Tennessee had not reached the Sugar Bowl, the SEC’s contract bowl game, since 1970. But they were winning consistently. The Vols had reached nine straight bowls, including four in succession under Johnny Majors, who came to Knoxville after winning a national championship at Pitt in 1976. The 1985 Tennessee football team would break the Sugar […]
The 1998 Tennessee Volunteers gathered for what looked to be a year of re-tooling. The previous four years had seen a quarterback named Peyton Manning at helm, but with his departure for the Indianapolis Colts, a new signal-caller had to be found. And while the Vols had won the SEC title the prior year and gone to the Orange Bowl, they did have a bugaboo to overcome—they’d lost to Florida five straight years and this at a time when the Gators and Vols dominated the SEC East.
Miami and Tennessee played a game with national championship implications at the 1986 Sugar Bowl, with the Hurricanes looking to get win and get help, while the Volunteers were out to play spoiler. Here’s a look back at the road both teams took through the 1985 college football season before their paths converged in New […]
In TheSportsNotebook’s tour of the modern era (1976-Present) looking for the best sports cities in any individual year, I’ve stuck with a consistent ground rule. A team’s championships must take place within a one sports calendar year, which runs from the Final Four through the Super Bowl. 1999 makes it tough to adhere strictly to that rule and still choose an area that experienced at least one championship. Hence, I’m going to cheat a little bit. TheSportsNotebook will honor the state of Tennessee—they got the Titans to the Super Bowl that year, but for our championship, we’re sneaking in college football and the Tennessee Volunteers. January 4, 1999 saw the Vols seal a national title run that’s in the books for the 1998 schedule. So let’s look back on what it was to root for the Vols and Titans through the falls of 1998-99.