9. 2009
7-6 (4-4); Chick-fil-A Bowl berth
2008 record: 5-7 (3-5)
Tennessee football’s last winning season before that 2014 campaign came in 2009. And, once again, at the time it seemed to be setting the stage for some big years ahead. This was the roller coaster Lane Kiffin year.
Kiffin was hired after the Vols had suffered their second losing season in four years under Phillip Fulmer and then fired him. After a 5-7 record, Mike Hamilton looked for the splash hire, and that’s where Kiffin came into play.
A crazy offseason that involved Kiffin securing a top 10 recruiting class and getting into a war of words with Urban Meyer was going to make for an exciting season. However, the Vols struggled early on, losing their second game of the year to the UCLA Bruins.
As SEC play began, Kiffin coached not to lose for respectability at Meyer’s Florida Gators, then the Vols lost to the Auburn Tigers to fall to 2-3 and 0-2 in the SEC. Jonathan Crompton, who was the face of UT’s problems in 2008, then came to life. He went on a tear in a 45-16 blowout over the Georgia Bulldogs.
After a bye week, the Vols faced the Alabama Crimson Tide on the road and lost by a score of 12-10 off a blocked field goal. But that play signaled they were indeed a program on the rise. And they proved it the next week, donning black jerseys on Halloween to blowout the South Carolina Gamecocks.
They would finish the year 7-5 and then lose the Chick-fil-A Bowl to the Virginia Tech Hokies, but the excitement was there. Then it wasn’t. Kiffin left a month later, his recruiting class became a huge bust, and the program was wrecked. But in the moment, this was an exciting season that signaled a solid future.