November 1997: Tennessee football’s most exciting month ever

In November of 1997, the Tennessee football Volunteers finally played in meaningful games.

There’s nothing like playing in games with championship implications in November. Tennessee football somewhat did that in 2016, but they haven’t done it in a serious way since 2007, the last time they won the SEC East.

During the Peyton Manning years, the Vols were often eliminated from such games in November. They would always lose to the Florida Gators in early September and never have a chance to catch up. As a result, even as a top 10 program, an SEC title and national title were off the table.

That changed in 1997. For the first time since 1989 and 1990, UT was playing in meaningful November games. It was the first time since 1969 that they were playing November games with a national championship in the picture. Now, the Vols wouldn’t win the title that season. However, this is just about what they were doing in the month of November and what they knew then.

In case you forgot, 1997 was Manning’s and Leonard Little’s senior season. However, they had lost to Florida once again. On the first day of November, though, the feeling was a bit different. Florida, without Danny Wuerffel, was clearly not as good, and they had lost to the LSU Tigers in October, their first SEC loss in three years.

It was very plausible that the Gators would lose again, and the Vols hadn’t lost a conference game in November since 1984 at the time. In addition to that, they also appeared to have a better team than previous years because of the addition of freshman All-American Jamal Lewis, who wasn’t ready to go at Florida that year.

Amidst all of this, Tennessee football entered Nov. 1 ranked No. 8. That day was also a college football Saturday, so the Vols played their first November game then against the South Carolina Gamecocks. Later that afternoon, Florida would be playing the Georgia Bulldogs, and a loss would put UT in a tie for first place in the East.

Although it was an ugly game, the Vols did hold off South Carolina 22-7. Then, later that afternoon, it happened. Georgia ended a seven-game losing streak to Florida and won 37-17. At that moment, UT gained control of its own destiny to win the East for the first time since the conferences split in 1992. That’s just how it started.

With Florida’s loss, Rocky Top moved up to No. 7 the next week and was set to face the Southern Miss Golden Eagles for homecoming. However, this was not your average mid-major team. Southern Miss was ranked No. 25 and would go on to win the Conference USA, finishing 9-3. In another tough game, the Vols pulled away late to win 44-20.

That same day, though, there were two games featuring two undefeated teams each, and all four teams were ranked ahead of the Vols. The Florida State Seminoles blew out the North Carolina Tar Heels, and the Michigan Wolverines blew out the Penn State Nittany Lions.

Because of that, Rocky Top entered the next week ranked No. 5 at 7-1 and 4-1 in the SEC with three conference games left to close out the season. All of a sudden, a national title was potentially in play.

UT got some breathing room that day, as the No. 13 ranked Washington Huskies lost their second straight game, this time to the UCLA Bruins. That inflated UCLA’s record to 8-2 after an 0-2 start, and now in the top 10, they were a major quality win for the Vols, who beat them in early September. Also, Georgia, who was 7-1 lost to the Auburn Tigers.

Manning and co. had to lead another comeback at the Arkansas Razorbacks, trailing 22-17 late only to win 30-22. At that point, they had seen three straight ugly wins, but they were still 8-1 and in the top five. A week later, everything fell into place.

On Saturday, Nov. 22, Tennessee football needed either the Florida State Seminoles or Nebraska Cornhuskers to lose in order to be in the national title picture. Sure, the Ohio State Buckeyes and Michigan Wolverines were ranked ahead of them, but at that time, the Big Ten champion was contractually obligated to play in the Rose Bowl. So UT could still get to the title game.

Nebraska had already survived its toughest test and had a bye, so the Vols’ only chance was for Florida State to lose…to Florida of all teams. First, though, they had to get past Tim Couch and the Kentucky Wildcats. In a shootout, Manning threw for 523 yards and five touchdowns to lead his team to a 59-31 victory.