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Tennessee football vs. Ole Miss: Five reasons there’s bad blood between the schools

By Caleb Calhoun

Jul 20, 2021; Hoover, Alabama, USA; Ole Miss Rebels head coach Lane Kiffin speaks to the media during SEC Media Days at Hyatt Regency Birmingham. Mandatory Credit: Vasha Hunt-USA TODAY Sports
Jul 20, 2021; Hoover, Alabama, USA; Ole Miss Rebels head coach Lane Kiffin speaks to the media during SEC Media Days at Hyatt Regency Birmingham. Mandatory Credit: Vasha Hunt-USA TODAY Sports /
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OXFORD, MS – NOVEMBER 28: Michael Oher #74 of the Ole Miss Rebels looks on against the Mississippi State Bulldogs during the game at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on November 28, 2008 in Oxford, Mississippi. (Photo by Matthew Sharpe/Getty Images)
OXFORD, MS – NOVEMBER 28: Michael Oher #74 of the Ole Miss Rebels looks on against the Mississippi State Bulldogs during the game at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on November 28, 2008 in Oxford, Mississippi. (Photo by Matthew Sharpe/Getty Images) /

Younger fans may not know it, but Tennessee football and the Ole Miss Rebels once had an intense rivalry. It didn’t carry the same luster as the Auburn Tigers or Alabama Crimson Tide, but the two schools faced off every year from 1956 through 1991. The divisional split of 1992 is what ended the rivalry, just as it did with Auburn.

Although the Vols own the series 44-20-1, Ole Miss has had its run. They won eight straight from 1959 to 1966, a period in which Johnny Vaught won three SEC Championships and put together a run similar to some of Robert Neyland’s runs on Rocky Top. Heck, they won the most recent matchup 34-3, back in 2014.

Anyway, through the years, this rivalry had notable moments that made it extremely bitter. Those things lasted beyond the rivalry as well, and when the two schools face off Saturday, all of that will return. These are the five reasons Tennessee football and Ole Miss have bad blood.

5. Michael Oher commits to Ole Miss

Maybe this is retroactive anger, but anybody who saw the movie “The Blind Side” would get the impression that the Vols should have been Michael Oher’s top choice. A four-star offensive lineman in the 2005 class out of Memphis, Oher would have been a huge boost to Rocky Top, particularly as the program struggled during that time.

However, Oher committed to Ole Miss over his in-state program. To be fair, Ole Miss is much closer to Memphis, but the controversy of him committing there could not go ignored by Vol fans. After all, the family that adopted him a year before, the Tuohys, were big Ole Miss boosters.

Did the Tuohys adopt Oher just so they could steer him away from Tennessee football? When you think about it, picking Ole Miss made no sense, as the Rebels had just hired Ed Orgeron and were coming off a 4-7 season. Why would he go there over UT, who just went 10-3 and won the East, when Phillip Fulmer acknowledges how heavily he recruited him?

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