Tennessee football: Vols win over Auburn ended 15 losing streaks

15. Games against Power Five teams (11 games)

Last win: 2017; Tennessee beats Georgia Tech 42-41 in OT

Believe it or not, it wasn’t that long ago when morale was much higher among the Tennessee football fans. We’re only talking about 13 and a half months. The Vols opened the 2017, their worst in school history, with a huge double-overtime win over the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in Atlanta.

At the time, they were in the Top 25, and Butch Jones still had some cache. It wasn’t until his horrendous coaching job against the Florida Gators two weeks later that things truly began to come apart on Rocky Top.

And that’s where the Vols began their losing streak against Power Five teams. They lost to all eight SEC teams that year, which does mean eight Power Five teams. But on top of that, they also lost to three this year.

In fact, Jeremy Pruitt’s 2-3 start involved three losses by exactly 26 points each to Power Five teams, including a brutal season-opening loss to the West Virginia Mountaineers. Since that game was at a neutral site, it also counts as another losing streak: six losses away from home.

So by beating a Power Five team away from home, the Vols were able to really end two streaks that date back to the start of the 2017 season. In terms of number of years, this doesn’t seem like much. And there’s another factor, or another streak if you must, that will largely be the reason for this. But all the same, it’s still an 11-game losing streak to Power Five teams. And that’s bad.