Peyton Manning’s Five Greatest College Performances With Tennessee Vols

Amidst his retirement, everybody is documenting Peyton Manning’s NFL career. But here’s a look at his five best college games with the Tennessee Volunteers.

Throughout the past 18 years, Peyton Manning has won over the hearts and minds of millions of football fans who have been lifelong followers of the NFL.

But before that, Manning was a favorite son of the Tennessee Vols. From the moment he committed to the University of Tennessee in 1994 thanks to Phillip Fulmer and David Cutcliffe, Manning raised the expectations of Tennessee football.

At the time of his commitment, the Vols had been in the midst of a return to the national spotlight. But they were looking to go to the next level: compete for a national title.

Manning never won a national title himself with Tennessee, but he took the Vols to the level that they needed to be at to win it. Thanks to his play, Fulmer was able to string together a collection of very strong recruiting classes that won that title in 1998.

And to be fair to Manning, he led the Vols through one solid season and three great seasons in Knoxville, capping it off with an SEC Championship season in 1997.

So while everybody else recaps his NFL career, here at All for Tennessee his pending retirement calls for a look back at his greatest college games. The criteria to look at Manning’s five greatest performances in college includes a mix of great stats and important games.

Manning had to be the big reason his team won a huge game, or he had to put up memorable stats. Sometimes it could be one or the other, sometimes it could be both.

With that criteria, here are Peyton Manning’s top five performances of his college career with the Tennessee Vols.

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