HOOVER, Ala. -- Tennessee Coach Butch Jones said a lot of people point to the Vols' 38-31 victory over Georgia as last season's turning point.
It's an understandable sentiment considering Tennessee rallied from a 24-3 deficit to beat the Bulldogs to start a stretch in which the Vols won 6 of 7 games to finish 9-4, capped by a 45-6 victory over Northwestern in the Outback Bowl.
But Jones said at SEC media days he has a different take on the turning point for his team.
"I know the Georgia game was a great win," Jones said. "But I still to this day I feel it was the Arkansas game."
The Razorbacks beat the Vols 24-20 at Neyland Stadium Oct. 3 -- a week before the Georgia game -- in what was Tennessee's third crushing loss in a four-week span.
Arkansas came back from a 14-point deficit as Florida had the previous week in beating Tennessee 28-27. Two weeks prior Oklahoma overcame a 17-point deficit to beat Tennessee 31-24 in double overtime.
The team's response in the aftermath of the Arkansas game, Jones said, is what got Tennessee's season back on track.
The players usually have Sunday off, but the day after the Arkansas game, Jones called a team meeting.
"Our kids were at a crossroad and everyone could hear the negative noise," Jones said. "They could hear the clutter and the distractions.
"That's really where our leadership and our competitive character showed through."
Team captains addressed the Vols first in a players-only portion of the meeting, senior quarterback Josh Dobbs said, then Jones spoke and stressed Tennessee was still a good team that could go on a run if the players believed in themselves and stayed together.
"That meeting really solidified our mindset about the season and where we felt this team could go," Dobbs said. "That each week is a one-game season and you have to focus on the task at hand and what's at stake."
That approach, Dobbs said, helped the Vols flip the script on their season and stage a come-from-behind victory over Georgia in Knoxville.
"When we were behind early, we knew we were still in that game," he said. "Being able to finish the first half strong and compete like we did in the second half really showed the type of resiliency we had as a team."
Jones had a new team photo taken the Monday after the Arkansas game to signify it was a fresh start for Tennessee.
"We just told everybody this could be a turning point, and we can either go into hiding or we can keep grinding," Vols senior linebacker Jalen Reeves-Maybin said. "Everybody came together, we stayed focused and started figuring things out and finishing games."
Tennessee's only loss in its last seven games was 19-14 at Alabama when the Crimson Tide -- who went on to win the national championship -- scored the game-winning touchdown with 2:24 left on Heisman Trophy winner Derrick Henry's 14-yard run.
"We had some tough losses, but I think what you saw from us, no matter how low we might seem at the time, we've kept our heads up and battled adversity," Reeves-Maybin said. "We've never gone into hiding. We've always stepped up to the challenges.
"Everything might not go our way, but you're never going to see us give up. That's what we showed after that Arkansas game."
Dobbs and Reeves-Maybin are among 19 returning starters for Tennessee and two of the Vols' eight all-conference selections on three teams at SEC media days.
That experience and talent, along with the team's strong finish last season, have made the Vols the choice to win the SEC East in several preseason polls.
"You want those expectations," Jones said. "I think it's a compliment to everyone in our program of how far we've come."
Tennessee was an overwhelming East favorite at SEC media days, where the Vols received 225 of 331 first-place votes.
"The biggest thing it shows is how far we've come since I was a freshman," Dobbs said. "There wasn't much talk about Tennessee back then."
The Vols are 21-17 the last three seasons under Jones, including back-to-back bowl victories, after a 5-7 record in 2013. They're 13-5 in the last 18 games.
"It's cool to see that Tennessee has risen," Dobbs said. "We're getting back to traditionally where Tennessee has been."
Sports on 07/19/2016