Tennessee football’s Johnny Majors vs. Auburn’s Pat Dye: Ranking 11 games

11. 1988: Blowout loss at No. 4 Auburn part of Vols’ 0-6 start

It was the season that set the stage for Tennessee football’s dominance of the 1990s. The Auburn Tigers were at their peak under Pat Dye, in the midst of winning three straight SEC Championships. This would be the second of those three. Meanwhile, the Vols were in the midst of an 0-6 start, as we mentioned.

Because of that, this game was never going to be a contest. UT entered this game 0-3 with losses to Vince Dooley’s Georgia Bulldogs, Steve Spurrier’s Duke Blue Devils and eventual SEC co-champion LSU Tigers. So the Vols faced two Hall-of-Fame coaches, one already proven and one on the rise, and a team that would finish first in the conference.

Taking that into account, they had no chance. Dye’s team had already gotten off to a 2-0 start and was set to face Rocky Top at home. The expected blowout came to fruition, as Auburn dominated 38-6 to move to 4-0 and remain in the top five. Simply put, this game was one of the more forgettable ones in the series.

This would actually be Pat Dye’s last win over the Vols, but it was a dominant one. He embarrassed Johnny Majors, whose team lost two more games before winning the final five to set the stage for its 16-year run that began with an SEC co-champion in the 1989 season. We’ll have more on what happened there later in this post.