All for Tennessee
Fansided

Tennessee football: Ranking Vols four seasons following previous Gator Bowl wins

By Caleb Calhoun

14 Oct 1995: TENNESSEE PLAYERS CELEBRATE AFTER WIDE RECEIVER MARCUS NASH SCORED HIS SECOND TOUCHDOWN AGAINST ALABAMA DURING THE SECOND QUARTER OF THE VOLUNTEERS 41-14 VICTORY OVER THE CRIMSON TIDE AT LEGION FIELD IN BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA.
14 Oct 1995: TENNESSEE PLAYERS CELEBRATE AFTER WIDE RECEIVER MARCUS NASH SCORED HIS SECOND TOUCHDOWN AGAINST ALABAMA DURING THE SECOND QUARTER OF THE VOLUNTEERS 41-14 VICTORY OVER THE CRIMSON TIDE AT LEGION FIELD IN BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA. /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
1 of 5
Next

This past season marked the fifth time Tennessee football won the Gator Bowl. Here is how the other four years that followed such a win stack up.

Every body likes bowl wins, and Tennessee football is no different. Beating the Indiana Hoosiers in the Gator Bowl was a great way to end the season. However, bowl wins aren’t always indicative of a successful following season.

After all, the Vols won their third straight bowl game in 2016, and all that followed was the worst season in school history. Meanwhile, they suffered an embarrassing 42-17 loss to the Nebraska Cornhuskers in the Orange Bowl to end the 1997 season. All they did was win the national championship the next year.

So what has history shown for Tennessee football coming off of Gator Bowl victories? Well, they now have a 5-2 record in that bowl game, which was called the TaxSlayer Bowl one year they played in it.

After the two seasons they lost, 1969 and 1973, they had very different follow-up seasons. They won the Sugar Bowl and finished 11-1 and ranked No. 4 in the nation in 1970, but they went 7-3-2 in 1974. Still, they finished in the top 20 that year.

In this post, though, we’re going to rank the four previous seasons that came after Gator Bowl wins for the Vols. As you’ll see, there is a wide range of success that comes with these wins. In some cases, they did set the stage for bigger things down the road. That’s obviously the hope on Rocky Top for Jeremy Pruitt’s program following his second season.

However, there were other times in which the win was just a last cry of a program heading on a downward slide. After all, the Gator Bowl is not always indicative of the best possible season on Rocky Top. UT’s one exception was 1969, when they won the SEC Championship but did not get invited to the Sugar Bowl.

Anyway, let’s go ahead and look to the past of success in this bowl game to see if it indicates anything in the future. This is our ranking of Tennessee football’s four previous seasons that came off of Gator Bowl wins.

Home/Vols Football