On Saturday, with ten seconds left on the clock, Tennessee had to make a decision. They could lay down and give up, and they could accept that Georgia had won the game, but head coach Butch Jones had a feeling in his gut that Tennessee could win, and boy... Tennessee won. Josh Dobbs threw a Hail Mary with only four seconds left, and Jauan Jennings had angels behind him as he soared in the air and caught the ball as time ran out. Honest to God, it's something you have to see to believe.
Just as quickly as Georgia raced to victory, they lost it and let the air out of the entire stadium except for a tiny sliver of orange jumping and screaming for dear life. As Butch Jones said after the game, "It’s one of those moments in time that you’ll remember forever."
Tennessee has had a million chances this year to give up and quit. In all but one game, they've trailed in the first half. However, they haven't quit at all. They've come back in the second half and, in some cases, completely destroyed the other team. Against Florida alone, Tennessee scored 38 unanswered points which is a miracle in itself when you think about how they played in the beginning of that game.
Butch Jones likes to say Tennessee and its players have a lot of "resolve and resiliency", and he couldn't be more correct. They never give up or stand down, even when it seems like all hope is lost. Even the fans have stuck by the team's side all year, including Saturday when Tennessee had a .1% chance of winning the game as the clock ran out. In the Florida game, fans never left. When the team was down 18 points at half time and a victory seemed impossible, everybody stayed. It was almost like fans knew "we can do this" and when Tennessee came back from the half, Florida never stood a chance.
Say what you want about Tennessee. You might hate Rocky Top, and you might think the shade of orange is tacky. You might even think they're overrated or just plain lucky. You might hate Butch Jones and the entire program. There's one word you can't use when describing Tennessee, however, and that's "quitters".