Tennessee Volunteers

Rocky Top

Season Report Posted: December 24, 2015 05:27  

Eight seasons in the sunshine with FAU are enough for Coach Nibble, so he breaks camp and heads to Knoxville to breathe life into the slumbering giant which is Vols football. UT is coming off a 1-11 season when Nibble comes into town, so there's some work to do.

Vols face an A- schedule without A+ talent, but there are some building blocks including QB Jon Hall, slashing running back Isaiah Ivey, speedy WR Jeremy Young and MLB John Swain.

UT 27, No. 10 Miami 21: Good way to get the locals fired up right away. Vols take down the Hurricanes in the opener at neutral-site Atlanta thanks to Jon Hall's 45-yard TD pass to Robbie Reid in the final minute.

USC 23, UT 22: Vols are less than a minute from a 2-0 start when the Trojans score on a 12-yard TD scramble by quarterback Steve Owens to win in the LA Coliseum.

UT 24, No. 9 Georgia 7: John Swain recovers two fumbles, picks off a pass to lead the defensive effort in steamy Neyland Stadium.

UT 21, Idaho 18: Coach Nibble really, really expected this to be a ball-control clinic and an easy victory. At 21-10 it looked that way. CB Stanley Robinson made an INT at the Vols' 30 with 1:21 left and the Vandals blew a chip-shot FG at the gun to avoid OT. Isiah Ivey, Curtis Singletary and Ricardo Pace each went over 70 yards rushing. UT is 4-5, so that's good.

Beef O'Brady's Bowl: UT 41, Stanford 20: Curtis Singletary runs for two TDs and Carl Kelly hits 12 of 15 for 166 yards in relief of the injured Jon Hall as UT (7-6) beats Stanford (6-7) to finish with a winning record.

Freshman MLB John Swain wins linebacker of the year and is a second-team All-American,

Singletary finishes with 613 yards rushing and a team-high nine TDs, second to Isaiah Ivey's 1,058 yards and six scores (4.3 avg.). Pace gets 367 (4.4) and three TDs.

Hall passes for 1,886 yards, 12 TDs and nine INTs on 236 attempts. Kelly gts 416 yards, five scores and no picks in mop-up duty.

Jeremy Young catches 47 passes for 615 yards and five scores; TE James Marshall gets 39 for 469 and two; Robbie Reid 23 for 290 and four.

Soph LT Roderick McMahan gets 30 pancakes and allows only four sacks; LG Dominique Lewis and RT Tony Miller get 21 pancakes.

Swain leads the nation with 102 tackles with three sacks and five FFs; ROB James Dickens has 76 tackles; LOBL JT Darby 57 and four sacks; LE Eddie Tyler leads the team with eight sacks; CB Reggie Lewis gets four INTs.

The recruiting class is No. 9 in the country, led by two five-star guys: TB Sean Ratliff and ATH Brent Darby.

Last, but not least, Nibble's former team, FAU goes 14-0 and beats Navy for the national championship. All of Florida parties while Nibble is toiling forgotten up in the Smokies ...