Tennessee Volunteers

The University of Tennessee Volunteers, coached by SageBow, are a collegiate football team playing in SEC. The Volunteers play in Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tennessee, and are a member of the East division.

## History

### HaiThere era (2013-2014)

#### 2013 Season

Main article: 2013 Tennessee Volunteers season
The Tennessee Volunteers began play in the 2013 CFBHC Season. The team began initially coachless, with SS Larry Reeves taking on the position of interim coach. They won their first game, then went through an extremely rough patch. After losing game after game, a change had to be made. In week 7, HaiThere took over the team. With a real coach at the forefront, the Volunteers turned their season around winning 5 straight to finish the season and achieving a bowl bid. There, they lost to Arizona State, but the future was on the up and up for the Vols.

#### 2014 Season

Main article: 2014 Tennessee Volunteers season
The 2014 season was difficult for the Tennessee Volunteers as they had another year in which they faced off against top teams. The Vols finished 5-7 losing to Kentucky 14-13 in the last week to make them ineligible for a bowl game. However, the Vols did have success in recruiting, with coach HaiThere building a top 5 recruiting class. Unfortunately, due to the scandal that came to be known as "IP Gate", HaiThere was let go at the end of the season, and a search began for a new head coach.

### LDYo era (2015-2016)

#### 2015 Season

Main article: 2015 Tennessee Volunteers season
The 2015 season saw personnel changes at Tennessee, coach HaiThere had stepped down from the head coaching position and LDYo was hired to take over. The appointment was a slight shock as the Indiana coach had relatively little experience, however the new coach played many good opponents close in the 2014 season with the Hoosiers and was deemed a good candidate. LDYo quickly became a hit, as this Volunteer team played better than anyone had ever expected. The Vols went on to go 10-2, only losing to Florida and Kentucky. They also made their second ever bowl game appearance, a TaxSlayer.com Gator Bowl defeat against Michigan. For the first time ever, Tennessee ended the season ranked. Most impressively of all, LDYo managed to lock down the #1 position on the nationwide recruiting rankings

#### 2016 Season

Main article: 2016 Tennessee Volunteers season
In 2016, the Vols had a down year. LDYo's team struggled down the stretch against good SEC opponents, and a rivalry week loss to Vanderbilt knocked this squad out of bowl contention. Not only that, Tennessee ended with the #100 recruiting class in the nation, which was a severe let down after their former #1 rated class. At the end of the season, LDYo resigned from the position, and former Nevada head coach SageBow was brought in to be the third coach in the history of the Volunteers.

### SageBow Era (2017-present)

#### 2017 Season

Main article: 2017 Tennessee Volunteers season
Once again with a new head coach, the Tennessee Volunteers roared to life. SageBow led this team to 5 straight wins to enter the season, but received their first loss against Kentucky. Two major wins against #4 Missouri and #8 Florida rocketed the Volunteers to #8, their highest rank in several years. Unfortunately, two straight defeats to #7 Georgia and #13 Mississippi State sent the Volunteers back to earth. For the third time in this program's history, Tennessee was bowl eligible.

#### 2018 Season

Main article: 2018 Tennessee Volunteers season
The Vols were highly regarded at the beginning of the season, but a slow first month left them at 2-2. Tennessee quickly bounced back to rattle off 3 straight away wins, but were downed in a shootout against Matty Swift and Texas A&M. With a possibility of them dropping out of the Coaches Poll looming over their minds, Tennessee rattled off 4 straight victories in the final month to seal the SEC East Title. From there, they played a hard fought game against #1 Alabama, a game they were unable to win. They would receive an invitation to the 2018 Citrus Bowl, but were defeated by the Minnesota Golden Gophers.

#### 2019 Season

Main article: 2019 Tennessee Volunteers season
The Vols began the season with a scintillating five game winning streak as they knocked off SEC East rivals Georgia and Kentucky on their way to tie their record high ranking, #6 in the nation. Against Auburn and the first start of freshman quarterback Marcus Black, the Vols faultered and were stunned in Jordan-Hare for their first loss of the season. They went on to win out the rest of their regular season games, claiming a SEC East Division title and an SEC Conference Championship against LSU.

The Vols were slotted in as the 4th seed of the playoffs and triumphed against Baylor in the Quarterfinals to set up a highly anticipated matchup against Penn State in the Fiesta Bowl. There, the Volunteers were sorely beaten, knocking them out of championship contention. Still, this amounted to the best campaign the Volunteers have ever had, and looked to put them on a bright path going forward.

#### 2020 Season

Main article: 2020 Tennessee Volunteers season
After three seasons of Julius Thomas, 2020 would be the first quarterback change in the Vols history under SageBow. Adrian Goldson performed well, but the Vols limped out to a 1-2 start, including a humiliating loss to [USF]. After a team meeting, the Vols rattled off 6 straight wins, including victories over Alabama, Georgia, and Florida. The win was knocked out of this team's sails after Tucker Dowden and the Missouri Tigers beat the Vols in Columbia, then the Kentucky Wildcats stunned the Vols in Lexington after a poor performance from Goldson. The Vols ended the season with a big overtime victory against Vanderbilt, ending the season 2nd in the SEC East.

## All-time record vs. SEC opponents

This is the Vols' football record against current Southeastern Conference opponents through the 2020 season.

## Bowl History

Tennessee has had six bowl games in its history, posting a record of

## Individual Award Winners

### Players

* **Rotary Lombardi Award**

Anthony Miller - 2017 CFBHC Season
* **Outland Trophy**

Anthony Miller - 2019 CFBHC Season
#### All-Americans

* **2017**

Anthony Miller
#### All-SEC Players

Tommy Wietecha
Sedrick Madison* **2014**

Reggie Griffin* **2015**

Reggie Hedberg
Trent Haynes
Darren Manning
Fred Huber
Rex Bauer
Michael Cipa* **2016**

Reggie Hedberg
Michael Williams
Larry Holleyman
Chris Tucker

Anthony Miller
Ricardo Walter
Larry Holleyman
Aaron Stiles
Chris Tucker* **2018**

Ricardo Walter
Aaron Stiles
Adonis Rosa
Anthony Miller* **2019**

Anthony Miller
Damian Mason
Donald Kendrick
Miles Gray
Ethan Calloway

### Coaches

* **SEC Coach of the Year**

LDYo - 2015 CFBHC Season