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Tennessee football: Top 10 Vols big game performers in school history

By Caleb Calhoun

5 Dec 1998: Linebacker Al Wilson #27 of the Tennessse Volunteers stands on a ladder during the SEC Championships against the Mississippi State Bulldogs at the Georgia Dome in Athens, Georgia. Tennessee defeated Mississippi St. 24-14.
5 Dec 1998: Linebacker Al Wilson #27 of the Tennessse Volunteers stands on a ladder during the SEC Championships against the Mississippi State Bulldogs at the Georgia Dome in Athens, Georgia. Tennessee defeated Mississippi St. 24-14. /
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As Todd Kelly Jr. hopes to make a splash his final year with Tennessee football, the best he can do is live up to his dad, who had an epic senior season for the Vols in 1992. But it wasn’t just that year that made Todd Kelly Sr. a top big game performer.

Kelly saw sporadic minutes with the Vols his first three years on campus, but he always seemed to rack up key stats in big games. For instance, in 1990, when UT won the SEC Championship, Kelly forced a fumble to set up a score in a game that ended in a tie at the No. 3 Auburn Tigers. He also had two sacks against the Florida Gators.

The next year, Kelly had another sack against Florida in 1991 even though the team lost. And he might be solely responsible for putting Phillip Fulmer and co. on the map with his early 1992 heroics.

Kelly recorded two and a half sacks at the Georgia Bulldogs that year to secure an upset win for the Vols in Athens. He then led a unit that shut down the Florida rushing attack, a game that he described as the best he played in his entire life. Those were the two games to get Tennessee on the national map under Fulmer.

The Vols then lost three straight, as we know, when Johnny Majors returned. But again, this is about big games, and two of those games weren’t supposed to be big ones. In the major one of those three, against the Alabama Crimson Tide, Kelly did his part. He came up with a sack and a forced fumble in the game but got no help from the offense.

Also, in one of the other games, he made what should’ve been the game-saving play by stopping a two-point conversion against the Arkansas Razorbacks. It’s not his fault Tennessee football failed to recover the ensuing onside kick.

Simply put, Kelly knew to show up in big games. And he did it often, which is part of why he became a star in 1992. It’s also why he’s on this list.

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