Tennessee Football: 5 New Year's Resolutions for the Vols

2015 couldn't have started off any better for the Tennessee Volunteers.

A dominant win over the Iowa Hawkeyes in the TaxSlayer Bowl in front of a crowd almost exclusively decked out in orange and white showed that better times are ahead for the Vols.

But while Tennessee easily dismantled its Big 10 opponent, next season's slate of games won't be so easy. All the usual suspects are there: Florida, Georgia, Alabama and Missouri. All of those teams hold multiyear win streaks over the Vols and want nothing more than to keep those streaks alive for another season.

The Vols will be an improved team in 2015 for sure, as they return 18 total starters, including 10 on offense.

But many of those starters are true freshmen who will still only be true sophomores in a league dominated by fourth- and fifth-year players.

Make no mistake—there is still a lot of work to be done for Tennessee to finally turn the corner and go from hoping for bowl eligibility in late November to having its eyes set on an SEC crown.

Accomplishing these five New Year's resolutions will go a long way toward proving that Tennessee's winning season was no fluke and that the Vols are truly on the up and up.

Finally Beat Florida

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For 10 agonizing years in a row, Tennessee has found new ways to lose to the Florida Gators.

During some of those games, the Gators were clearly the superior team, and the Vols barely belonged on the same field. Other games were nearly dead heats, and during a few matchups, Tennessee actually had a slight advantage.

But the outcome of every game since 2005 is the same in the record books and every Tennessee fan's memory: a loss. 

The Vols dropped a heartbreaker against the Gators in 2014 after pitching a shutout for three full quarters. All it took was Treon Harris and 10 points to beat a Tennessee team that was tantalizingly close to ending the streak. 

With Florida breaking in a new coaching staff and new schemes and Tennessee enjoying rare staff continuity and a plethora of returning starters in 2015, the Vols will once again be in great position to get the Gator off their backs.

Florida's greatest challenge before the game will be a road matchup with the Kentucky Wildcats, while Tennessee will experience a much tougher challenge with the Oklahoma Sooners heading to Knoxville on Sept. 12.

Logic dictates that Tennessee's returning experience and established identities on offense and defense—not to mention a tougher test to work out kinks—will tip the scales in the Vols' favor.

But with 10 years of futility on the line, it seems that Tennessee may need divine intervention from the football gods to finally put a frustrating and downright embarrassing losing streak to bed once and for all.

Improve Dobbs' Long-Ball Accuracy

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While Tennessee's offense will be potent in 2015, its heavy reliance on the ground game won't cut it against teams such as Florida, Georgia and Alabama. 

Joshua Dobbs is accurate throwing to short and intermediate routes, but like fellow 2014 starter Justin Worley, he struggles to connect on deep balls.

It seems like a non-issue considering how easily the Vols move the chains when the offense is clicking, but the lack of a deep-ball threat allows opposing defensive coordinators to play more toward the line of scrimmage and the flat rather than worry about giving up big plays downfield.

As it stands, Dobbs is a very good quarterback with the potential to be great in 2015 if he does nothing but improve his understanding of the offense and ability to read defenses between now and Sept. 5.

But if he can improve his overall accuracy and become a true threat throwing deep a handful of times per game, he will quickly become one of the best quarterbacks in college football.

Improve the Offensive Line

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Tennessee's offensive line struggled throughout 2014, but its performance against Iowa in the TaxSlayer Bowl may have been a sign of things to come.

Some of the credit goes to Dobbs, as he turned a couple of sure sacks into gains, but the offensive line opened up big running room for Jalen Hurd and Dobbs throughout the night.

But like Dobbs' ability to connect on deep passes, Tennessee needs its offensive line to deliver performances like the one seen in the TaxSlayer Bowl on a weekly basis for the Vols to be SEC East contenders in 2015.

In fact, Dobbs' success is still linked to his offensive line's performance. Although he can make things happen with his feet when the pocket breaks down, the Vols will be a much stronger team offensively if he can get more time in the pocket to add yet another dimension to Tennessee's offense.

Identify and Develop Impact Freshmen

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Derek Barnett, a 2014 summer arrival, came out of nowhere to become one of Tennessee's best players this season.

The Vols will be incredibly lucky to have another newcomer who makes as much of an impact in his first season on Rocky Top, but with a class expected to be 28-to-29 blue-chip-recruits deep, it won't be a surprise if Boy Wonder 2.0 is among that group.

The Vols will have around 10 early enrollees arriving on campus as early as next week, including 4-star running back Alvin Kamara and 5-star defensive tackle Shy Tuttle, per 247Sports. 

With so much talent coming in during the winter and summer, there's little doubt that the Vols will suddenly have an enormous amount of quality but inexperienced depth.

However, if just one or two new players are as SEC-ready from day one as Barnett was, Tennessee's path to Atlanta will be that much easier.

Learn How to Handle Preseason Expectations

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The last time the Vols garnered preseason expectations, Derek Dooley was still the head coach, and Tyler Bray, Justin Hunter and Cordarrelle Patterson headlined the offense.

After an excellent performance against NC State to open the 2012 season, Tennessee laid an egg against Florida and proceeded to self-destruct, going 5-7, despite fielding one of the most prolific offenses to ever don orange and white.

With Tennessee's dominant win over Iowa in the TaxSlayer Bowl, the Vols are suddenly one of the hottest teams in the country. A preseason ranking, prime-time matchups with Oklahoma, Florida and Arkansas and a possible trip to Atlanta could all be in the cards in 2015.

But can such a young team experiencing its first taste of success handle that pressure?

Team 119 has the potential to be the first since 2007 to win more than seven games in a season. But Team 119 also has to deal with the reality that just beating Kentucky, Vanderbilt and one other SEC opponent will no longer cut it.

Neither will just barely sliding into a bowl at 6-6. Like it or not, the expectations for 2015 went up when Butch Jones hoisted the TaxSlayer Bowl trophy above his head in Jacksonville on Friday night.

Now it's time for him and his team to deliver.