All for Tennessee
Fansided

10 Times the Tennessee vs Alabama Game Meant the Most to Both the Vols and the Tide

By Caleb Calhoun

facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
2 of 11
Next
Sep 12, 2015; Knoxville, TN, USA; Neyland Stadium home of the Tennessee Volunteers on the banks of the Tennessee River prior to the game against the Oklahoma Sooners. Mandatory Credit: Jim Brown-USA TODAY Sports
Sep 12, 2015; Knoxville, TN, USA; Neyland Stadium home of the Tennessee Volunteers on the banks of the Tennessee River prior to the game against the Oklahoma Sooners. Mandatory Credit: Jim Brown-USA TODAY Sports /

10. 1992: Alabama 17 Tennessee 10

This is obviously an infamous year for Tennessee football history. It’s the year they forced out a Vols legend in Johnny Majors.

And this loss was the first major domino in his fall.

Going into this game, the Tide were undefeated and ranked No. 4 in the country. Tennessee had started the year 5-0 with wins over the Florida Gators and Georgia Bulldogs, but the week before the Tide they had suffered a one-point loss at home to the Arkansas Razorbacks.

That put them in a position going into the game much like the position they’re in now. Sure, they had a loss. But it was to a non-divisional opponent, so they had complete control of their own destiny to do what they wanted to do.

The only problem was that loss to Arkansas was unacceptable given how bad that team was. So they had to make up for it with a win here.

And in a defensive struggle that should have proven Heath Shuler wasn’t cut out for the NFL, Gene Stallings’s Tide shut down the Tennessee football offense. They could not move the ball all day and ended up losing the game 17-10. It was Alabama’s seventh straight win in the Tennessee vs Alabama series at the time.

The loss ruined any national title hopes and put their SEC title hopes in jeopardy.

Those hopes were dashed the next week with a loss to the South Carolina Gamecocks, and that also ended Majors’s career.

Home/Vols Football