2016 Tennessee Volunteers football team

Previous season

The 2015 Tennessee Volunteers football team started off their season with a 59–30 victory over the Bowling Green Falcons. They then took on the 19th-ranked Oklahoma Sooners at Neyland Stadium where they gave up 17 unanswered points and lost in double overtime 31–24. Following a 55–10 win over Western Carolina, Tennessee traveled down to Gainesville, Florida, blew a 13-point lead in the second half, failed to convert a walk-off field goal and lost to the Florida Gators 28–27 for the 11th consecutive season. The following week back home, the Vols fell to the Arkansas Razorbacks 24–20. Despite trailing by 21-points to #19 Georgia in the 2nd quarter, Tennessee rallied back to go ahead of the Bulldogs in the 3rd quarter, score the winning touchdown with less than six minutes in the game and prevented Georgia from reaching the end zone to score their first victory over their SEC East opponent since 2009. After a bye week, Tennessee traveled to Tuscaloosa, Alabama to take on bitter rivals Alabama. In a low scoring defensive battle, the eighth ranked Crimson Tide scored the winning touchdown drive with just over two minutes remaining in the contest and Tennessee fell 19–14. Evan Berry tied a school record for most kickoff return touchdowns in a single season in the Volunteers 52–21 beatdown of the Kentucky Wildcats. After allowing 21 unanswered points in the 3rd quarter against the South Carolina Gamecocks, Tennessee kicked a go-ahead field goal with ten minutes remaining in the contest. With less than a minute left in play, the Gamecocks had driven the ball to Tennessee's 13-yard line when Malik Foreman forced a fumble. It was recovered by Jalen Reeves-Maybin and Tennessee won the game 27–24. Despite a sluggish offensive performance, Tennessee's defense held North Texas to just 199 total yards in a 24–0 victory over the Mean Green and became bowl eligible, it was also their first time shutting out an FCS opponent since 2011. The following week, Tennessee beat eastern division opponent Missouri for the first time in a 19–8 victory in Missouri coach Gary Pinkel's final home game. Tennessee finished the regular season 8–4 with a 53–28 thrashing of in-state rival Vanderbilt. The Vols were invited to play in the 2016 Outback Bowl in Tampa, Florida against the Northwestern Wildcats of the Big Ten. Tennessee defeated the Wildcats 45–6, finishing their 2015 season at 9–4.

Departures

Departures of scholarship players from the 2015 team.

Winter months

During the early part of the offseason, a number of players and coaches left the program. Freshman quarterback Sherion Jones announced he was transferring from Tennessee to Colorado on January 7. He returned to Tennessee on January 27. John Jancek, a member of Butch Jones's coaching staff since his time with Central Michigan and Cincinnati, was relieved of his duties as defensive coordinator on January 6. Jones said that he and Jancek "had a long discussion this morning and we both came to the conclusion that it was best to part ways. I want to thank Coach Jancek for his contributions to the University of Tennessee football program the past three years. His hard work and dedication to this program played a major role in our back-to-back bowl wins. These decisions are never easy especially for someone I have worked with at three different schools." Penn State defensive coordinator Bob Shoop was hired for the same position at Tennessee on January 9. Larry Scott, who served as the interim head coach for the final six games of the Miami Hurricanes's 2015 season, was hired to be Tennessee's new tight ends coach on January 4.

SEC Media Days

During Tennessee's turn at SEC Media Days in Hoover, Alabama, Coach Jones and the three attending players made it clear that they were there with the mindset of "business as usual" and not to create news or hype despite being the favorites to win the SEC East. Cameron Sutton responded to questions about Tennessee's game against Florida with how the team's season will "open up with Appalachian State, who was an 11-win team last year. We don't consider ourselves worried about games long down the road. It's one week at a time, one game at a time. That's our mindset right now. We're focused on Appalachian State." Hobbs responded to the hype around Tennessee as being "outside. Noise, really. You can't really control hype. You can't really control what other people say. What you can control is how you approach each day, how you focus on the details, how are you getting better as a player and how is the team getting better every single day you step on the field? We're focused on that — what we can control because we can't really do anything (about) what we can't control." Jones responded to questions about Tennessee blowing late leads against Oklahoma, Florida, Arkansas and Alabama by pointing out in "the last 18 games, we're 13-5. And the amazing thing, when you look at it of being 13-5 over the last 18 games, is those five losses have come by a combined total of 25 points. So what are we doing to take the next step as a football program? We talk about learning how to finish games, learning how to close games out. We talked about clutch plays, making critical plays at critical moments of the game."

On the final day of SEC Media Days, Tennessee received 225 of 331 first-place votes and were selected by the media as the favorite to win the SEC Eastern Division for the first time since 2005. However, the Vols were picked to lose to Alabama in the SEC Championship Game receiving 29 votes to the Crimson Tide's 223. "You want those expectations," Coach Jones said. "I think it's a compliment to everyone in our program of how far we've come. It's not where you start, it's where you finish. But I think it is a compliment in how we've grown and developed this football program."

Preseason camp

The Volunteers opened up preseason camp on August 1, 31 days prior to their kickoff against the Appalachian State Mountaineers. Among the biggest questions going into preseason camp for the Vols included the development of senior quarterback Joshua Dobbs, whom would start at left tackle, maintaining overall health, how new defensive coordinator Bob Shoop would work with a stacked defensive corp and if Tennessee can live up to the expectations surrounding the team.

After the first week of camp, the biggest issue facing the team – according to Coach Jones – was the consistency in the passing game. This was compounded by a young wide receiver group who've shown speed, but many dropped balls. Another issue was that no starters for either left or right tackle had been announced. Coach Jones said he's been pleased with the competition and talent level of those fighting for the positions, but that the roles are anyone's for the taking. Jalen Hurd, who's short of the school rushing record, said he's targeting Travis Henry's career rushing record of 3,078 yards. He believes "it's reachable and, you know, you can see it, I definitely want to do it. That's a goal of mine. But obviously the biggest goal for me is just to help get my team a national championship."

Returning starters

Nine players return on offense, eight on defense and two out of four on special teams specific positions.

Schedule

Tennessee announced their 2016 football schedule on October 29, 2015. The 2016 schedule consists of 7 home games, 4 away games and 1 neutral site game in the regular season. The Vols will host SEC foes Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, and Missouri, and will travel to Georgia, South Carolina, Texas A&M, and Vanderbilt.

Tennessee opened the season at home for the third time in the last four seasons, when it played host to Appalachian State on September 3 in the first meeting between the two schools. The Volunteers then faced Virginia Tech in the "Battle at Bristol" at Bristol, Tennessee, on September 10 in front of the largest crowd in football history, over 156,000 fans at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Tennessee returns to Neyland Stadium for two home games, Ohio on September 17 and the Florida Gators on September 24. The Volunteers have faced the Gators to start the conference schedule 13 of the last 14 years. The first of two road games occurs at Georgia on October 1. Tennessee holds a 22–21–2 edge in the rivals' series, but is also seeking its first victory in Athens since 2006. On October 8, the Volunteers make their first-ever trip to College Station, Texas, to face Texas A&M. It will also be the first regular-season meeting between the schools. Tennessee is 2–0 all-time against the Aggies in post-season play. The Volunteers will also return to tradition this year with their annual November rivalry game against Kentucky on November 12, after last being played in October 2015.

‡ – Current NCAA record for largest attendance to a collegiate football game.