KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – If Tennessee coach Butch Jones said it once, then he’ll say it a thousand more times.
One game. That’s the message he tried to deliver after No. 14 Tennessee broke an 11-game losing streak against No. 19 Florida with a 38-28 win at Neyland Stadium on Saturday. Jones tried to deflect the focus from self-validation to program recognition.
“It's the hard work that everyone has put into it,” Jones said. “Again, it's just one game. We're going to be challenged again next week. I'm happy for our fan base. I'm happy for our administration. I'm happy for everyone, and I love our players so I'm happy for them. Again, it's just one game."
MORE: Five things we learned from Tennessee's win
That’s Rocky Top haiku for what lies ahead for a team that’s bound to be back in the Top 10 after a stop-and-start three weeks.
One game isn’t going to win the SEC championship, but this one game – this come-from-behind victory against a rival that had dominated the series for more than a decade – could unlock so much more for a program that’s been searching for a moment like this since Phillip Fulmer retired.
This one game was a moment running back Jalen Hurd, who was part of Jones’ first top-five recruiting class. Hurd spoke of those discussions. This was the one game they wanted.
“I’ll take it back to our first recruiting class, and we all said we just want to get Tennessee back to the top.” Hurd said. “I feel like today was a big stepping stone in getting Tennessee back to the top. I feel like this win goes back to my freshman year and that goal that we all set for each other.”
This was one game Tennessee could have lost. The Vols were down 21-3 at halftime and didn’t look anywhere near like a team that would break the streak. Then Joshua Dobbs totaled five TDs in the second half and the defense fed off defensive end Derek Barnett’s total take-over.
“These wins like this where you're playing a rival, they hear all the noise of whatever streak it was,” Jones said. “They're hearing it. They're hearing the boos at halftime. They could have folded. They could have come in and they could have got down on themselves and they didn’t.”
Now, Tennessee is in the driver’s seat for the SEC East championship and has a clean look at Atlanta for the first time since 2007. Now, Tennessee has one game against Georgia and one game against Texas A&M before a game that could be an even bigger game than Saturday’s win against Florida.
Imagine if No. 1 Alabama rolls into Knoxville and both teams are undefeated for The Third Saturday in October. Nick Saban is 9-0 against Tennessee. Lane Kiffin will be there, too. It’s going to be hard to sell that as one game. That could be the biggest game of the 2016 regular season. Jones could say that a million times, and we won’t buy it.
Jones won’t even go there. He knows how one game can add up with each week.
BENDER: The streak is over
“That's 10 wins in a row,” Jones said. “I'm proud of our players. I'm proud of our seniors. When you've got Kyler Kerbyson in our locker room after the game crying and saying, ‘Thank you,’ to me. That’s what it’s all about.”
One game meant so much and could mean so much more.
