10 Worst Bowl Losses in Tennessee Football History

Sep 12, 2015; Knoxville, TN, USA; General view during the first quarter at Neyland Stadium during the game between the Oklahoma Sooners and the University of Tennessee. Mandatory Credit: Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports

Tennessee football history is filled with great bowl wins, but there’s been disappointment. Here are the 10 worst bowl losses the Volunteers have suffered.

Tennessee has a love-hate relationship with bowl games. Ever since they won the national championship in 1998, the Vols have struggled in many of them, stumbling to a 4-7 record in them while missing the postseason altogether in five of them.

In spite of the history of great bowl wins the Vols have enjoyed en route to their 26-24 bowl games as they get set for their 51st in the Outback Bowl against the Northwestern Wildcats, it hasn’t always been roses…literally.

No, seriously, the Vols have never won a game in the Rose Bowl. They are 0-2.

Many of the bowl losses, fortunately, did not matter before 1968 due to the fact that the game itself had no bearing on the final rankings, and therefore the national championship, for any team.

But there were still a few games during that time that were disappointing and tough to swallow, and there have been plenty of games since then that were tough to swallow.

Losing a bowl game can be the result of many things. There can be distractions for players looking into the NFL Draft, there can be injuries, players can face academic suspensions with the semester ending, coaches and inexperienced players can struggle with the long layoff, and many times players can be apathetic about the game because they were thinking bigger earlier in that season.