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Tennessee football: Vols 10 most improved years after missing bowl game

By Caleb Calhoun

Andy Kelly #8, Quarterback for the University of Tennessee Volunteers runs the ball during the NCAA Southwest Conference Cotton Bowl Classic championship college football game against the University of Arkansas Razorbacks on 1 January 1990 at the Cotton Bowl Stadium, Dallas, Texas, United States. The Tennessee Volunteers won the game 31 - 27. (Photo by Joe Patronite/Allsport/Getty Images)
Andy Kelly #8, Quarterback for the University of Tennessee Volunteers runs the ball during the NCAA Southwest Conference Cotton Bowl Classic championship college football game against the University of Arkansas Razorbacks on 1 January 1990 at the Cotton Bowl Stadium, Dallas, Texas, United States. The Tennessee Volunteers won the game 31 - 27. (Photo by Joe Patronite/Allsport/Getty Images) /
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Photo by John Sommers II/Getty Images
Photo by John Sommers II/Getty Images /

6. 1949 (7-2-1, 4-1-1)

1948 record: 4-4-2 (2-3-1)

As much as 1950 was an improvement over 1949, Tennessee football enjoyed a bigger improvement in 1949 over 1948. The Vols entered the season with the fear that Robert Neyland was losing his grip.

Neyland had returned for his third stint on Rocky Top in 1946 thanks to the end of World War II, and after winning the SEC Championship that season with players John Barnhill had developed, things went downhill. The Vols went 5-5 in 1947 and 4-4-2 in 1948, suffering back to back .500 seasons and back to back losing seasons in the SEC.

Entering 1949, the questions were looming. A 21-7 home loss to the Duke Blue Devils in the second game of the season  magnified those concerns. Two weeks, later, the Vols tied the Alabama Crimson Tide on the road.

But with a 2-0-1 record, they turned everything around. Tennessee finished the seasons winning five of six games. That included an upset win over the No. 13 ranked North Carolina Tar Heels and at the end of the season over the No. 11 ranked Kentucky Wildcats. Both were on the road. Their only loss during that run was to the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.

The inconsistencies kept them from winning any SEC Championship or making any bowl game. But it still proved that Neyland still has it, and with a 7-2-1 record and No. 17 ranking in the final AP Poll, it set the stage for an explosion onto the scene in the early 1950s for the Vols with back to back national championships.

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