Tennessee football: Ranking all 17 Vols conference championship teams

6. 1939

10-1 (6-0)

No. 2 AP; Rose Bowl berth

The shocking thing to most people reading this is how Tennessee football’s 1939 team is this low. Sure, they lost their bowl game to the USC Trojans 14-0. But that was without George Cafego, the star of the team.

Before that, they went the entire regular season undefeated, untied and unscored upon. Bowls were exhibition games anyway, and this is about what teams did in their conference. Heading into the year, UT was on a 13-game winning streak and a streak of five straight shutout wins.

This was the peak of the Golden Years of the Vols, in Robert Neyland’s second stint. And it is what propelled them to major prominence. Cafego, Abe Shires, Ed Molinski, Bob Suffridge and Bob Foxx would all become Tennessee football legends during this time.

And these guys just dominated. So why in the world are they not even in the top 5 of the conference championship teams? Well, you have to look at their strength of schedule and how they played.

UT had to split the SEC Championship with the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets and Tulane Green Wave, both of whom also went undefeated in the SEC. Know what that means? The Vols didn’t have to play the other top teams in the league. In fact, they didn’t play any of the top four teams outside of them.

Only two of their six opponents, the Kentucky Wildcats and Alabama Crimson Tide, finished the year with winning records. Meanwhile, they still struggled with the Auburn Tigers and Vanderbilt Commodores this year. We’re not alone in seeing this issue.

Of these three glory years from 1938 to 1940, 1939 is the only one in which no reputable services awarded the Vols a national championship. So the fact of the matter is they have to stay below the other teams, including the next one on the list.