Tennessee football’s last game vs. Kentucky completely reversed program’s course

It’s ironic that this is the week Tennessee football concluded its internal investigation, which we wrote about here. The launch of that investigation was the death knell for the Jeremy Pruitt era, an era that began to unravel earlier in the year with a loss to the Kentucky Wildcats.

As the Vols get set to face Kentucky again this year, the game is seen as a potential turning point for the program Josh Heupel’s first season on the job. We wrote about that as well, and you can read about it here. The exact opposite thing happened to the program in 2020.

Ahead of Kentucky last year, Tennessee football was 2-1. They were coming off a road loss to the Georgia Bulldogs, a game they led at halftime. That was their first loss after an eight-game winning streak dating back to the previous season.

At the time, the Vols had truly seemed to turn the corner under Pruitt. A 5-7 2018 campaign followed by an 0-2 start, with home losses to Group of Five schools, to start 2019, put things in question, but finishing the 2019 season 8-5, securing a top 10 recruiting class and beating the South Carolina Gamecocks on the road to open 2020 suggested they had hit their stride.

Analysts certainly thought so. Even after that Georgia loss, the Vols would face Kentucky ranked No. 18 in the AP Poll and No. 17 in the Coaches Poll. Add in UK’s 1-2 record, the fact that they hadn’t beaten Rocky Top at Neyland Stadium since 1984 and the fact that they lost the previous two games in the series despite being favorites, and they were heavy underdogs.

An early Kentucky fumble that gave the Vols the ball past midfield suggested they were going to take control of this game early. However, in a sign of things to come, a mishandle by Jarrett Guarantaon and Ty Chandler resulted in a fumble right back to UK. After forcing a punt, the onslaught that changed the whole season started.

Guarantano threw pick-sixes on back to back drives to open the second quarter. J.T. Shrout came in and threw another interception that resulted in a field goal. All of a sudden, Tennessee football trailed 1-2 Kentucky at home 17-0 with its defense not allowing a point.

UT seemingly regrouped and drove down the field for a touchdown to make it 17-7 at halftime. As they were set to get the ball to start the second half, consensus was they would right the ship and just needed to correct a few mistakes.

However, while the first half was about spotting Kentucky the lead, the second half just saw the Vols get dominated. Pruitt punted on a 4th and 1 on the opening drive. A sack killed the Vols’ second drive. Then there was an unsportsmanlike conduct to kill their third drive.

Kentucky’s offense responded with three long drives that ended in a touchdown, a field goal and a touchdown. So they flat-out controlled the second half, and they walked away with a 34-7 victory, the worst loss for the Vols in the series since 1935.

That game made it panic time. Beforehand, worst-case scenario for the Vols was 5-5 that year, and 7-3 or 8-2 was on the table depending on whether or not they could potentially pull off an upset or two against the Auburn Tigers, Florida Gators or Texas A&M Aggies. However, with that loss, going 3-7 was now on the table, their only win being against the Vanderbilt Commodores.

The most likely scenario was 4-6, and a losing season Pruitt’s third year, even with the COVID situation, was not going to be acceptable to any fan. Also, they were guaranteed to go into their bye week at 2-3, as the Alabama Crimson Tide were up next, and sure enough, they lost that game in a 48-17 blowout.

Of course, with morale as low as possible and the public having turned on Pruitt and Guarantano, 3-7 did become the record. Tennessee football eventually suffered a six-game losing streak and blew two two-score leads to the Arkansas Razorbacks and then Auburn. Losing to the Hogs, a program in ruins with a first-year head coach, was as disastrous as losing to Kentucky.

One week after the streak ended thanks to a win over Vanderbilt, the story involving the NCAA violations broke, just as the Vols lost their final game of the year, to the Texas A&M Aggies. They then accepted but backed out of a bowl game due to COVID, and Pruitt was fired in January.

You have to wonder if the downward slide is what led to a whistleblower sparking the investigation into the program, and you have to wonder if Pruitt would still be on Rocky Top had that not happened. It’s definitely plausible.

What’s clear is that downward slide started with Kentucky. This Saturday, Tennessee football has the chance to once again change the trajectory of the program, this time in a positive way, with a win over UK. That’s what Heupel is tasked with. If he pulls it off, he effectively guarantees a winning season his first year on the job.