Tennessee football: Vols have four wins vs. Alabama with losing record

3. Oct. 18, 1958; Vols record: 1-2 (1-2)

Shields-Watkins Field (now Neyland Stadium); Knoxville, Tenn,

Tennessee Volunteers beat Alabama Crimson Tide 14-7

This year marked a changing of the guard in the SEC. Bowden Wyatt’s tenure as Tennessee football head coach was about to take a downward turn after a great first three years on the job, and the Alabama Crimson Tide were about to orchestrate a major turnaround, as they were in their first season under legendary head coach Bear Bryant.

Heading into this game, the Tide lost were 1-1-1. UT, meanwhile, opened the year with a loss to the No. 3 ranked Auburn Tigers and the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets with a win over the No. 11 ranked Mississippi State Bulldogs sandwiched in between. So they were 1-2, and morale was a bit low on Rocky Top.

However, while this would change by 1970, the Vols had owned Bryant to this point. He had one win against UT with the Kentucky Wildcats and never beat Robert Neyland, including losing to the Vols with his SEC title team in 1950. In his last game with the Texas A&M Aggies, the previous year, he lost to the Vols again, 3-0 in the Gator Bowl.

So he entered this game desperate to win. It didn’t happen. UT won 14-7 to get to 2-2 and continued to exert what appeared to be dominance over Bryant. However, the Vols stumbled to a 4-6 season. Alabama, meanwhile, went 5-4-1. They wouldn’t beat Rocky Top under Bryant until 1961. But from 1961 to 1992, they exerted their dominance, going 23-8-1 during that time.