Tennessee football’s top 10 injury replacements in school history

This is our one player who makes the list before the Johnny Majors era. Doug Dickey installed the T-formation, moving away from the single wing, his first year in 1964. However, Tennessee football didn’t have the personnel to run it. In 1965, Dewey Warren was the backup quarterback to Charlie Fulton, but he was always expected to eventually take over.

Well, in a heartbreaking 14-13 loss to the Ole Miss Rebels that cost the Vols the SEC title and potentially the national title since they tied the winners that year, the Alabama Crimson Tide, Fulton got hurt. Warren entered the game, and this 4-1-2 team had its future.

Behind the guy known as the “Swamp Rat,” the Vols dominated the Kentucky Wildcats and Vanderbilt Commodores.  then they faced the No. 5 ranked UCLA Bruins in a rare December matchup at the newly constructed Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium in Memphis, where first-year UCLA head coach Tommy Prothro was from. Well, UT won the game 37-34.

Warren was the breakout star with a game-winning drive. After a Bluebonnet Bowl win to finish in the top 10, he was this program’s quarterback. Over the next two years, Warren would have two more top 20 finishes and win the SEC and retroactive national championship in 1967. He became the Vols’ first 1,000-yard passer, and he did it twice. It all started when he replaced Fulton.