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

10. 1986: No. 8 Tigers get revenge without Bo Jackson

Two years before Tennessee football fell to that 0-6 start, the Vols were en route to another horrendous start. This one was in 1986. The year before, Rocky Top had shocked the Auburn Tigers in a game that would generate national headlines. We’ll have more on that game later in this post as well.

However, this was a revenge game for Pat Dye and Auburn. Bo Jackson was no longer there, but this team was still loaded. UT, meanwhile, lost a ton of talent from its 1985 national championship season, and despite starting the year ranked No. 10, they fell outside of the top 25 after losing their second game to the Mississippi State Bulldogs in an upset.

As a result, the two teams were in completely different places. Auburn had jumped into the top 10, and playing this game at home, they dominated. The Tigers walked away with a 34-8 win thanks to their new starting running back, Brent Fullwood, who had 18 carries for 207 yards and a touchdown. Johnny Majors later said he doesn’t know how they could have played worse.

This bad loss kept UT reeling, as they beat the UTEP Miners the next week but then were upset by the Army Black Knights en route to a three-game losing streak that knocked them to 2-5. They did rebound, though, to finish 7-5. Auubrn, meanwhile, lost to the Florida Gators and Georgia Bulldogs to finish 10-2 and ranked in the top 10.