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Tennessee football: Where Vols have gone bowling with five or more losses

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 Doug Pensinger /Allsport
Photo by Doug Pensinger /Allsport /

1. 1986

Bowl game: Liberty Bowl; Record: 6-5 (3-3)

Opponent: Minnesota Golden Gophers (Won 21-14)

Yes, this is the first time Tennessee football ever made a bowl game with five losses. Here’s the crazy part: the 1986 season was oddly similar to this one. Johnny Majors’s team started 2-5 and then went undefeated in November to finish with a winning record, just as Jeremy Pruitt was able to do this year.However, expectations were much higher for the Vols in 1986.

They entered the season ranked in the top 10 after winning the SEC Championship and the Sugar Bowl the year before to finish 9-1-2 and in the top five. But upset losses to the Mississippi State Bulldogs, Army Black Knights and Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets along with blowout losses to the Alabama Crimson Tide and Auburn Tigers are why they fell to 2-5.

Anyway, after their strong November, they received an invite to a bowl game in the state. UT went to the Liberty Bowl in Memphis. It was their third trip there, following trips in 1971 and 1974. On Dec. 29, 1986, they got to host the another 6-5 team, the Minnesota Golden Gophers. The game itself was actually a thriller.

Minnesota came back and tied things up after the Vols had taken a 14-3 lead in the second quarter. But once the Golden Gophers tied it up, UT had a 66-yard touchdown drive to seal the win. As a result, they finished 7-5, and it set the stage for Majors’s first 10-win season on Rocky Top the next year.

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