Five Things the Tennessee Vols Must Do to Salvage the 2015 Football Season

Sep 26, 2015; Gainesville, FL, USA; Tennessee Volunteers defensive back Micah Abernathy (3) and teammates react after they lost to the Florida Gators at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. Florida Gators defeated the Tennessee Volunteers 28-27. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

The Tennessee Vols football team can save this season by finishing 8-4 or even better, but here are five things the Volunteers must do for that to happen.

Despite the 2-2 start and another heartbreaking loss to the Florida Gators, the one team all Vols fans wanted to beat this year, there is still a chance for Butch Jones and Co. to salvage the season.

And Jones will need to do that if he wants to keep his job.

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We already documented how the Vols can salvage the season, and you can read that article by clicking here.

But the short answer is that Tennessee could easily run the table and just lose to Georgia and Alabama, which would be sickening, but that would be an 8-4 finish. A bowl game victory would mean 9-4 and signify great improvement.

They could also potentially upset the Dawgs or the Tide and get to 10 wins on the year.

And they are still not out of the SEC East race yet. Simply put, there is a lot for the Vols to play for, so despite a 28-27 heartbreaking loss to the Gators that never should have happen, the season can be saved within the context of what we expected out of the Vols this year.

It will take correcting a lot of things, though. Many Vol analysts have said that the players did everything they possibly could to win that game Saturday and put everything squarely on the coach.

But that is not an accurate way of looking at what happened. True, there are some coaching issues, which we’ll get to, but there are plenty of issues on the field as well that need to improve. We take a look at all of them here.

These are the five things that the Tennessee Vols must do to salvage the 2015 season.

Next: #5: Joshua Dobbs Needs to Improve Under Pressure