7. 2015: 9-4 (5-3)
W Outback Bowl; No. 22 AP; No. 23 Coaches
Coming off Butch Jones’ first bowl game
Nobody knew anything at this moment. Tennessee football, in Butch Jones’ second year, rallied from a 3-5 record to get to 7-6, winning the TaxSlayer Bowl over the Iowa Hawkeyes 45-28. Joshua Dobbs taking over at quarterback was the major story. On top of that, all but one starter was back for 2015, and Jones secured his second straight top five recruiting class.
As a result, the Vols entered the year ranked in the preseason top 25 for the first time since 2008. There was one problem, though. They still didn’t know how to handle tight situations in big games, and that resulted in them falling to 2-3 by blowing a 17-0 lead to the Oklahoma Sooners, a 27-14 lead in the fourth quarter to the Florida Gators and a 13-0 lead to the Arkansas Razorbacks.
At 2-3, things were looking bad when the Vols fell behind 24-3 to the Georgia Bulldogs. But that’s when things clicked. They got red-hot and orchestrated a comeback to win 38-31. They then lost a close one, 19-14, at the eventual national champion Alabama Crimson Tide, but then they won out to finish 9-4, their best season since 2007, the last time they had finished in the top 25.
Because of that strong finish, it seemed as if Jones had things trending upward, which is why the Vols started the next year in the top 10 and got to 5-0. But everybody knows how the program fell apart after that, culminating with Jones’ firing in November of 2017.