Top 10 single seasons by Tennessee football players of all time

All-American; All-SEC

Lots of Tennessee football defensive backs have had great seasons when it comes to intercepting the ball, including Deon Grant, Chris White, Bill Young and Tim Priest. However, none of them did what Bobby Majors did in 1970. Majors is the younger brother of UT legend Johnny Majors, and he built his own legacy in this season.

Bill Battle had taken over for Doug Dickey as head coach. Although Bobby Scott was the senior quarterback, the defense was the story. Two-time All-American Jackie Walker was one of the top playmakers, but then it was all about the secondary that year with Priest and Majors leading the way. The unit set an SEC record with 36 interceptions on the year.

Majors was the star of that group, coming away with 10 interceptions. His play was crucial to the Vols’ elite defense, which is why they went 11-1 that year, won the Sugar Bowl and finished ranked No. 4 in the nation. For what it’s worth, Majors also had 89 tackles that year and forced and recovered a fumble. Simply put, he was a star.

In addition to those stats, Majors was the punter for the Vols, averaging 36.3 yards per punt, and he also had 62 rushing yards and 269 punt return yards. So he did it all in addition to rewriting the record books on defense. Although J.W. Sherrill has the school record with 12 interceptions in 1949, that was a different time. Majors’ 10 were much more impressive, so it makes the list.