Tennessee football: 5 memorable Vols neutral site regular season games

5. 2012: Tennessee beats N.C. State 35-21 in Atlanta

It was the last win of the Derek Dooley era to get excited about. To be fair, few of those existed in his three years as Tennessee football head coach to begin with. But after winning this game, fans thought the 2012 season would be different.

The last time we saw the Vols, they had lost to the Kentucky Wildcats to finish the season 5-7. That caused chaos on Rocky Top, as Dooley was not prepared for the onslaught of criticism. He went into hiding for a month while athletic director Dave Hart publicly undercut him, and that caused a rash of staff changes.

However, Dooley had spent time retooling his schemes and his philosophy and was ready for 2012 with a ton of weapons on offense. Those weapons were put on display in this game. And yes, at the moment, it was a thrilling win.

Remember, at the time UT still had the Georgia Dome curse. They hadn’t won their since the 1998 SEC Championship, so it’s a terrible place for Dooley to start his make or break season coming off a loss to Kentucky. But he did, and he gave the Vols a show.

Foreshadowing the year on offense, Tyler Bray made big play after big play. The elite Vols receiving corps. with the addition of Cordarrelle Patterson made this game fun to watch. Tennessee football dominated and won 35-21, breaking the Georgia Dome curse.

Unfortunately for Dooley, everything came apart two weeks later against the Florida Gators. The offense continued playing well, but the defense did not adjust to Sal Sunseri’s new 3-4 scheme. So the Vols came undone and finished 5-7. But in this specific outing, things looked bright.