Tennessee entered 2015 with enough hype to fill Neyland Stadium, but an 8-4 record, an 11th straight loss to Florida and three blown leads of two scores or more rendered the Vols an afterthought by midseason.
Instead of taking a giant leap forward, head coach Butch Jones' crew simply took a small step from the 2014 season in which the Vols finished 7-6.
As a reward for that small step, Tennessee gave Jones a $500,000 raise that ups his salary to $4.1 million per year, according to Josh Ward of WNML in Knoxville.