All for Tennessee
Fansided

Tennessee football: Five seasons Vols made bowl despite losing record entering Halloween

By Caleb Calhoun

KNOXVILLE, TN - OCTOBER 31: Teammates Darren Myles Jr. #3 and Nyshier Oliver #12 of the Tennessee Volunteers celebrate with teammates against the South Carolina Gamecocks at Neyland Stadium on October 31, 2009 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TN - OCTOBER 31: Teammates Darren Myles Jr. #3 and Nyshier Oliver #12 of the Tennessee Volunteers celebrate with teammates against the South Carolina Gamecocks at Neyland Stadium on October 31, 2009 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
2 of 6
Next
Tennessee football
Photo by Scott Cunningham/Getty Images /

5. 2015

Record on Halloween: 3-4 (1-3); Final record: 9-4 (5-3)

Outback Bowl vs. Northwestern Wildcats (Won 45-6); No. 22 AP; No. 23 Coaches

This season started with high expectations with their first preseason top 25 ranking since 2008, and that was due to them returning 20 starters from a team that just had a winning season, back to back top five recruiting classes and the emergence of quarterback Joshua Dobbs. However, Tennessee football entered Halloween with a 3-4 record.

That’s because of a 2-3 start off of three blown leads of 17, 13 and 14 points to the Oklahoma Sooners, Florida Gators and Arkansas Razorbacks. Despite all of that, though, morale was high on Halloween thanks to a 24-3 comeback to beat the Georgia Bulldogs and a close loss to the Alabama Crimson Tide on the road.

Those two games and an easy back end of the schedule gave this team lots of confidence entering Halloween despite being 3-4. And they got ready to turn the corner that night on the holiday, with a 52-21 win over the Kentucky Wildcats. So while they entered Halloween 3-4, they began November at 4-4.

Then they scored a close win over the South Carolina Gamecocks and beat the North Texas Mean Green, Missouri Tigers on the road and Vanderbilt Commodores at home. Their Outback Bowl blowout win against the No. 12 ranked Northwestern Wildcats got them back in to the top 25 and made for their first ranked finish and nine-win season since 2007. So they met expectations.

At the time, it seemed that Jones was turning the corner with the UT program, which is why they started the next year in the top 10 and won their first five games. But then things collapsed at the end of 2016 and carried into 2017, which ended his tenure. But the morale was completely different when this season ended. The turnaround was already happening on Halloween.

Home/Vols Football