Chris Low, ESPN Senior Writer 9y

Bowl game is latest brick in Tennessee's rebuilding effort

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- It’s a week before Christmas, and Tennessee’s sparkling new Anderson Training Center is bustling with activity and even more energy.

Senior defensive tackle Jordan Williams gestures to a TaxSlayer Bowl display on the wall just outside the team locker room and then gazes across the indoor field turf as his teammates wrap up practice at one of the true Taj Mahals of college football complexes.

"There’s a lot of excitement right now," Williams said. "I’ve never even been in Knoxville this far into December. Usually, I’m on my way home or already home. This is huge for the program to be going to a bowl game, huge for the seniors to go out this way, and huge for where all these guys coming back are going to take this program.

"Right now, this is our college playoff. We’re playing this game trying to get a jump on next season. This is the whole reason I came here, to leave this program better than I found it."

There is an old saying that a bowl game is a reward for a college football team. For the Vols, it was more of a breakthrough, tangible evidence in Year 2 under Butch Jones that he is well on his way to making this once-proud program whole again, and doing it with one of the youngest teams in the country.

Tennessee played an FBS-high 23 true freshmen this season and had 44 combined starts by true freshmen. For perspective, the next closest in the SEC was Georgia with 22 combined starts by true freshmen. The Vols also had a handful of other key starters who were true sophomores, including quarterback Josh Dobbs, receiver Marquez North, defensive end Corey Vereen, linebacker Jaylen Reeves-Maybin and cornerback Cameron Sutton.

"This was a step that we needed to make," said Jones, whose 2015 recruiting class is currently ranked No. 7 nationally by ESPN after reeling in a top-5 class a year ago. "I met with the freshman class this week and we talked about the standard here, and what they all told me was the same thing they said when we recruited them, that they wanted to be the class that laid the foundation of getting Tennessee back to where Tennessee should be.

"They understand the expectations and that the more you win, the more people expect. But that’s what you want to happen."

From afar, the Vols’ steps may look more like baby steps. They have managed just five SEC wins the past two seasons under Jones, and only one of those was against a team that finished the regular season with a winning record.

But to truly appreciate the gains the Vols have made under Jones, it’s only fair to go back and look at where the program was when he arrived. For all intents and purposes, he gutted it and started over. He admits now that the undertaking was more daunting than he ever imagined.

"In every aspect it was, from building the culture, to building the foundation, and not only on the field, but off the field," Jones said. "We had to do it in our style of play, our team chemistry, our family, our academics, everything. That’s what has made this year very, very rewarding, getting back to a bowl game and having the most successful semester in the history of Tennessee football."

The Vols had an overall GPA of 2.72 and boasted 46 players this fall with a 3.0 GPA or higher. They will take on Iowa on Jan. 2 in the TaxSlayer Bowl with 18 college graduates, but not a single player on their roster who has ever played in a bowl game.

Ironically, this will be the 50th bowl appearance in Tennessee’s history.

"It’s our tradition, to be going to bowl games, winning bowl games and winning championships, and we’re going to get it back," said freshman safety Todd Kelly, Jr., whose father also played at Tennessee and then later in the NFL.

"We have the best facilities in the country, the best fans, great tradition and a fantastic stadium. We’re set up for success. All we need to do is go out and make it happen."

Kelly’s classmates have already made their presence felt, one of the reasons there is so much optimism on Rocky Top that Tennessee is poised to re-join college football’s upper crust. Defensive end Derek Barnett was a freshman All-American with 20.5 tackles for loss, the most by a Tennessee player since Outland Trophy winner John Henderson had 21 in 2000, and Barnett also racked up 10 sacks. He is the kind of finisher off the edge the Vols haven’t had in some time.

On offense, freshman running back Jalen Hurd had 994 all-purpose yards and gave the Vols a legitimate difference-maker in the backfield. The Vols scored 66 more points, ran 100 more plays and collected 26 more first downs this season than they did a year ago.

"A lot of us came from winning programs in high school," Barnett said. "We know what the expectation is here, to get rings. Going to a bowl game is just the first step. When we win big ball games, we don’t want it to be, 'Oh my gosh, they won.' We want it to be expected. That’s where we’re trying to get back to."

Williams’ move inside to play tackle in his first full season as a starter has been one of the keys to the Vols’ defensive improvement this season. It’s also reflective of the sacrifice players have made on this team, and their unwavering belief that they were going to get to the postseason no matter what.

"These young guys have bought in quick," Williams said. "I’m just jealous that I’m not a freshman and won’t be around for some of the things that we’re going to do here."

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