Tennessee football: Johnny Majors’ top five games as a player
7. 842. Final. 37. 839
2. Three Johnny Majors touchdowns help Vols start 1956 with splash
When it comes to setting the tone for a season, you can’t do much better than what Tennessee football and Johnny majors did to open 1956. After a strong finish to the 1955 season, Bowden Wyatt proved he had what it takes to continue the tradition that Robert Neyland helped build, and this was his season to take it to the next level.
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In the opener, the Vols faced the Auburn Tigers, a team they had not faced since 1939. However, this marked the start of a rivalry that would last for 35 years. It began here, Majors’ senior year. Ironically, the last year the game was played annually came in 1991, Majors’ last full year as head coach of UT. Oh, and as a recruit, Auburn made Majors’ final two, while the Vols won out.
Simply put, Majors and Auburn were deeply connected. And in his first matchup against a Tigers team led by Ralph “Shug” Jordan, who would win a national title the next year by going 10-0, Majors delivered one of his finest performances in front of an Alabama crowd at Legion Field in Birmingham. He threw for two touchdowns and ran for another en route to a blowout win.
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This game ended up looking much more impressive later in the year as Auburn would finish the season 7-3 with two of their losses to schools that finished in the top five. Meanwhile, the Vols took this dominant win and turned it into a ton of momentum, reaching the top 10 the next week and never looking back en route to their SEC title season.