The Tennessee football season turned around in 2015 thanks to one huge play, when the Volunteers converted a fourth down against the Georgia Bulldogs.
It was the play that changed a game, the game that changed the season, and the season that changed the perspective of Tennessee football.
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Coming off of a 45-6 victory over the Northwestern Wildcats to finish 9-4, their best season since 2007, and with a ton of hype going into the offseason, it’s hard to remember that Butch Jones and Tennessee seemed dead in the water just a couple of months ago.
Remember that? Remember when Jones was on the hot seat? How things change quickly!
Let’s rewind to the first half of the Georgia Bulldogs game. It was a breaking point for the program. The Vols had started the year in the Top 25, finally poised to break through.
But they blew a 17-0 lead to the Oklahoma Sooners and two weeks later blew a 13-point fourth quarter lead to lose to the Florida Gators for the 11th straight time, the lowest point of the year. A loss to the Arkansas Razorbacks the following week mostly just magnified the heartbreak of what happened at Florida.
So now, at 2-3, the Vols are set to host one-loss Georgia. And thanks to a fumble, a punt return for a touchdown, and a series of mistakes, they fell behind at home to the Bulldogs 24-3 in the first half.
Try to remember what it felt like that first half. Many people were ready to quit on the Vols.
Then, it happened.
Tennessee had the ball late in the second quarter. Joshua Dobbs, whom people were calling to be benched, had converted a fourth down off of sheer luck earlier in the drive. The Vols were faced with another fourth down.
Jones rolled the dice and went for it again. And this happened.
Josh Smith took the pass and ran it into the end zone for six. Tennessee had cut the lead to 24-10.
The play was just the spark Tennessee needed for that game. On the ensuing kickoff, they recovered a fumble to score another touchdown and cut it to 24-17.
You know the rest.
The Vols came back and beat the Dawgs in a thriller 38-31.
It was all the momentum and confidence the team needed. They completely changed their mentality that day. A team that could not score in the fourth quarter with the game on the line managed to win a late shootout with a ranked opponent.
The next game, they went toe-to-toe with Alabama until the end. Then they reeled off six straight, including another close win in the fourth quarter against the South Carolina Gamecocks.
All of this obviously led to the 9-4 season.
But it all started with this game. And it all turned around with that fourth down play.
Butch Jones constantly says that football games can come down to one or two plays, and you don’t know when they’ll happen. Well, in this case a football season came down to one play.
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And perhaps the future of a football program came down to one play. It’s unknown how we will remember that Joshua Dobbs touchdown to Josh Smith in the future. But it is clear that had that play not happened, we might be talking about a completely different season right now.