Tennessee football’s 10 luckiest wins of all time

The Tennessee football Volunteers had no business winning these.

It’s one thing to win a close game. However, there’s a difference between that and winning a game due to sheer luck, one a team had no business winning Tennessee football has been on both sides of plenty of those games throughout its long history.

Rocky Top has won SEC and national championships while also securing quite a few top five victories on the basis of lucky wins. To this day, fans who saw these games look back and wonder how they pulled it off.

Lucky wins didn’t just exist when Tennessee football was at its peak either. There have been plenty of times, even in recent down years, in which the Vols inexplicably came away with a win against all odds.

In this post, we’re going to look at all the times throughout history UT won such games. But first, we have to define what constitutes as a lucky win. For instance, getting out-gained in a game but forcing lots of turnovers doesn’t mean luck. Turnovers are a common part of the game. Take the 1998 win over the Florida Gators. The Vols’ defense forced those five turnovers.

Also, if a bunch of fluke plays happen on both sides, then it’s not really luck. An example of that would be the Hail Mary to beat the Georgia Bulldogs in 2016. Sure, the Vols won off a Hail Mary. But they only needed a Hail Mary because Georgia converted its own Hail Mary seconds before.

So luck is defined by extremely unlikely plays that are net skewed against one team. Unforced turnovers, Hail Mary passes, easy chip shot field goals missed by great kickers and unnecessary penalties that alter the outcome of a drive are all elements of luck. Taking all that into account, let’s begin our rankings. These are Tennessee football’s 10 luckiest wins of all time.