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Tennessee football should remember these five non-conference November upset losses before overlooking South Alabama

By Caleb Calhoun

Smokey IX was ready to run onto the field for the Tennessee Volunteers homecoming game against the University of Wyoming Cowboys Saturday in Neyland Stadium.Homecoming Smokey Ix 2008
Smokey IX was ready to run onto the field for the Tennessee Volunteers homecoming game against the University of Wyoming Cowboys Saturday in Neyland Stadium.Homecoming Smokey Ix 2008 /
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Tennessee head coach Johnny Majors, second from right, talks with his sophomore quarterback Jimmy Streater (6) before going back on the field against California in their home opener. But California spoiled the return of the Vols head coach Johnny Majors as coach of his alma mater with a 27-17 victory before a record crowd of 84,421 fans at Neyland Stadium Sept. 10, 1977.Utvscal 05
Tennessee head coach Johnny Majors, second from right, talks with his sophomore quarterback Jimmy Streater (6) before going back on the field against California in their home opener. But California spoiled the return of the Vols head coach Johnny Majors as coach of his alma mater with a 27-17 victory before a record crowd of 84,421 fans at Neyland Stadium Sept. 10, 1977.Utvscal 05 /

Nov. 3, 1979

You could maybe say this wasn’t a huge upset, as the Rutgers Scarlet Knights were actually a good team this year. After all, they did finish 8-3 in their seventh year under Frank R. Burns. However, four of their wins were over programs that are no longer FBS programs, and they were just in their third year in Division I, so the Vols should have been on a completely different level.

After a slow start to the Johnny Majors era, going 4-7 in 1977 and 5-5-1 in 1978, Tennessee football seemed to take a step forward in 1979. Their only issues was that they could never win with a ranking by their name.

UT got to No. 19 thanks to a 3-0 start but was then upset by the Mississippi State Bulldogs. They then beat the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets to get to 4-1 before losing, not shockingly, to the Alabama Crimson Tide. That loss didn’t knock them out of the rankings, so they came into this game at No. 17. It was their homecoming.

Rutgers came in at 6-2, but again, they were a much lesser team. An early touchdown by James Berry put the Vols up 7-0, and it seemed like the onslaught would come. However, the offense stalled after that. Rutgers shockingly tied it up in the second quarter as the offense scored off an interception, and the the score was 7-7 at halftime.

In the second half, Rutgers played ball control and did everything to run out the clock. They got another interception to set up another field goal as well, one of two in the second half. That game of keepaway worked, and somehow the Scarlet Knights pulled off this shocker.

True to form, the Vols won the next week, upsetting the No. 13 ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish, as they had fallen from the rankings by that point. Beating ND put them back in the polls, but then they lost at the Ole Miss Rebels and didn’t enter them again.

Throughout the regular season, Rocky Top went 7-0 while unranked and 0-4 while ranked. That’s an insane stat, but the dramatic reversal from Rutgers to Notre Dame at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tenn., is really what stands out about that year.

A year later, the Virginia Cavaliers upset the Vols on homecoming, which cost them a bowl. UVA was a Power Five team with the same record as UT, though, so it was hard to put that game on this list, even though it was also in November.

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