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Tennessee football: 5 times Vols turned around season after bye week

By Caleb Calhoun

MIAMI - NOVEMBER 8: Quarterback Casey Clausen #7 of the University of Tennessee Volunteers hugs his Mom Cathy Casey after beating the University of Miami Hurricanes 10-6 November 8, 2003 at the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Eliot J. Schechter/Getty Images)
MIAMI - NOVEMBER 8: Quarterback Casey Clausen #7 of the University of Tennessee Volunteers hugs his Mom Cathy Casey after beating the University of Miami Hurricanes 10-6 November 8, 2003 at the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Eliot J. Schechter/Getty Images) /
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Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images
Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images /

5. 2007: 10-4 (6-2)

This is the last Tennessee football season that fans remember very fondly. And the crazy part is, it did not start out like that at all. The Vols entered the year in the Top 25 and led by a senior quarterback in Erik Ainge, but they had a brutal start to the season.

Two of their first three games were on the road against the California Golden Bears and the Florida Gators. To make matters worse, they had to replace their top three receivers from a year before, including the record-setting Robert Meachem, along with their top offensive lineman in Arron Sears.

On defense, they had to replace Turk McBride up front, Marvin Mitchell at linebacker and 75 percent of their secondary. That secondary attrition would prove costly, as they would give up over 40 points four times. They lost their opener to Cal 45-31, and two weeks later, a blowout 59-20 loss to Tim Tebow and the Florida Gators made it seem like this season was a loss. A win over the Arkansas State Red Wolves heading into the bye wasn’t going to change much.

At this point, the Vols were 2-2, and the calls for Phillip Fulmer’s firing reached record levels. There were national reports that the program was on a downward slide under him, and numerous former players gave anonymous quotes in stories against him. It was a bad situation.

But, ironically, in the bye week after Arkansas State, the Vols got new life. Florida suffered a major upset loss at home to the Auburn Tigers. If Tennessee football could somehow beat the Georgia Bulldogs the next week, they’d have a great chance to get back in the East race with the Gators having to face the LSU Tigers on the road.

Well, it became one of those Saturdays where everything goes right. Coming off the bye, Fulmer had his guys ready to play for a noon game against the Dawgs. And Tennessee won a blowout 35-14. Later that night, Florida lost to LSU in one of Les Miles’s magic games.

All of a sudden, the Vols were back in control of their own destiny. And they responded by using that to launch a seven-of-eight game winning stretch toward the end of the regular season. They still needed more magic, though, after a 41-17 loss to the Alabama Crimson Tide two weeks later. That’s why this isn’t higher. They needed more than just the bye.

But they got that magic with Florida losing to Georgia the next week. Then the Vols won three games thanks to a missed field goal, two of which were in overtime, and they shocked the world by shutting down Darren McFadden and Felix Jones in a game against the Arkansas Razorbacks. The result was a resilient team that finished 9-3 and 6-2 in the SEC, winning the East with a resilient, veteran quarterback. And the remarkable turnaround came after the bye week, in which fans were ready to quit on the program.

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