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Tennessee football: Vols five best seasons with a horrible upset loss

By Caleb Calhoun

1 Jan 1997: Defensive backs Terry Fair and Cory Gaines of the Tennessee Volunteers slap hands during the Florida Citrus Bowl game against the Northwestern Wildcats at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Florida. Tennessee won the game 48-28. Mandatory Credit: Andy Lyons /Allsport
1 Jan 1997: Defensive backs Terry Fair and Cory Gaines of the Tennessee Volunteers slap hands during the Florida Citrus Bowl game against the Northwestern Wildcats at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Florida. Tennessee won the game 48-28. Mandatory Credit: Andy Lyons /Allsport /
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1. 1950

Lost to Mississippi State Bulldogs 7-0

11-1 (4-1); National Champions; No. 4 AP; No. 3 Coaches; W Cotton Bowl

Although 1951 is considered their first consensus national championship, Tennessee football had three before them recognized by the NCAA. And just one year earlier, many of the same famous players that were part of the ’51 team helped them to it.

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For context, Robert Neyland was in his third stint. Coming back from World War II, he had a rocky start with back to back .500 seasons in the late 1940s. But a winning season in 1949 with some young talent proved he had them headed back to the top.

In 1950, names like Ted Daffer, Bud Sherrod, Bill Pearman, John Michels and Bert Rechichar complemented the noted superstars in Hank Lauricella and Doug Arkins. And the Vols entered the season ranked No. 4 in the nation.

But it immediately came crashing down. After a 1-0 start, they lost to a Mississippi State Bulldogs team that had gone 0-8-1 the previous year, even worse than what the Georgia State Panthers did last year in the Sun Belt. Sure, MSU was 1-0 at that point, but they were horrible. And they would lose three straight after that while finishing the season 4-5.

Simply put, it was a horrible loss. But after falling out of the rankings, the Vols rebounded by beating the the No. 14 ranked Duke Blue Devils one week later 28-7 on the road. So they got back into the top 15, and this time they never looked back. Getting to 7-1, the highlight of their season came when they beat Bear Bryant and the No. 3 ranked and undefeated Kentucky Wildcats 7-0.

After beating the Vanderbilt Commodores to get to 10-1, they had made it back to No. 4 after that horrible loss. UK, however, technically won the SEC title despite the head-to-head tiebreaker because of the fact that they played one more conference game. So they got the Sugar Bowl invite to face the Oklahoma Sooners, one of the teams ahead of UT.

The Vols, however, got to face the No. 3 ranked Texas Longhorns in the Cotton Bowl. They won that one in a thriller, 20-14. Kentucky then beat the No. 1 ranked Oklahoma Sooners 13-7, and the Army Black Knights, who were No. 2, lost to the Navy Midshipmen on Dec. 2 14-2 after the polls had been counted.

Next. Five funny positive spins from Vols' GSU loss. dark

As a result, every team ahead of Tennessee football lost, so many legitimate services that count rankings after the season awarded them the national title. That was an amazing rebound from the early-season loss, and they would extend that winning streak afterward to 20 games, going 10-0 in the regular season next year to capture an SEC title and second straight national title.

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