Tennessee football: Vols win over Auburn ended 15 losing streaks

8. Games against SEC West teams with a winning record (22 games)

Last win: 2007; Tennessee beats Arkansas 34-13

Beating the Ole Miss Rebels for Derek Dooley and co. was exciting because of the fact that Tennessee football was needing to get to a bowl game that year. But that was a program coming apart under Houston Nutt, and they were 4-6 at the time.

But the Vols had not beaten an SEC West team with a winning record even before that. In fact, heading into Saturday’s game, their current losing streak on that front was an amazing 22 games. The last time they got such a win was 2007.

It was in November, just like Ole Miss, and Phillip Fulmer’s team was looking to win the SEC East. Ironically, the last coach the Vols beat from the West is also the last coach they beat from the West with a winning record, just on a different team. Nutt was with the Arkansas Razorbacks in 2007, and these guys torched the Vols the year before.

Everybody was confident again that Darren McFadden and Felix Jones would destroy a UT defense that had given up over 40 three times on the year. And with the loss, Tennessee football would lose its place in the East.

The opposite happened. John Chavis went against everything he always does and refused to bring any pressure. The result? Arkansas couldn’t fool the Vols or catch them out of position. Tennessee won a dominating game as a result. And on Saturday, against Auburn, they won again because a defense did not get fooled by a trickery offense.