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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) /
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Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images
Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images /

4. 2014

Record on Halloween: 3-5 (0-4); Final record: 7-6 (3-5)

TaxSlayer Bowl vs. Iowa Hawkeyes (Won 45-28)

While 2015 appeared to be one step toward turning the corner back into a powerhouse program before it all came undone in 2016, the step before that was 2014. And it also came with a strong finish to the year.

Butch Jones’s second team was extremely young and had losses to the Georgia Bulldogs and Florida Gators by three points and one point in back to back weeks. A loss to the Oklahoma Sooners was in there too, and then they suffered a blowout loss to the Ole Miss Rebels to fall to 3-4. It would get worse before Halloween, but like 2015, a turnaround was on the horizon.

That’s because Tennessee football fell behind to the Alabama Crimson Tide 27-0 the next game, but Butch Jones then benched Nathan Peterman in favor of Joshua Dobbs. And Dobbs led a comeback that resulted in them losing 34-20.

Halloween was the day before their next game, at the South Carolina Gamecocks, which would be Dobbs’s first start on the season. In that game, on Nov. 1, the legend of Dobbs was born, as he had five total touchdowns and over 300 passing yards and 100 rushing yards en route to leading a 14-point comeback with less than five minutes to go to win the game 45-42 in overtime.

UT used the momentum of that comeback to make it part of a turnaround that involved winning four of their final five games, including dominating the Kentucky Wildcats, beating the Vanderbilt Commodores and blowing out the Iowa Hawkeyes. They were 3-5 on Halloween. But at the end of the year, they were 7-6, their first winning season since 2009 and first bowl win since 2007.

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