Many people following Tennessee football this year thought that the come-from-behind 19-14 win over Georgia was the turning point for this team. However, they would be wrong according to coach Butch Jones. He believes it actually came before that in the 24-20 loss to Arkansas. That's what he told the crowd at a Big Orange Caravan stop in Chattanooga anyway.
"Everyone says, 'What was the turning point?' The media asks me a lot of those questions," Jones told the crowd. "Everyone wants to point towards Georgia, but I'm gonna point towards the Arkansas game. That was probably, for myself and our family and our football team, probably the hardest number of weeks I've ever had in my life.
"When we lost to Arkansas, I could see the hurt and the pain in the young men's eyes in that locker room, and the clutter and distraction started to creep into our football program. You have to give your players one day off a week, and we give 'em Sundays off 'cause we want them to be able to go to church and spend time with their families when they come in, and then we meet on Mondays.
"Well, I called an 8 o'clock team meeting that Sunday night. It was about 7:40, and everyone in the room, and there was an eery coldness in the building, and our players were asking, 'What's going on?' I walked in the room and said, 'Sit up, I need to talk to you. I've got to be honest with you. If you know me, I'm always upfront and honest with you, and I need you to hear me talk.'
"And then I said, 'The truth of the matter is ... we're a really good football team. And we just went through the most difficult schedule in college football. If we can stay afloat, if we can keep our leadership, if we can bond together, we're gonna go on a run here, and we're gonna like our body of work.'"
The team ended up losing a nail biter to Alabama after the Georgia game, but won the last six games of the season including a win over No. 13 Northwestern in the Outback Bowl. That led to Tennessee being ranked at the end of the season for the first time since 2008. That meeting after Arkansas is when coach believes that "leadership was born" and it certainly showed the rest of the year.
[h/t 247Sports]
