind this year. Meanwhile, Georgia is the one looking to turn the corner.

The Vols don’t have to look too far back to see how dangerous talented teams like that can be. After all, they were there less than a year ago.

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Tennessee Football: Last Year’s Georgia Game Turned the Corner for Vols Program

By Caleb Calhoun | Oct 1, 2016

As the Volunteers get set to face the Georgia Bulldogs in Athens Saturday, here’s a look at last year’s game that turned the corner for Tennessee football.