Tennessee football’s 10 most unlucky losses of all time

2. 2010: Substitution infraction nullifies Vols’ late stop as time expires

Honestly, Derek Dooley’s career on Rocky Top may have been drastically different if not for two tough losses. We already mentioned the Music City Bowl. This one was worse. Tennessee football entered this game 2-2 after an overtime win over the UAB Blazers the week before.

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We’ve already discussed how beaten down the program was under Dooley at this time. However, a signature win at the No. 12 ranked LSU Tigers could be a shot in the arm for him. Well, he put together the most well-executed game plan of all time.

The Vols withstood an LSU touchdown run by Jordan Jefferson on the opening play of the game and fought back consistently. They forced four turnovers, the most important of which came late, when LSU was in the red zone and Lamarcus Thompson intercepted a pass on first down. On the ensuing drive, UT drove to the LSU 30 and could have delivered the knockout punch.

On a 4th and 1 from there, Dooley went for it, and Tauren Poole was stopped. That was the first unfortunate thing that isn’t necessarily bad luck. However, they then forced a 4th and 12 on the next drive, and with a stop, they’d be able to run out the clock. Jarrett Lee converted, though. LSU drove all the way down inside the five.

That’s when things got crazy. With no timeouts and 32 seconds left, the Tigers brought Jefferson back in for a run play on 2nd and goal. Jefferson was tackled short, and Les Miles inexplicably tried to substituted in multiple players. In the confusion, Dooley and Justin Wilcox tried to match what Miles was doing, but two extra guys accidentally ran onto the field late.

Initially, nobody saw it, so Jefferson wasn’t ready for the snap, and it went over his head. After UT fell on it, the game was seemingly over, and Dooley appeared to have a shocking 14-10 win. However, replay showed that the Vols had too many men on the field. They could have had one player on the field, and LSU would have still imploded. That’s how unlucky they were.

However, the rules gave LSU one last chance, and with no time, they scored a game-winning touchdown. As a result, Tennessee football lost 16-14. That spurred a four-game losing streak that dropped them to 2-6. If you combine this with the Music City Bowl loss, the Vols were two crazy instances away from being 8-5 Dooley’s first year, which could have changed everything.