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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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5. 1981 (8-4, 3-3)

1980 record: 5-6 (3-3)

Many people won’t remember the 1981 season as much as they should on Rocky Top, as it was part of the revival that Johnny Majors brought to the program. Majors’s first four years as Tennessee football’s head coach were very rough.

Two of those first four seasons ended in losing records, and three ended with no winning record and no bowl game. The 1980 season in which he went 5-6 had fans everywhere beginning to question the hire of their school’s favorite son.

An 0-2 start in 1981 didn’t help matters, as they lost in blowout form to the Georgia Bulldogs and USC Trojans. But as the schedule got better, the Vols got better, and they were able to right the ship to prove the program was trending upward.

Tennessee lost road games to the Alabama Crimson Tide and Kentucky Wildcats after that 0-2 start, but they won every other game. The highlights included back to back 10-7 wins over the Auburn Tigers and Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets and a 28-21 Garden State Bowl win over the Wisconsin Badgers, which was their first bowl win since the Liberty Bowl in 1974.

This was a very lucky season for the Vols, as they six games by a touchdown or less, but it was still a major improvement over their 1980 season. And it began a string of seven straight winning seasons, highlighted by the 1985 SEC Championship, to prove that Majors had things going on the right track.

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