KNOXVILLE – Reasonable objectives have been falling by the wayside with regularity for a Tennessee football team enduring its first four-game losing streak since fifth-year coach Butch Jones’ inaugural season in 2013.
First, dreams of the program’s first win at Florida since 2003 came to a stunning halt in a 26-20, last-second loss to the Gators on Sept. 16.
Then, aspirations of the first Southeastern Conference division title since 2007 were laid to waste by Georgia in a 41-0 loss to the Bulldogs on Sept. 30.
Finally, Kentucky ruined the Volunteers’ hope of matching their 9-4 records of 2015 and 2016 by handing them their fifth loss of the 2017 season last week in Lexington, 29-26.
So what’s left to play for?
“Just win,” fifth-year senior defensive tackle Kendal Vickers said Tuesday. “Winning is always the motivation factor. That’s why you play the game. It’s the same message every week: Just go out there and get the win.”
Tennessee (3-5, 0-5) has struggled with that so far this season, but winning three of their last four games, starting Saturday at home against Southern Mississippi, would get the Vols to a fourth straight bowl game for the first time since 2004.
“It’s important,” Vickers said of making a bowl game.
“It would mean a lot,” added senior offensive lineman Jashon Robertson. “For me, it’s an extra opportunity to strap it up with the ‘T’ on my chest and just enjoy the game one last time. I would be very appreciative of that extra game and more time with my football team.”
If Tennessee were to make a bowl game and win, it would likely do little to quell frustration over a subpar season. But doing so would make this year’s senior class the first since the seniors on the 1991 team to win a bowl game in all four of their seasons with the program.
A USA TODAY bowl projection updated Tuesday had Tennessee facing Wake Forest in the Dec. 29 Belk Bowl in Charlotte. A Sports Illustrated bowl projection published Sunday left Tennessee out of the bowl field.
“There’s a lot of pride in that room,” Jones said after the Kentucky loss. “There’s a lot of pride in this coaching staff in getting back to a bowl game. That’s what we want for our fans; that’s what we want for our football program.”
The 2014 team also sat at 3-5 before closing the regular season 3-1 and winning the TaxSlayer Bowl over Iowa. At that time, a 7-6 finish was viewed as progress for a program that had finished with a losing record in four consecutive years.
Robertson was a freshman on that team. He’s drawing on that experience this season, despite the different circumstances surrounding the program now.
“We’ve been in kind of similar positions before,” he said. “My first year here we fought to get to six wins and got that in the last game of the year. Second year here we started the year like 3-4 and won out. Morale, we’re not really too down right now. We’re just doing everything we can to put ourselves in the best position to win the game.”
Contact David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress.com.