Tennessee football: Ranking all 15 Vols non-Saturday openers
4. 2016
13. 2393. 20. 839. Final/OT
Thursday, Sept. 1; Neyland Stadium; Knoxville, Tenn.
It was the excitement that puts this game up here, but it shouldn’t have been exciting. Tennessee football entered its Thursday night opener with even greater hype than they enter this one. The Vols were coming off a 9-4 season, their best record since 2007, an Outback Bowl victory and a top 25 finish, also their first since 2007.
Meanwhile, they returned everybody, so Butch Jones’ fourth year looked like the year they’d take-off. They began the season in the top 10, their first top 10 ranking since 2006, and they were the favorites to win the SEC East. The season was almost derailed before it began.
Against the Appalachian State Mountaineers, a team known for ruining Power Five programs’ seasons in openers, they shockingly fell behind 13-0. They played hideous all game and couldn’t get anything going. A bomb from Josh Dobbs to Josh Malone in the second half plus two field goals sent the game into overtime.
On third down in OT, Dobbs scrambled for a score. He tried to dive but fumbled the ball. Luckily for him, Jalen Hurd recovered it in a fluke play in the end zone. UT then stopped Appalachian State for a hideous 20-13 overtime win, and everybody breathed a sigh of relief.
That launched a 5-0 start in which UT fell behind by at least two touchdowns four times, and the start including the hail mary from Dobbs to Jauan Jennings at the Georgia Bulldogs. However, the pixie dust ran out, and they underachieved the rest of the way, losing three straight and finishing 9-4. Still, the opener itself was a thriller.