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Tennessee football: 10 Vols games vs. South Carolina that dramatically altered history

By Caleb Calhoun

KNOXVILLE, TN - OCTOBER 31: Kevin Cooper #45 of the Tennessee Volunteers celebrates with teammates after scoring a touchdown against the South Carolina Gamecocks at Neyland Stadium on October 31, 2009 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TN - OCTOBER 31: Kevin Cooper #45 of the Tennessee Volunteers celebrates with teammates after scoring a touchdown against the South Carolina Gamecocks at Neyland Stadium on October 31, 2009 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /
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Photo by Scott Halleran/Getty Images
Photo by Scott Halleran/Getty Images /

1. 1992 – South Carolina: 24 Tennessee: 23

This is by far the most significant game in the history of Tennessee football’s series against the South Carolina Gamecocks. And the significance, believe it or not, has nothing to do with the future of the Gamecocks. It was all about the Vols.

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    • The first game played between both teams as they were in the SEC single-handedly ended the career of one Tennessee legend on Rocky Top and launched the career of another. That’s how big of a deal it was.

    Entering the game, the Vols were 5-2. However, they had lost two straight. One of those was understandable, to the undefeated Alabama Crimson Tide. The other, though, was by one point to the conference newcomer Arkansas Razorbacks, a team that would finish 3-7-1 on the season.

    UT legend Johnny Majors, who had been the Vols’ Heisman Trophy runner-up on the 1956 SEC Championship team, won a national title as head coach of the Pittsburgh Panthers, and rebuild the Vols into a national brand by this point, was shouldering the blame as head coach. Why? Well, it was quite simple.

    Majors missed the start of the season due to open-heart surgery. The Vols won their first three games without him under interim head coach Phillip Fulmer, including two upsets against the Georgia Bulldogs and Florida Gators to be put in the driver’s seat of the SEC East with the new divisional format. Majors came back and they got to 5-0 and No. 4 in the country before those two losses.

    Coming off the open date, though, the Vols still had a chance to play for the SEC title. No good teams were left on the schedule, and all they had to do was win out to win the East, a huge accomplishment for a team breaking in a new quarterback in Heath Shuler.

    Instead, this game happened. Coming off the bye, the South Carolina Gamecocks shockingly went toe to toe with this team all game. The Vols, down 24-17, scored a late touchdown behind one of the greatest runs in history orchestrated by Mose Phillips. But down 24-23 and with overtime not an option, they had to go for two to remain first in the East. They did just that and failed to convert.

    Tennessee football, after a 5-0 start, had lost three straight games. Two of the three were one-point losses to the two SEC newcomers, both of whom would finish the year with losing records. That was the final straw.

    After this loss, the Vols had an open date. Then, the following week, as they got set to face the Memphis Tigers, news came out that Majors would be fired at the end of the year and replaced by his trusted assistant, Fulmer. The move generated bad blood between the two for two decades, and it launched Fulmer’s Hall of Fame career. All of that came down to this game.

    Next. 5 Vols to watch for vs. South Carolina. dark

    So yes, this is the most significant game in the history of the series between Tennessee football and the South Carolina Gamecocks. If the Vols win this game, they win the East that year. Majors stays on as head coach with a national title contender in 1993. He may get one in the next three years, then he leaves on his own terms, gives the reigns to Fulmer, and the two remain friends. But the loss changed everything on Rocky Top.

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