Tennessee football continues dominance of FCS schools, no matter the coach

Look, over the past 13 years, Tennessee football hasn’t had a lot of things to be prideful of. As the program fell into disarray, the things Vol fans could brag about began to shrink. One that has remained constant, though, is their dominance of FCS programs.

No matter the head coach, no matter the state of the program, no matter the quality of the opponent, the Vols are never threatened when they play FCS schools. On Saturday, that continued. With a new head coach and a program still in disarray, Rocky Top managed to dominate the Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles 56-0.

In the process, Tennessee football became the first team to ever score three straight shutout wins of 55 points or more against one opponent in the AP Poll era. The ESPN Stats and Info department revealed that information on Twitter.

This type of dominance specifically over FCS programs by UT dates back to 2010, when the Vols began playing one annually. They have never beaten an FCS team by fewer than 26 points, and they have won every single game since 2012 by at least 35 points.

Now, outsiders can scoff at this all they want, but the fact of the matter is not every team can make this claim. Heck, just on Saturday, the Kentucky Wildcats only beat the Chattanooga Mocs by five. In the season-opener, the East Tennessee State Buccaneers beat the Vanderbilt Commodores 23-3, and the game wasn’t even that close.

Heck, just last week, the Alabama Crimson Tide only beat the Mercer Bears by 34, and they only beat the Georgia Southern Eagles in 2011, when they were still an FCS team, by 21. Simply put, even the best of the best struggle against FCS schools from time to time.

That’s not the case for Tennessee football, though. It’s difficult to do a lot of things, including beat top-ranked teams and maintain a championship level over a period of years. But always running the table against FCS, or what used to be Division I-AA opponents, is not one of them. Ask the Michigan Wolverines when they faced the Appalachian State Mountaineers in 2007.

Of course, as the Vols begin SEC play, another consistent streak that has worked against them even longer than this period of time stands in their way. They have to face a Florida Gators team that they’ve only beaten one time dating back to 2005. There are plenty of losing streaks in general they have to overcome.

However, when you come off a heartbreaking loss in one of your toss-up games and have to face an FCS foe, it’s hard to get up for that game. That’s not the first time the Vols have had to deal with such an issue either.

Every time, though, they have made sure to take advantage of their chance to win that game, regardless of who it was against. Derek Dooley, Butch Jones, Jeremy Pruitt and now Josh Heupel have carried on that one Tennessee football tradition. Don’t overlook it. Alabama can’t even lay the same claim to dominance on this front that the Vols can.