Tennessee football: Vols win over Auburn ended 15 losing streaks

12. Official road games (8 games)

Last win: 2016; Tennessee beats Georgia 34-31

You could call the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets game in 2017 as a “road game,” and it definitely was a win away from home. But technically that was a neutral site game in Atlanta, just like the Music City Bowl technically was against the Nebraska Cornhuskers to end the 2016 season.

This was the last official road game that Tennessee football won. It was the Hail Mary game against the Georgia Bulldogs in 2016, where Jauan Jennings caught the game-winning pass from Joshua Dobbs to win. And if you want to talk about programs being at different stages, go back to this game.

With this win, the Vols had moved to 5-0 on the year under Butch Jones and 2-0 in the SEC, beating Georgia and the Florida Gators. They should have been in the driver’s seat of the East. All the bad stuff that has followed the program recently existed between this game and this past Saturday.

In fact, there were three other streaks ended against Auburn that date back to this game: four games against ranked teams on the road, five games against ranked SEC teams, six games in October and eight games against SEC teams on the road. So Tennessee football ended a ton of losing against the Tigers Saturday that happened between that game and this game.

Looking back, the Georgia Hail Mary might have been a curse. A three-game losing streak followed to make for a very disappointing end to a season with a ton of hype. Then came the worst season in school history. If that’s the case, the Auburn win may have broken that curse.