Tennessee in the Gator Bowl?
Raise your hand if you thought that would happen in the late afternoon hours of Aug. 31, right after the Volunteers had laid the egg to end all eggs against Georgia State inside Neyland Stadium.
Follow up that embarrassment – some called it the most humiliating loss in program history – with a fall-from-ahead overtime defeat the following week against Brigham Young University, and almost no one save second-year head coach Jeremy Pruitt might have believed the Vols capable of winning their final five games, going 5-3 in the Southeastern Conference and spending the New Year’s holiday in Florida preparing for a Jan. 2 game against Indiana in Jacksonville.
“This is a credit to our players, our coaching staff, our support staff, our administration and our fans,” Pruitt said in a Tennessee release Sunday. “The Gator Bowl has a rich history and we are honored to be a part of the 75th edition of the game. We’ve had a great second half of the season, winning five straight, but we are not done yet.”
You don’t need to see the world through orange-tinted glasses to believe the Vols may just be getting started under Pruitt and his staff.