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Tennessee football: Ranking Vols 15 seasons after consecutive years of no bowl

By Caleb Calhoun

JACKSONVILLE, FL - JANUARY 02: Tennessee Volunteers players celebrate following the TaxSlayer Bowl against the Iowa Hawkeyes at EverBank Field on January 2, 2015 in Jacksonville, Florida. The Tennessee Volunteers defeated the Iowa Hawkeyes 45-28. (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)
JACKSONVILLE, FL - JANUARY 02: Tennessee Volunteers players celebrate following the TaxSlayer Bowl against the Iowa Hawkeyes at EverBank Field on January 2, 2015 in Jacksonville, Florida. The Tennessee Volunteers defeated the Iowa Hawkeyes 45-28. (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images) /
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Photo by John Sommers II/Getty Images
Photo by John Sommers II/Getty Images /

9. 1961

Bowden Wyatt: 6-4 (4-3)

No postseason accomplishments 

After getting back into the top 25 in 1960, which was on the heels of a losing season in 1958 and a 5-4-1 season in 1959, Bowden Wyatt was looking to restore Tennessee football back to where it was his first few years. This would be the season to do it.

Instead, on the heels of three straight seasons without a bowl game, things began to slide back downward again. Wyatt’s Vols weren’t terrible this year, but they showed a program descending into mediocrity.

UT opened the season with a 24-21 loss to the Auburn Tigers. They then beat the Mississippi State Bulldogs and Tulsa Golden Hurricane before losing to the Alabama Crimson Tide. A win over Chattanooga and the No. 9 ranked Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets showed promise, but a loss to the North Carolina Tar Heels was in between them. After losing to the Ole Miss Rebels, they were 4-4.

Sure, the Vols had to face three of the top four teams in the league, all of whom finished in the top 13. But they still lost to a mediocre Auburn team and a bad UNC team. As a result, despite beating the Kentucky Wildcats and Vanderbilt Commodores, they did not qualify for a bowl game.

Finishing 6-4 this year further sent this school on a downward slide, which culminated with that 4-6 season in 1962 that we brought up earlier. And that set off a chain of events that brought in Doug Dickey. In 1961, though, all that happened was the Vols missed a fourth straight bowl game.

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