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Ranking Tennessee football’s top 10 wins under Johnny Majors

By Caleb Calhoun

Johnny Majors, Head Coach for the University of Tennessee Volunteers stands with his team during the NCAA Southeastern Conference college football game against the University of Notre Dame Fighting Irish on 9 November 1991 at the Notre Dame Stadium in Notre Dame, Indiana, United States. The Tennessee Volunteers won the game 35 - 34. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Allsport/Getty Images)
Johnny Majors, Head Coach for the University of Tennessee Volunteers stands with his team during the NCAA Southeastern Conference college football game against the University of Notre Dame Fighting Irish on 9 November 1991 at the Notre Dame Stadium in Notre Dame, Indiana, United States. The Tennessee Volunteers won the game 35 - 34. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Allsport/Getty Images) /
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Photo by Joe Patronite /Allsport
Photo by Joe Patronite /Allsport /

31. 839. 27. 844. Final

5. 1989-90: Chuck Webb rushes Vols to Cotton Bowl win

One year before the Sugar Bowl, Tennessee football had a legendary Cotton Bowl win. The Vols had shared the SEC title that year with the Alabama Crimson Tide and Auburn Tigers, capping their turnaround from going 5-6 in 1988 to 10-1 in 1989. Ranked No. 8, they would face the No. 10 ranked Arkansas Razorbacks, who won the Southwest Conference Championship.

On the first day of 1990, the Vols made a statement that this would be their decade. They entered it finally where they needed to be after 13 years of rebuilding by Johnny Majors. However, this game was a fight. Arkansas took a 6-3 lead and then drove the ball to inside the UT 10-yard line in the second with a chance to deliver a knockout blow early.

Carl Pickens changed the momentum, though. He intercepted a pass in the end zone and returned it to the 13. Two plays later, Andy Kelly hit Anthony Morgan for an 84-yard touchdown pass. Chuck Webb then made it 17-6 at halftime with a touchdown run of his own.

In the third, UT forced a turnover and then scored on a Greg Amsler run. After Arkansas cut it to 24-13, another Webb touchdown made it 31-13. He finished the day as Cotton Bowl MVP with 26 carries for 250 yards.

The Hogs mounted a late comeback to make it 31-27, but they failed to recover the onside kick. So UT won 31-27, resulting in their first 11-win season since 1971 as they went 11-1, won the SEC and finished in the top five.

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