SEC East; No. 15 AP, No. 16 Coaches; Peach Bowl
Talk about a different time for Tennessee football. In 2002, after a top five preseason ranking, the Vols stumbled to an 8-5 record, including a 30-3 Peach Bowl loss to the Maryland Terrapins, one of four losses by three or more scores on the year. The Vols were wrecked by the injury bug and had lost too much talent from the 2001 team.
Anyway, entering Casey Clausen’s senior year in 2003, they wanted a major bounce back. That’s exactly what happened. Their games were often ugly, but they found a way to pull them out. It started in their third game at the Florida Gators. Trailing 3-0, Clausen found James Banks for a tipped hail mary touchdown pass as time expired at the half.
That propelled UT to a 24-10 victory. The next week, they beat South Carolina 23-20 in overtime. Now, they did lose 28-21 at Auburn and 41-14 to Georgia with one of the most infamous plays ever, a fumble that UGA returned 99 yards as time expired at the half, turning what could’ve been a 14-13 lead for the Vols into a 20-7 lead for the Dawgs.
Still, the Vols followed that up with a legendary five-overtime win at Alabama in which they had a two-minute drive and a 4th and 19 overtime conversion. Then they upset the Miami Hurricanes 10-6 when beating Miami actually meant something, and they finished the year 10-2.
The success resulted in them becoming co-champions of the SEC East with Florida and Georgia, but Georgia’s higher BCS ranking got them the nod to play in the SEC Championship game. UT was relegated to the Peach Bowl, and the disappointment in that led to a second straight loss to finish 10-3. Still, this was a bounce back year that created many memories.