Tennessee football: Five facts about Vols facing Indiana in Gator Bowl

5. This is the second meeting between the Vols and Indiana.

Yes, despite being separated by only one state, Tennessee football has played the Indiana Hoosiers once. That game was also a bowl game. It was in the Peach Bowl back in 1988 to close out the 1987 season. The venue hosting it, though, was not the Georgia Dome or obviously the Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Fulton County Stadium, where the Atlanta Braves played through 1996, hosted the game. In the matchup itself, the Vols were 9-2-1 under Johnny Majors, then in his 11th year, while the Hoosiers were 8-3 under Bill Mallory, then in his fourth season.

They also shared two common opponents, the Iowa Hawkeyes and Kentucky Wildcats, with UT beating both teams and Indiana losing to both teams. As a result, the Vols entered this game ranked in the top 20, and Indiana came in looking to finish in the top 20. It was clear that the men in orange were the better team, but they didn’t always show it.

In a thriller, Rocky Top blew a 21-3 lead and allowed Indiana to go up 22-21 late. However, the Vols responded with a late drive to take back the lead thanks to a nine-yard touchdown run by Reggie Cobb. They also secured the victory in the process.

As a result, Majors’s team finished 10-2-1, his first 10-win season in Knoxville, and ranked in the top 25. Meanwhile, Indiana finished 8-4. They haven’t played since. And they never played beforehand. That’s one aspect that makes this an intriguing matchup.