If you want to fully appreciate what Tennessee football has become before its Sept. 12 game with Georgia Tech, I recommend you revisit its last meeting with the Yellow Jackets in Atlanta.
That was in 2017 when then-UT coach Butch Jones was working his magic on the sideline. His magic act included a trash can.
A Tennessee player who claimed an opponent’s turnover celebrated his good fortune by rushing to the sideline, grabbing a foam ball and dunking it into a trash can.
If that strikes you as odd, you either never experienced the Butch Jones era or have blocked it from your memory. You could sum up Jones’ version of UT football by asking: “Why would he do (or say) that?”
The trash can idea was Jones at his creative worst. Strangely, it worked perfectly.
With Georgia Tech driving for a game-clinching score late in the fourth quarter, Rashaan Gaulden forced a turnover, and Micah Abernathy recovered. After a celebratory trash-can dunk, the Vols drove 93 yards for a game-tying touchdown.
Finally, in double-overtime, they put the finishing touches on a 42-41 game they had no business winning.
Georgia Tech had 33 first downs, rushed for 535 yards and outgained the Vols by almost 300 yards. Yellow Jackets quarterback TaQuon Marshall rushed for 249 yards on 44 carries in coach Paul Johnson’s option offense.
They had the yardage and the star. The Vols had an inspirational trash can.
Advantage, Tennessee.
But the trash-can opener led to a trash season. The Vols lost all eight SEC games, Jones was fired after losing to Missouri, and the sideline dunks mercifully faded into football history.
Up next: Jeremy Pruitt, who would prove against all odds that Tennessee football didn’t bottom out under Jones.
Since then, UT has taken out the trash and entrusted its football program to a no-nonsense, lot-of-offense coach in Josh Heupel, who has led the Vols to five consecutive winning seasons.
Georgia Tech football has changed, too.
Johnson, who retired after the 2018 season, was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame five years later. His successor, Geoff Collins, isn't in the hall of fame conversation. He lost 28 of 38 games at Georgia Tech before he was fired four games into the 2022 season.
Collins failed so spectacularly that Brent Key now looks like a coaching genius by comparison. In fact, he did almost as much for Key as Pruitt did for Heupel.
Key hasn’t won as much at Georgia Tech as Heupel has at Tennessee. But with three consecutive winning seasons, he has made the Yellow Jackets respectable.
Despite all the ups and downs of Tennessee and Georgia Tech football since they last shared a stadium, the Vols might face a similar challenge to what they encountered nine years ago. The Yellow Jackets have two proven running backs in Justice Haynes and Malachi Hosley, so they likely will try to run their way to victory.
Based on Georgia Tech’s season opener, Tennessee should be OK with that. The Yellow Jackets’ running game fizzled in a 14-13 loss to Colorado on Sept. 3.
If they're as ineffective against Tennessee, the Vols won't need turnovers.
John Adams is a senior columnist. He may be reached at 865-342-6284 or john.adams@knoxnews.com.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Remember when Tennessee football took out the trash vs Georgia Tech | Adams
