John Barnhill’s Tennessee football Volunteers began a season at the Gamecocks.
Because of the SEC moving to a 10-game SEC-only schedule, Tennessee football has a lot of dates on its slate that have rarely happened in previous years. However, when they do happen, they seem to always occur during very good seasons for the Vols.
We wrote about the five previous times UT played the Florida Gators in December, as they have UF on their schedule for Dec. 5 this year. That included two conference championships, a top five finish and no season with more than three losses.
Well, there is a similar parallel to Tennessee football’s only other season that it opened against the South Carolina Gamecocks, which Rocky Top is set to do this year on Sept. 26. That was back in 1942, and it was also on Sept. 26 in Columbia, S.C., just like this year will be.
The Vols and Gamecocks played to a scoreless tie that day, a major disappointment for UT. It even looked worse when South Carolina finished 1-7-1 under Rex Enright. However, Rocky Top did rebound to win every game but one the rest of the way. That one loss was to the No. 4 ranked Alabama Crimson Tide on the road, allowing the Georgia Bulldogs to win the SEC Title.
Still, Tennessee football managed to make it to the Sugar Bowl and beat the No. 4 ranked and undefeated Tulsa Golden Hurricane 14-7, the program’s first win ever in the Sugar Bowl. They finished 9-1-1 and ranked No. 7 in the nation.
Simply put, just like the five times the Vols played Florida in December, the one time they opened up against South Carolina resulted in a memorable season as well. The fact that they do both this year has to be a good omen for the program.
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Beyond the parallels on the field, the country was in a time of crisis back in 1942 as well. The U.S. had entered World War II back in December the year before due to Pearl Harbor, and Robert Neyland had already been called to active duty for his second time during his tenure as head coach of the Vols.
As a result, John Barnhill was leading the program. He went 8-2 and finished No. 18 his first year in 1941, but that was somewhat of a drop-off after Neyland had three straight undefeated regular seasons and two national titles from 1938 to 1940. Still, with Neyland away, Barnhill helped maintain the program, and this was one of the seasons to prove he could do it.
However, Tennessee football would not play the following season due to the war efforts. In fact, the Georgia Bulldogs, Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, LSU Tigers, Tulane Green Wave and Vanderbilt Commodores were the only SEC teams to play that year, and GT and Tulane aren’t even SEC teams anymore. Ironically, South Carolina was not an SEC team then.
Either way, the point is there are numerous similarities to this year, when the Vols will open at South Carolina, and the last time they opened at South Carolina. And there are lots of good omens about the way the program’s schedule plays out. Whether it amounts to anything is up in the air.