2015 Tennessee Volunteers football team

Previous season

The 2014 Tennessee Volunteers football team finished the regular season 6–6, with a highlight win against Vanderbilt, which enabled the Vols to become bowl-eligible for the first time since the 2010 season. The Vols were invited to play in the 2015 TaxSlayer Bowl against the Iowa Hawkeyes of the Big Ten Conference. Tennessee defeated the Hawkeyes in Jacksonville, Florida 45–28, finishing their 2014 season at 7–6. It was their first winning season since 2009, and the first bowl win since 2007.

Spring practice

The Tennessee Volunteers opened up Spring Practice on March 21. Much like in 2014, Joshua Dobbs entered spring practice having finished the season as the starting quarterback due to injuries to Justin Worley. With Worley having graduated, however, Dobbs is now the clear frontrunner for the starting quarterback role. The coaches noted that he was being more consistent and efficient with signal calling and ball throwing. "The thing I liked about Josh today is that I thought he made the routine plays", Butch Jones told the VolQuest.com crew after UT's first day in pads Saturday. "He made the routine throws." Coleman Thomas, who was a starting offensive tackle, was suspended from the team activities in the wake of legal issues. Starting cornerback Emmanuel Moseley missed part of spring practice after contracting mono. Numerous players, including Derek Barnett, Marcus Jackson, Danny O'Brien, Jason Croom, Curt Maggitt, Jakob Johnson, Alex Ellis and early enrollees Kyle Phillips and Darrin Kirkland, missed the entire spring due to injuries. Others, including Jalen Hurd, Marquez North and Dillon Bates, were limited by injuries.

Post-spring practice

On May 21, 2015, following UT's Big Orange Caravan stop at Nissan Stadium, Coach Jones stated "We just can't be a year older. We have to be a year better, and that's part of that growth and that development." He added, "We'll still be exceptionally young in the defensive front. We're going to rely on two true freshman defensive tackles (Kahlil McKenzie and Shy Tuttle) to really play a big part in this year's outcome of many games, so we have to get them ready to go. But our older players have done a great job of mentoring the young players coming in. On the offensive front, we had some individuals who gained some valuable experience. You could see that kind of manifesting itself throughout the course of spring. You could see that confidence. You could see a change in strength levels. You could see a change in maturity, and also just in football knowledge."

Fall practice

The Vols began fall practice on August 4, 2015. Primary concerns involved the return of numerous players from injury, the improvement of the offensive line, finding starters at middle linebacker (to replace A.J. Johnson), left tackle (to replace Jacob Gilliam), and punter (to replace Matt Darr), and determining a backup quarterback. Prior to the beginning of fall practice, freshman quarterback Jauan Jennings announced he was switching to wide receiver, leaving freshman early enrollee Quinten Dormady and summer enrollee Sheriron Jones to compete for the backup quarterback slot. In mid-August, Butch Jones designated Dormady as the backup. Six players competed for the starting slot at middle linebacker: junior Kenny Bynum, sophomore Jakob Johnson, sophomore Gavin Bryant, sophomore walk-on Colton Jumper, redshirt freshman Dillon Bates, and freshman Darrin Kirkland, though Johnson eventually switched to tight end. In late August, Jones stated the competition was down to Kirkland and Jumper. Nate Renfro (a graduate transfer from Maryland), sophomore walk-on Trevor Daniel, and freshman Tommy Townsend were competing for the starting slot at punter.

Injuries continued to be a factor during fall practice. Senior offensive guard Marcus Jackson (a returning starter), junior offensive guard Austin Sanders, and sophomore defensive back Rashaan Gaulden (the projected starter at nickelback) all suffered season-ending injuries. Junior wide receivers Marquez North and Jason Croom, sophomore guard Jashon Robertson, and junior college transfer Justin Martin were among the players who missed portions of fall practice due to injuries.

Alton "Pig" Howard, leading wide-receiver from the 2014 season, was suspended for the first game of the season for unspecified violation of team rules. During his daily media availability on August 27, Coach Jones said that it wasn't "something that just occurred" and that it's "something that dates back many months." "To Alton's credit, I like the way he's approached training camp", he added. "He's had the best training camp that he's had since we've been here. I'm appreciative of his efforts, but he will miss the Bowling Green game." Coach Jones also announced that strong safety LaDarrell McNeil would miss extended time due to a neck injury. After his media session, Coach Jones took to Twitter to "officially" welcome Preston Williams – who was flagged by the NCAA Clearinghouse to retake the ACT Test – to the team.

2015 recruiting class

Tennessee's 2015 recruiting class is ranked the third-best overall 2015 class by 247Sports.com, fourth-best by Rivals.com, and fifth-best by Scout.com.

Schedule

Tennessee announced their 2015 football schedule on October 14, 2014. The 2015 schedule consists of seven home games, four away games, and one neutral site game in the regular season. The Vols will host SEC foes Arkansas, Georgia, South Carolina, and Vanderbilt, and will travel to Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, and Missouri.

Tennessee opened the season at a neutral site for the first time since 2012 at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, against Bowling Green. The Vols then hosted Oklahoma for the second game of the home series. Western Carolina then traveled to Neyland Stadium for the first meeting between the two schools. To end the non–conference match ups, North Texas will make a trip to Knoxville for the second meeting of the two schools. North Texas defeated the Vols in their first meeting in 1975, 21–14. The Arkansas–Tennessee match up will be the first time since they play against each other since 2011. The Kentucky–Tennessee match up will be played in October (on Halloween) for the first time since 1909.

Tennessee had originally scheduled UAB as its 2015 season opener. On December 2, 2014, however, UAB announced they were shutting down their football program at the end of the 2014–15 academic year. (UAB announced in June 2015 that it would be bringing back the program for a 2017 debut.) The shutdown led Tennessee to find a new team to open against at Nissan Stadium. A week later the Vols announced that Bowling Green will replace UAB in the opener of the 2015 season, for the first meeting between the two schools.