KNOXVILLE — Tennessee started the 2019 season losing back-to-back home games to Georgia State and BYU.
The Vols then won one game (Chattanooga) in its first five contests. With a 1-4 start to the season, making a bowl game was a tough task.
However, Tennessee came together as a team and finished the regular season with five consecutive wins and a 7-5 overall record.
Tennessee has now accepted an invitation to play Indiana in the TaxSlayer Bowl on Jan. 2.
After accepting the bowl invite, Jeremy Pruitt discussed what the turning point was in Tennessee’s season.
“With the two off weeks this year, we were 1-3 heading into the first off week,” Pruitt said. “We had a disappointing start early in the year, and I feel like our seniors and our coaching staff did a fantastic job keeping this group together.
“We have a very young and inexperienced team and they stayed together and showed a lot of resiliency and fight and hung in there and we found a way to win ball games down the stretch. I’m really proud of the opportunity this team has presented itself with and giving these seniors the opportunity to play one more time.”