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Tennessee football’s top 25 single-game performances in history

By Caleb Calhoun

Peyton Manning #16, Quarterback for the University of Tennessee Volunteers during the NCAA Pac 10 college football game against the University of California, Los Angeles UCLA Bruins on 6th September 1997 at the Rose Bowl Stadium, Pasadena, California, United States. The Tennessee Volunteers won the game 30 - 24. (Photo by Jed Jacobsohn/Allsport/Getty Images)
Peyton Manning #16, Quarterback for the University of Tennessee Volunteers during the NCAA Pac 10 college football game against the University of California, Los Angeles UCLA Bruins on 6th September 1997 at the Rose Bowl Stadium, Pasadena, California, United States. The Tennessee Volunteers won the game 30 - 24. (Photo by Jed Jacobsohn/Allsport/Getty Images) /
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Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images
Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images /

19. Reggie White

1983 vs. The Citadel

Tennessee Volunteers win 45-6

4 sacks

Early in the 1980s, Johnny Majors was still rebuilding Tennessee football, but a huge part of that was finding a bunch of NFL talent that had All-American campaigns. The most standout guy in that bunch was obviously Reggie White, who went on to become an NFL Hall-of-Famer and arguably the greatest defensive player of all time.

White’s pro campaign was built off the momentum he generated his senior season, when he set the school record with 15 sacks, which still stands to this day. In the process, he set the school record for career sacks as well with 32, but that was broken by Derek Barnett in 2016, who ended up with 33 sacks in just three years.

Still, nothing compares to what White did in 1983, and his standout game was against The Citadel. Sure, it wasn’t against an imposing team. But White is a defensive tackle. He’s not supposed to be a sacks machine. With numerous NFL scouts in attendance, however, he was exactly that on this day, coming away with four sacks and impressing everybody.

At the time, that was far and away the school record for sacks in a game. Remember, teams didn’t throw as much back then. That was another disadvantage to White racking up sacks. It didn’t matter, though. On this day, he was unstoppable, and that game was a microcosm of why the Vols had their first nine-win season under Majors this year.

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