In 16 bowl games Tennessee football has played in as an unranked team in either the AP or the Coaches Poll, the Volunteers have a 9-7 record.
Jan. 2, 2020 will mark the sixth straight bowl game Tennessee football has played in as an unranked team. They have not done that since the Bill Battle/Johnny Majors years, and the Vols have never done it six straight times as an unranked team in both polls.
But as they get set to face the Indiana Hoosiers in the Gator Bowl, they will be facing another unranked team. It’s the first time they are facing an unranked team as an unranked team themselves since the last time they went to the Gator Bowl, when they faced the Iowa Hawkeyes in 2015 to end the 2014 and it was called the TaxSlayer Bowl. UT won that game 45-28.
Throughout its 53 bowl games including the upcoming Gator Bowl, Tennessee football will have competed as an unranked team in both polls 12 times. Another four times, in 1966, 1973, 1974 and 1994, they were unranked in one of the polls. As an unranked team in both polls, they have a 6-6 record, which is pretty mixed. That’s what applies here.
If you just factor in the the times they were only unranked in the AP Poll, they are 9-6. Meanwhile, if you factor in the times they were only unranked in the Coaches Poll, they are 6-7. So they have a better track record as an unranked team in the AP Poll.
As an unranked team in one or both of the polls facing other unranked teams in one or both of the polls, they are 5-2. Meanwhile, as an unranked team in both polls facing another unranked team, they are 3-2.
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This means that as an unranked team in both polls facing a ranked team, they are 3-4. However, as an unranked team in just one of the polls facing a ranked team, they are 3-5. That doesn’t apply here, though, as Indiana is unranked as well.
The first time UT played as an unranked team in a bowl game was in 1966, and they beat Syracuse 18-12. Ironically, that was in the Gator Bowl, and both teams entered that game ranked in the Coaches Poll. To be fair, the AP Poll at the time only did a top 10, which is why both teams were left out of it.
Meanwhile, the first time the Vols played in a bowl game unranked in both polls was in the Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl in 1979, and they lost to the No. 12 ranked Purdue Boilermakers 27-22. That ran off a steak of five straight bowl games they played unranked in both polls, including four straight seasons from 1981 to 1984.
All of these things do bode slightly well for Tennessee football when they face Indiana on Saturday. But it’s obviously proof of a mixed track record, which the Vols have anyway in bowl games. It’s worth noting, though, that they are on a three-game winning streak in bowl games as an unranked team. That’s because they are on a three-game winning streak in bowl games period.