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Tennessee football: Vols 10 greatest comeback wins in school history

By Caleb Calhoun

Aaron Hayden #24, Running Back for the University of Tennessee Volunteers runs the ball during the NCAA Southeastern Conference college football game against the University of Notre Dame Fighting Irish on 9 November 1991 at the Notre Dame Stadium in Notre Dame, Indiana, United States. The Tennessee Volunteers won the game 35 - 34. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Allsport/Getty Images)
Aaron Hayden #24, Running Back for the University of Tennessee Volunteers runs the ball during the NCAA Southeastern Conference college football game against the University of Notre Dame Fighting Irish on 9 November 1991 at the Notre Dame Stadium in Notre Dame, Indiana, United States. The Tennessee Volunteers won the game 35 - 34. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Allsport/Getty Images) /
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Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images
Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images /

2. Sept. 26, 2005

No. 10 Tennessee Volunteers at No. 4 LSU Tigers

Final score: Tennessee Vols win 30-27 (OT)

This is a very forgettable Tennessee football season, as they went 5-6, missing a bowl for the first time in Phillip Fulmer’s career as a head coach and losing to the Vanderbilt Commodores for the first time in 23 years. That all happened after they started out ranked No. 3 in the country.

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But all the flaws with this team were ironically strengths for one glorious half. Heading into the game, the Vols were 1-1 after an ugly 17-10 win over the UAB Blazers and a 16-7 loss to the Florida Gators. The Erik Ainge/Rick Clausen quarterback alternation wasn’t working.

As a result, Fulmer decided his plan to stick with Ainge in this game at the LSU Tigers. A top 5 team under first year head coach Les Miles, they had only played one game, a thrilling win at the Arizona State Sun Devils. But Hurricanes Katrina and Rita forced the postponement of any home games, and it postponed this game from Saturday to Monday.

So this was their home opener, and the momentum was through the roof. Ainge, meanwhile, continued to collapse against that Bo Pelini defense in the first half and the team’s lack of response to him. He was hit for a sack fumble that turned into a Joseph Addai touchdown run on one play. Then, down 14-0, he threw a pick-six in his own end zone.

LSU lead 21-0 as a result, so Fulmer broke his pledge and put in Clausen, who had transferred from LSU in 2002. Down 21-0 at halftime, Clausen led an epic comeback. It started with a touchdown drive on their first offensive possession of the second half. However, after getting the ball back, they couldn’t score again. LSU instead went down and kicked another field goal.

That meant that this team was still down 24-7 heading into the fourth, which may have been worse than being down 21-0 at halftime. Adding to that was the fact that Clausen used a time-consuming drive, capped off by a 4th and goal sneak for a touchdown, to cut the lead to 24-14. The next drive is when the momentum swing finally happened.

On 3rd and long, Jamarcus Russell tried to force a pass to Dwayne Bowe. Jonathan Hefney intercepted it and took it to the LSU two-yard-line. Two plays later, UT scored. All of a sudden, 21-0 and 24-7 was 24-21. The Vols got another stop, drove into LSU territory and kicked a field goal. So the game was tied at 24 for overtime thanks to a dominating defense.

Related Story. 10 memorable game-winning drives in Vols history. light

That defense then didn’t allow a first down in overtime. After LSU hit a field goal to go up 27-24, the Vols stuck to their ground game with Gerald Riggs Jr. Riggs got into the end zone on 3rd and short, and UT held on for an amazing 30-27 Monday night win in Baton Rouge. It was one epic highlight in an otherwise horrible year.

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