Tennessee Volunteers had an improbable 5-0 start in 2016

There are 62 days till college football season, and for the second consecutive day, we focus on the Tennessee Volunteers.

2016 was supposed to be the Year of the Vols. The Tennessee Volunteers had the most experience returning of any team in the SEC East last season, and they were everyone’s pick to get to Atlanta. And while they got the results the were expecting in the first five games of last season, it was a little more dramatic than they drew it up.

And that leads us to no. 62 on the Southbound and Down College Football Countdown.

The Tennessee Volunteers had combined deficit of 62 points in their first five games of the 2016 season, and they went 5-0.

Must Read: Tennessee scored 63 points in home finale

Appalachian State

Every college football fan knows how dangerous Appalachian State can be. In last year’s season opener, the Moutaineers led the Volunteers 13-3 at halftime. With just over five minutes remaining in the game, Appalachian State kick Michael Rubino missed a 42-yard field goal that would’ve given them a 16-13 lead. But Tennessee prevailed in overtime to win 20-13 and move to 1-0 on the season.

Virginia Tech

In week two of last season, the Vols and Hokies faced-off in the Battle of Bristol, the largest crowd in the history of college football. After Virginia Tech took an early 14-0 lead, Tennessee scored 45 straight points in the second through the fourth quarters to win 45-21.

Florida

The Florida Gators have been the monkey on the Volunteers’ back for years. They hadn’t beaten the Gators since 2004, and it looked like that was going to continue. This game had a nearly identical story line as the Virginia Tech game, except Tennessee decided to stack the chips even higher against themselves in this one.

Florida went up 21-0 in the second quarter, then the Vols went on another run. This time, Tennessee scored 38 straight points and outscored the Gators 35-7 in the second half.

Georgia

The Georgia/Tennessee game in 2016 will be remembered for a long time, and if the season had turned out the way Tennessee had hoped, it would be remembered even longer. Georgia continued the theme of Tennessee’s season and took a 17-0 lead on the Volunteers in the first half.

Tennessee battled all the way back and with 2:56 left in the fourth, they sacked Jacob Eason in the end zone, recovered the fumble, and took a 28-24 lead. But the Bulldogs answered when Eason connected with Riley Ridley for a 47-yard touchdown pass, putting Georgia up 31-28 with 10 seconds left.

Then, it happened.

Joshua Dobbs hit Jauan Jennings on a 43-yard Hail Mary as time expired giving them a miraculous 34-31 victory, and a 5-0 start to the 2016 season.

While the Tennessee Volunteers finished the season 9-4, that 5-0 start was something special. It will be interesting to see how they can repeat that in 2017.

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