The Tennessee Volunteers football team (variously called "Tennessee", "Vols", or "UT") represents the University of Tennessee (UT) in the sport of American football. The Volunteers compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) and the Eastern Division of the Southeastern Conference (SEC).
Having played their first season in 1891, the Vols have played football for well over a century, with their combined record of 811-367-54 ranking them tenth on the list of all-time won-lost records and eighth on the by-victories list for college football programs as well as second on the all-time win/loss list of SEC programs. Their all-time ranking in bowl appearances is third (49) and sixth in all-time bowl victories (26), most notably four Sugar Bowls, three Cotton Bowls, an Orange Bowl, and a Fiesta Bowl. They have won 13 conference championships and six national titles in their history and their last national championship was in the 1998 college football season.
The Vols play at Neyland Stadium, where Tennessee has an all-time winning record of 447 games, the highest home-field total in college football history for any school in the nation at its current home venue. Additionally, its 102,455 seat capacity makes Neyland the nation's fifth largest stadium. The team is currently coached by Butch Jones.
§History
§Early years (1891-1925)
Tennessee's football program began in 1891, when they played their first game against American Temperance, in Harriman, Tennessee. The program's first win did not come until October 25, 1892, when they defeated Maryville College in Maryville, Tennessee, by a score of 25-0. Tennessee competed in their first 5 seasons without a coach. In 1899, J. A. Pierce became the first head coach of the team. Author Nash Buckingham was a prominent athlete in 1901 and 1902. The 1908 team coached by George Levene was considered the best Tennessee football yet assembled, led by All-Southerns captain Walker Leach and College Football Hall of Fame inductee Nathan Dougherty. Its four wins was the most in school history.
§Z. G. Clevenger
The team had several coaches with short tenures until Zora G. Clevenger took over in 1911. In 1914, Clevenger led the Vols to a dominant 9-0 season and their first championship, winning the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association title. The team included All-Southerns Goat Carroll, Farmer Kelly, and Rus Lindsay. The Vols would again field an undefeated squad in 1916 under coach John R. Bender, but consistency was still elusive. Graham Vowell was unanimous All-Southern.
In 1921, Shields-Watkins Field, the core of modern Neyland Stadium, was built. The new home of the Vols was named after William S. Shields and his wife Alice Watkins Shields, the financial backers of the field. The field used bleachers that could seat 3,200, and had been used for baseball the prior year. The inaugural game at Shields-Watkins field was played on September 24, 1921 and resulted in a 27-0 Tennessee victory over Emory and Henry College.
In 1922, the team began to wear orange jerseys for the first time after previously wearing black jerseys. Roe Campbell was a prominent Volunteer.
In 1924 and 1925 J. G. Lowe was the last Vol football player to serve as captain two years in a row until 2004.
§Neyland comes to UT (1926-1934)
Robert Neyland took over as head coach in 1926. At the time, Neyland was a captain in the United States Army and an ROTC instructor at the school. Interestingly, in the 1929 season at least, his two assistant coaches (also ROTC instructors) out-ranked him. Former player Nathan Dougherty, who had then become dean of the school's engineering program and chairman of athletics, stated the priority: "Even the score with Vanderbilt," referring to the Nashville school which had been dominating football in the state.
Neyland lost to Vanderbilt in his first season, but either won or tied Vanderbilt in his next seven seasons. Neyland captured the school's first Southern Conference title in 1927, in only his second year on the job, and scored an upset victory over heavily favored Alabama in 1928. In 1929, Gene McEver became the football program's first ever All-American. He led the nation in scoring, and his 130 points still remains as the school record.
Longtime Georgia Tech football coach Bobby Dodd twice earned All-Southern team honors when he played Quarterback for Tennessee during this time frame. Dodd led Tennessee to back-to-back unbeaten seasons with identical 9-0-1 records his sophomore and junior years in 1928 and 1929. During Dodd's era, the Vols went 33 games without a loss until an 18-6 setback against Alabama in 1930, which ranks as the longest unbeaten streak in UT history. After the loss, Dodd and his teammates helped kick off another unbeaten streak lasting 28 games that ranks as the second longest. Dodd was named to Grantland Rice's All American team in 1930, making him the 2nd granted that honor at Tennessee (following Gene McEver). (In 1959, Dodd was named to the University of Tennessee's Hall of Fame and to the College Football Hall of Fame as a player. He was elected in the same year as teammate Herman Hickman.)
In the 1930s, Tennessee saw many more firsts. They played in the New York City Charity Game on December 5, 1931, the program's first ever bowl game. Led by Herman Hickman, they scored a 13-0 victory over New York University. Hickman's performance caught the eye of sportswriter Grantland Rice, who added Hickman to his All American team, and he would later play professionally for the Brooklyn Dodgers. After the 1932 season, Tennessee joined the newly formed Southeastern Conference, setting the stage for decades of new and now storied rivalries with such teams like Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, and Vanderbilt. Captain Neyland led the Vols to a 76-7-5 record from 1926 to 1934. After the 1934 season, Neyland was called into military service in Panama. Neyland's first stint with UT saw the Vols rattle off undefeated streaks of 33, 28, and 14 games, including five undefeated seasons (1927, 1928, 1929, 1931, and 1932).
§Neyland returns, John Barnhill, and World War II (1936-1945)
Tennessee struggled to a losing record during Neyland's time in Panama. He returned to find a rebuilding project in 1936. In 1936 and 1937, the Vols won six games each season. However, in 1938, Neyland's Vols began one of the more impressive streaks in NCAA football history. Led by the likes of Tennessee's only three time All-American Bob Suffridge, the 1938 Tennessee Volunteers football team won the school's first National Championship and earned a trip to the Orange Bowl, the team's first major bowl, where they pounded fellow unbeaten Oklahoma by a score of 17-0. They outscored their opponents 283-16.
The 1939 regular season was even more impressive. The 1939 team was the last NCAA team ever to hold their opponents scoreless for an entire regular season. Surprisingly, the Vols did not earn a national title that year despite being ranked #1 for most of the season, but did earn a trip to the famed Rose Bowl. The Vols were without the services of tailback George Cafego, who would finish fourth in the Heisman voting and be the top pick in the NFL draft, due to a knee injury. Cafego's backup was also injured. For a single-wing squad heavily dependent upon the tailback position, it proved to be too much for the Vols to overcome. In front of a crowd of over 90,000, Tennessee fell by a score of 14-0 to Southern California. That loss ended UT's streak of 17 straight shutout games and 71 consecutive shutout quarters, NCAA records to this day.
The 1940 Vols put together a third consecutive undefeated regular season (Neyland's eighth such season with the Vols). That team earned a national title from two minor polls, and received the school's first bid to the Sugar Bowl, where they lost to Boston College.
After the 1940 season, Neyland was again pressed into military service, this time for World War II. His successor, John Barnhill, did well in his absence, going 32-5-2 during the war years of 1941 to 1945. The Vols did not field a team in 1943 due to the war.
§Neyland's final return (1946-1952)
After World War II, Neyland retired from the military with the rank of brigadier general, and returned to Knoxville. From 1946 to 1952, Neyland's Vols had a record of 54-17-4. They won conference titles in 1946 and 1951, and national titles in 1950 and 1951. The 1950 season included what would prove to be the highest profile matchup between the South's two biggest coaching legends: General Neyland and Paul "Bear" Bryant, then at Kentucky. Both teams were ranked in the top ten. The Vols defeated Bryant, Kentucky star quarterback Babe Parilli, and the Wildcats, 7-0. Bryant would never win a game against Neyland.
The 1950 season culminated with a win against #2 Texas in Dallas at the Cotton Bowl Classic. The 1951 team featured Hank Lauricella, that season's Heisman Trophy runner up, and Doug Atkins, a future college football and Pro Football Hall of Fame performer. The Vols romped to a 10-0 regular season record (Neyland's ninth undefeated regular season) and the AP National Title.
Neyland retired due to poor health in 1952 after taking the Vols to an 8-2-1 record, and took the position of athletic director. His final game was the 1953 Cotton Bowl against Texas, where Tennessee was shut out 16-0. The Vols would see spotty success for some 40 years after that, but it would be the late 1980s and 1990s before the Tennessee program had similar winning percentages.
§Robinson, Wyatt, and McDonald (1953-1963)
Harvey Robinson had the tough task of replacing General Neyland, and only stuck around for two seasons. Following the 1954 season, Neyland fired Robinson and replaced him with Bowden Wyatt, who had seen success at Wyoming and Arkansas. Neyland called the move "the hardest thing I've ever had to do." Wyatt, who had been a Hall of Fame player for Neyland, struggled at Tennessee. He won more than 6 games only twice, in 1956 and 1957.
The 1956 squad won an SEC Championship, going 10-1 and finishing the season ranked #2. That year, UT won one of the greatest games in team history, a 6-0 victory over Georgia Tech in Atlanta when both teams were ranked #2 and #3, respectively. It was voted the second best game in college football history by Sports Illustrated's 100th Anniversary of College Football issue (published in 1969). Tech was coached by former UT Hall of Fame quarterback, and revered Yellow Jacket coach, Bobby Dodd. In the final minutes of a legendary defensive struggle, UT was backed up just ahead of their own goal line, but star tailback and future head coach Johnny Majors took a direct snap and booted a roughly 70-yard punt deep into Yellow Jacket territory to seal the win. Majors would finish second in the Heisman voting that year; it was a controversial vote that resulted in the only time a player from a losing squad, Paul Hornung of 2-8 Notre Dame, won the trophy.
Wyatt's team never returned to a bowl game after the 1957 season. Assistant James McDonald took over for Wyatt in 1963, going 5-5.
Before the 1962 season, on March 28, 1962, General Neyland died in New Orleans. Shields-Watkins Field was then presented with a new and appropriate name: Neyland Stadium. The stadium was dedicated at the 1962 Alabama game, and by that time had expanded to 52,227 seats. Incidentally, Neyland had a hand in designing the expansion efforts for the stadium while he was athletic director. His plans were so forward-looking that they were used for every expansion until 1996, when the stadium was expanded to 102,544 seats.
§Doug Dickey era (1964-1969)
Doug Dickey, who had been an assistant at Arkansas under Frank Broyles, replaced McDonald in 1964. Dickey was entrusted with rebuilding the program, and his six seasons at the school saw considerable change, including the "three T's". In one of his first moves, Dickey scrapped the single wing formation and replaced it with the more modern T formation offense, in which the quarterback takes the snap "under center." This move was in part prompted by the fact that the single wing was by then a relatively rare offense and top high school players did not necessarily want to play in it. (One such player was Steve Spurrier, then a top quarterback prospect from Johnson City in the Tri-Cities area, who had no interest in becoming a single-wing tailback and opted to play for Coach Ray Graves at Florida instead.) Dickey also changed the helmets of the Vols, removing numbers from the side and replacing them with a "T." His third change also remains today. Dickey worked with the Pride of the Southland Marching Band to create a unique pregame entrance for the football squad. The band would open a block T with its base at the locker room tunnel. The team would then run through the T to the sideline. The T was reoriented in the 1980s when the locker room was moved behind the north end zone, and the entrance remains a prized tradition of the football program. In addition to the "three T's", Dickey instituted the now universally recognized checkerboard endzone design.
Dickey had some success in his six seasons as a Vol. He led Tennessee to a 46-15-4 record and captured SEC titles in 1967 and 1969. In the 1967 season, UT lost its season opening game to UCLA in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Bruin quarterback Gary Beban, who would win the Heisman Trophy that year, scored the winning touchdown in the final minutes on a fourth-down scramble. The Vols won their remaining nine regular season games, however, including the Alabama game, in which they handed Alabama its only loss of the year, and snapping a 25 game unbeaten streak by the Tide. The 24-13 win in Birmingham landed the Vols on the cover of Sports Illustrated, and was Dickey's biggest career win.
§Bill Battle era (1970-1976)
Following the 1969 season, Dickey left Tennessee to coach at his alma mater, the University of Florida. He would later return to Tennessee as the Athletic Director. Dickey was replaced by Bill Battle. Battle was a 28-year-old coach from Alabama, had played and served as an assistant coach for the legendary Bear Bryant, and was the youngest head coach in the country at the time that he took over. Battle won at least 10 games in his first three seasons; however, he lost to Auburn in each of those seasons. Therefore, he did not win a conference title, and would not do so during his time as head coach.
§Johnny Majors era (1977-1992)
Johnny Majors, who had played at UT from 1954 to 1956 before playing with the Montreal Alouettes in 1957, won a national championship at Pittsburgh in 1976 and decided that the job of head coach at Tennessee was too good to pass up. In 1977, he replaced Battle, who had just suffered two five-loss seasons. Majors lost his first game as head coach to the University of California, by a score of 27-17, in Knoxville. Majors struggled his first four seasons, going 4-7, 5-5-1, 7-5, and 5-6. His teams saw mild success in 1981, going to the Garden State Bowl and finishing 8-4, and in 1983, winning the Citrus Bowl and finishing 9-3.
Majors' 1985 Volunteer squad (9-1-2, 5-1) was one of his most revered squads. The team lost only one game, regrouped after losing the services of Heisman trophy contending quarterback Tony Robinson for the season, and won their first conference title since 1969. The Big Orange earned a trip to the 1986 Sugar Bowl, where they defeated the heavily favored and 2nd-ranked Miami Hurricanes, coached by Jimmy Johnson, 35-7. The win kept Miami from winning a national title and earned the 1985 UT squad the nickname "Sugar Vols."
The 1988 Vols lost their first 6 games, but went on to finish with a 5-6 record. UT then won back-to-back SEC titles in 1989 and 1990. The Vols played on a January 1 bowl game every season in the early '90s under Majors. However, in the fall of 1992, Majors suffered heart problems, and missed the early part of the season. Phillip Fulmer, then the offensive coordinator, took over as interim coach, and scored upsets over Georgia and Florida. Majors returned and lost three straight conference games to Arkansas, Alabama, and South Carolina. The Alabama loss cut the deepest as the Vols had lost seven in a row to the Crimson Tide. The administration decided to make a change after the regular season. Majors was forced to resign, and Fulmer coached the team in the Hall of Fame Bowl.
§Phillip Fulmer era (1992-2008)
1993 saw the Vols complete a 10-2 season, losing to Penn State in the Florida Citrus Bowl. 1994 saw a down turn in the record of the Vols, but events shaped the bright future of the program. Starting quarterback Jerry Colquitt suffered a season ending knee injury in the first series of the season against UCLA. Backup Todd Helton suffered a similar fate early in the fourth game of the year at Mississippi State requiring backups Brandon Stewart and Peyton Manning to take action. The following week freshman quarterback Peyton Manning would take over the controls and not let go until he departed to the NFL. Manning would be a 4-year starter for the Vols, and he led them to an 8-4 record in 1994. The next season, Manning led the Vols to a 41-14 win over Alabama, breaking the long winless streak. The only loss of the 1995 season was a 62-37 loss to Florida. The loss to the Gators was the 3rd in a row, and would prove to be the major hurdle between the Vols and the National title.
The Vols would put together 11-1, 10-2, and 11-2 seasons in the last three seasons with Manning as quarterback. Manning entered his senior season as a solid favorite for the Heisman Trophy. The trophy would eventually be awarded to Charles Woodson of Michigan. Manning did lead the Vols to an SEC title in 1997, before losing his final game to eventual co-National Champion Nebraska.
After three seasons with high expectations, the Vols faced a new task. Tennessee was expected to have a slight fall off after their conference championship the previous season. They lost QB Peyton Manning, WR's Marcus Nash and Andy McCullough, and LB Leonard Little to the NFL. Manning was the first pick overall in the 1998 NFL Draft. They were also coming off of a 42-17 loss to Nebraska in the Orange Bowl, and were in the midst of a 5-game losing streak to their rivals the Florida Gators.
However, the 1998 Tennessee Volunteers football team would prove to exceed all expectation. Led by new quarterback Tee Martin, All American linebacker Al Wilson, and Peerless Price, the Vols captured another National title and would win the first ever BCS Title game against Florida State. They finished the season 13-0, ending a remarkable run of 45-5 in 4 years. Those four seasons, the Vols were led by Fulmer, Offensive Coordinator David Cutcliffe, and Defensive Coordinator John Chavis. Cutcliffe took over at Ole Miss as a head coach following the 1998 regular season.
After 1998, the Vols made three more trips to the SEC Championship Game with Fulmer as the head coach: 2001, 2004, and 2007. The 2001 team beat then head coach Steve Spurrier and Florida in the Swamp 34-32, moving them up to #2 in most polls and giving them a shot at the BCS title game in the Rose Bowl vs Miami. But they would lose to underdog #21 LSU in the SEC Championship Game. In 2005, the team suffered its first losing season since 1988, going 5-6, fielding a nationally ranked defense but an anemic offense. Cutcliffe returned to the Vols as offensive coordinator before the 2006 season, which reunited the successful group of Fulmer, Chavis, and Cutcliffe. Tennessee rebounded to go 9-3 in the 2006 regular season, losing two heartbreakers at home to Florida and LSU. This earned a spot in the 2007 Outback Bowl, where they lost to underdog Penn State, 20-10. The 2007 season was the first in team history in which the Volunteers allowed 40 or more points in more than one game (3 times). The Vols' defense did considerably better than expected with help from seniors Xavier Mitchell, Antonio Reynolds, and Jerod Mayo, and also from freshman Eric Berry. They would eventually win the SEC Eastern Division title and would go on to play eventual National Champion LSU. The Vols would lose to the Tigers 21-14. After the SEC Championship, the Vols were invited to play the Wisconsin Badgers in the Outback Bowl on January 1, 2008, winning 21-17.
On January 11, 2008, it was announced that Dave Clawson had been hired as the new offensive coordinator for the Vols by head coach Phillip Fulmer. He replaced David Cutcliffe, who moved to Duke University as head coach.
Jonathan Crompton started at quarterback for the first four games of the 2008 season and went 1-3, after which he was replaced by sophomore Nick Stephens. B. J. Coleman was the third quarterback on the roster. Clawson's appointment introduced problems with the Volunteer's offense, leading to one of the worst performing offenses under then-Head Coach Phillip Fulmer's career. Clawson's offense was focused primarily on the short game (strong running and short-range passing) which was in large contrast to UT's quarterbacks who spent their high school careers primarily throwing the ball deep. The Vols posted a dismal 5-7 record in the 2008 season, resulting in Fulmer's ouster at the end of the season. The athletic department had to come up with $6 million for Fulmer's total buyout, which would be paid over 48 months in equal installments.
On November 3, 2008, Head Coach Phillip Fulmer announced that he would be stepping down from his position at the end of the season after a winning total of 152 games at his alma mater, followed, four weeks later, by UT's November 30 announcement that Oakland Raiders former head coach Lane Kiffin had been selected as his replacement.
§Lane Kiffin "era" (2009)
On December 1, 2008, Lane Kiffin, former head coach of the Oakland Raiders, was announced as the new head coach of the Tennessee Volunteers. It was also reported that once the 2008 NFL regular season ended, Lane's father, Monte Kiffin, would join him in Knoxville. Monte would replace John Chavis as the Volunteers defensive coordinator.
On December 31, 2008, it was announced that former Ole Miss head coach Ed Orgeron would become associate coach and defensive line coach as well as recruiting coordinator for the Vols. Jim Chaney was also announced as the Vols' new offensive coordinator replacing Dave Clawson, who took the head coaching job at Bowling Green. Chaney was the tight ends coach for the NFL's St. Louis Rams, and was the offensive coordinator at Purdue University under Joe Tiller.
In Lane Kiffin's only year at UT, the Vols finished the season 7-6. On February 5, 2009, Kiffin gained media attention by accusing Urban Meyer of NCAA recruiting violations at Florida. The Vols would play the Gators in the third game of the season as 30-point underdogs. UT was able to keep the game close, losing 23-13. In the sixth game of the season, the Vols played #2 Alabama. Terrence Cody blocked a 44-yard field goal attempt on the final play to give the Crimson Tide a 12-10 victory. Tennessee played #22 South Carolina the following game, which fell on Halloween night. They would win 31-13, giving Kiffin his first win over a ranked team at Tennessee. In this game, the Vols wore black and orange jerseys. It was another in a series of controversial decisions made by Kiffin; some UT alumni did not want the jerseys worn because doing so challenged tradition. However, an overwhelming majority of fans said they liked the new jerseys in a local poll. Tennessee would finish the regular season 7-5, earning an invitation to the 2009 Chick-fil-A Bowl against #11 Virginia Tech. They would lose to the Hokies 37-14.
For the 2009 season, UT paid $3.32 million to all assistant football coaches, the highest combined salary among public schools. On January 12, 2010, after just one year at Tennessee, Kiffin left to accept the head coaching job at the University of Southern California after Pete Carroll was named head coach of the Seattle Seahawks.
§Derek Dooley era (2010-2012)
On January 15, 2010, Derek Dooley, former Louisiana Tech head coach, was named the Volunteers' 22nd head coach, replacing Lane Kiffin. Expectations for the Vols entering 2010 were relatively low in part because of having a third head coach in two years, a young and lacking offensive line, and an unresolved QB issue just weeks before the season began. Junior QB Matt Simms, son of Pro Bowl and former Super Bowl MVP Phil Simms, was named starter for the Vols for the opener against UT-Martin. After eight games the Vols were 2-6, including a heartbreaking loss at LSU which ended in controversy.
After Tennessee was soundly beaten by South Carolina 38-24, Dooley named true freshman QB Tyler Bray as starter for the next game against Memphis. The Vols found new life in their new QB in which Bray threw for 325 yards and 5 TDs. The Vols would make a remarkable stand throughout November going 4-0 to reach 6-6 overall and become bowl eligible. On December 30 the Vols faced North Carolina in the Music City Bowl which ended similarly to UT's previous game with LSU. A loophole in the rules (a lack of a late game 10-second runoff) gave the Tar Heels one more second in regulation in which they would kick a field goal to tie the game at 20-20 and send it into overtime. After both teams scored TDs in the first overtime, Bray would throw an interception on UT's first possession in the second overtime. UNC would cap it off by kicking the game-winning field goal to win the game 30-27. Overall the Vols and Dooley would finish 6-7. The aftermath of UT's bowl loss to UNC resulted in the NCAA applying the same rule as the NFL when it comes to too many players on the field as time expires.
In 2011, in which the Vols had another losing season at 5-7, the Vols escaped sanctions in connection to an earlier scandal involving Kiffin during his coaching tenure at Tennessee apart from minor sanctions they had imposed on themselves. Kiffin was also cleared by the NCAA.
On November 18, 2012, Dooley was fired after losing 41-18 to Vanderbilt, finishing the season at 5-7 for the second consecutive season. He was replaced by Butch Jones, formerly the head coach of the University of Cincinnati, on December 7, 2012.
§Butch Jones era (2013-present)
On December 7, 2012, Butch Jones left Cincinnati and became the 23rd head coach of the Vols. In his inaugural season at UT, Jones stressed the importance of rebuilding the football program itself, as well as the culture at Tennessee, and providing much-needed coaching stability for the Vols. Jones also reiterated the significance to the team, UT, and the legions of fans of leading the Volunteers to their first winning season since 2009 and getting and winning a postseason bowl berth for the first time since 2010 and 2007, respectively. Jones led the Vols to a 23-21 win over #11 South Carolina on October 19, 2013, on a last-second field goal by Michael Palardy, marking the first time that the team won over a ranked team since 2009 and a team ranked in the top 15 since 2007, when they beat the then-ranked #15 Gamecocks 27-24. The team completed the season at a mediocre 5-7 record for the third consecutive season.
In August 2014, UT began the 2014 season well, winning 38-7 against Utah State. The Vols played mediocre through several games, including the UF game where Neyland was checkboarded in Orange and White and UT lost 10-9, until Joshua Dobbs replaced the injured Justin Worley as QB and led the team from a 14 point deficit at South Carolina with roughly 5 minutes left in regulation and led the team to win 45-42 in overtime. Dobbs, by then named the starting quarterback, led the Vols in a 50-16 drubbing of Kentucky before losing 29-21 against Missouri. The Vols got their first bowl game appearance since 2010 with a 24-17 win over Vanderbilt. UT announced they would play in the TaxSlayer Bowl, formerly known as the Gator Bowl, in Jacksonville, Florida against Iowa. The game will be played on January 2, UT's first January bowl game since 2007. In Jacksonville, the Vols struck quickly and kept hammering away at Iowa to beat the Hawkeyes in a resounding 45-28 victory, marking the Vols' first winning season since 2009. With the win, UT also secured its first bowl game win since 2007, therefore significantly improving the Vols' prospects in 2015 with recruiting, winning in the tough SEC East division, and gaining more national attention.
§Logos and uniforms
The Volunteers began wearing orange pants in 1977 under coach Johnny Majors. His successor, Phillip Fulmer, discarded the pants upon becoming Major's full-time replacement in 1993. The orange pants were worn three times under Fulmer: in the 1999 homecoming game vs. Memphis, the 2007 SEC Championship game vs. LSU, and the 2008 season opener at UCLA. Lane Kiffin wore the orange pants full-time on the road, except for the 2009 season finale vs. Kentucky, and selected home games.
In 2009, the Volunteers wore black jerseys with orange pants on Halloween night against the South Carolina Gamecocks.
On October 5, 2013, the team debuted its "Smokey Gray" uniforms in an overtime loss to the Georgia Bulldogs at Neyland Stadium.
§Traditions
§Orange and white
The orange and white colors worn by the football team were selected by Charles Moore, a member of the very first football squad in 1891. They were from the American Daisy which grew on The Hill, the home of most of the classrooms at the university at the time (now housing most of the chemistry and physics programs et al.).
The orange color is distinct to the school, dubbed "UT Orange", and has been offered by The Home Depot for sale as a paint, licensed by the university. Home games at Neyland Stadium have been described as a "sea of Orange" due to the large number of fans wearing the school color; the moniker Big Orange, as in "Go Big Orange!", derives from the usage of UT Orange.
The color is spot color PMS 151 as described by the University.
In addition to the famous orange and white, UT also has had the little-known Smokey Gray color since the 1930s and debuted the color in the October 5, 2013 rivalry game against Georgia in an alternate jersey.
§Orange and white checkerboard end zones
Tennessee first sported the famous checkerboard design in 1964 under Dickey and remained until artificial turf was installed at Neyland Stadium in 1968. They brought the design back in 1989.
The checkerboard was bordered in orange from 1989 until natural grass replaced the artificial turf in 1994. The return of natural grass brought with it the return of the green (or grass colored) border that exists today.
§Rocky Top
Rocky Top is not the official Tennessee fight song (Down the Field is the official fight song), as is widely believed, but is the most popular in use by the Pride of the Southland Marching Band. The Band began playing the fight song during the 1970s after it became popular as a Bluegrass tune by the Osborne Brothers. The fight song is widely recognized as one of the most hated by opponents in collegiate sports. The song became one of Tennessee's state songs in 1982.
§Smokey
Smokey is the mascot of the University of Tennessee sports teams, both men's and women's. A Bluetick Coonhound mascot, currently Smokey X, leads the Vols on the field for football games. On game weekends, Smokey is cared for by the members of Alpha Gamma Rho's Alpha Kappa chapter. There is also a costumed mascot that appears at every Vols game, which has won several mascot championships.
Smokey was selected as the mascot for UT after a student poll in 1953. A contest was held by the Pep Club that year; their desire was to select a coon hound that was native to Tennessee. At halftime of the Mississippi State game that season, several hounds were introduced for voting, all lined up on the old cheerleaders' ramp at Neyland, with each dog being introduced over the loudspeaker and the student body cheering for their favorite. The late Rev. Bill Brooks' "Blue Smokey" was the last hound announced and howled loudly when introduced. The students cheered and Smokey threw his head back and barked again. This kept going until the stadium was cheering and applauding and UT had its mascot, Smokey. The most successful dog has been Smokey VIII who saw a record of 91-22, two SEC titles, and 1 National Championship.
§The Pregame Showcase
Initiated in 1989, the Pregame Showcase is a public lecture series featuring entertaining and informative 45-minute presentations by faculty from the College of Arts and Sciences. Held two hours before kickoff in the University Center Ballroom (Room 213) at every home football game, the Pregame Showcase is free and open to the public. Complimentary refreshments and door prizes are provided. The carefully timed presentations allow fans to enjoy the lecture and still get to the stadium before kickoff.
§The Vol Walk
Head Coach Johnny Majors came up with the idea for the Vol Walk after a 1988 game at Auburn when he saw the historic Tiger Walk take place. Prior to each home game, the Vols will file out of the Neyland-Thompson Sports Complex, down past the Tennessee Volunteers Wall of Fame, and make their way down Peyton Manning Pass and onto Phillip Fulmer Way. Thousands of fans line the street to shake the players' hands as they walk into Neyland Stadium. Through rain, snow, sleet, or sunshine, the Vol faithful are always out in full force to root on the Vols as they prepare for battle. The fans are always pumped up with Rocky Top played by The Pride of the Southland Band.
§The T
The "T" appears in two special places in Vol history and tradition. Coach Doug Dickey added the familiar block letter T onto the side of the helmets in his first year in 1964; a rounded T came in 1968. Johnny Majors modified the famous orange helmet stripe to a thicker stripe in 1977.
The Vols also run through the T. This T is formed by the Pride of the Southland marching band with its base at the entrance to the Tennessee locker room in the north endzone with team personnel holding the state flag and the UT flag, Smokey running in on the field, and the entire UT team storming in to loud cheers and applause from the 100,000-plus Vols fans in Neyland. When Coach Dickey brought this unique and now-famous tradition to UT in 1965, the Vols' locker room was underneath the East stands. The Vols would run through the T and simply turn back to return to their sideline. However, beginning in 1983, the team would make the famous left turn inside the T and run toward their former bench on the east sideline when the locker room was moved from the east sideline to the north endzone. It was announced on January 24, 2010 that the Vols would switch their sideline from the east sideline to the west sideline for all home games from then on. This resulted in the Vols making a right out of the T instead of a left. This change took effect with Tennessee's first home game of the 2010 season against UT-Martin.
§Vols
The Volunteers (or Vols as it is commonly shortened to) derive that nickname from the State of Tennessee's nickname. Tennessee is known as the "Volunteer State," a nickname it earned during the War of 1812, in which volunteer soldiers from Tennessee played a prominent role, especially during the Battle of New Orleans.
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Around 200 or more boats normally dock outside Neyland Stadium on the Tennessee River before games. The fleet was started by former Tennessee broadcaster George Mooney who docked his boat there first in 1962. UT, the University of Pittsburgh, Baylor University, and the University of Washington are the only schools with their football stadiums built next to major bodies of water.
§Rivalries
The Vols' main rivalries include the Alabama Crimson Tide (Third Saturday in October), Florida Gators (UF-UT rivalry), Georgia Bulldogs (UGA-UT rivalry), Kentucky Wildcats (UK-UT rivalry), and Vanderbilt Commodores (UT-Vandy rivalry). The Vols also have a small non-conference rivalry with the in-state Memphis Tigers. None of their games have trophies, although Kentucky-Tennessee used to battle over a Beer Barrel from 1925 until 1999. From 1985 until 2010, Tennessee held a 26-game winning streak over Kentucky. The streak ended on November 26, 2011 when Kentucky defeated Tennessee 10-7 in Lexington. The Volunteers had important rivalries with the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, Auburn Tigers, and Ole Miss Rebels until Georgia Tech left the SEC and realignment forced them to drop Auburn and Ole Miss from the schedule.
§Alabama
Despite the heated in-state rivalry with Auburn, former Alabama coach Bear Bryant was more adamant about defeating his rivals to the north, the Tennessee Vols. The series is named the Third Saturday in October, the traditional calendar date on which the game was played. Despite the name, the game was played on the third Saturday just five times between 1995 and 2007. The first game between the two sides was played in 1901 in Birmingham, ending in a 6-6 tie. From 1902 to 1913, Alabama dominated the series, only losing once, and never allowing a touchdown by the Volunteers. Beginning in 1928, the rivalry was first played on its traditional date and began to be a challenge for the Tide as Robert Neyland began challenging Alabama for their perennial spot on top of the conference standings. In the 1950s, Jim Goostree, the head trainer for Alabama, began a now-defunct tradition as he began handing out cigars following a victory over the Volunteers.
Between 1971-1981, Alabama held an eleven-game winning streak over the Volunteers and, between 1986-1994, a nine-game unbeaten streak. However, following Alabama's streak, Tennessee responded with a seven-game winning streak from 1995-2001. Alabama has won the last eight meetings from 2007 to 2014. Alabama won the 2014 game 34-20 in Knoxville and leads the series 52-38-7. Alabama is Tennessee's third most-played opponent, after Kentucky and Vanderbilt. Tennessee is Alabama's second-most played opponent after Mississippi State.
§Georgia
The Bulldogs and Vols first met in 1899, a UT victory in Knoxville. The teams, which have played 43 games through 2013, played sporadically over the next several years before playing 5 straight games from 1907 to 1910, 4 straight from 1922 to 1925, and then putting the rivalry on hiatus for more than 30 years after the 1937 game in Knoxville, a UT victory. When the two played each other in 1968 in Knoxville, the game ended in a tie (only the second tie game after the 1906 game in Athens). The two teams continued to play each other sporadically through the 1970s and '80s, with Georgia winning 4 straight games from 1973 to 1988. The Vols won at home against the Dawgs in 1989, a full 52 years since the '37 game. The 1989 game was the last game between the two teams before the SEC split the conference into two divisions, West and East, with South Carolina and Arkansas entering the conference in 1990, effective the 1991-92 basketball season. From 1992 onwards, the Vols and Dawgs have played each other every year, with UGA having a 4 game winning streak through 2013. The series is tied at 21-21-2, with the largest win coming in 1936 when UT won 46-0 in Athens.
§Florida
The Gators and Vols first met on the gridiron in 1916, and have competed in the same conference since Florida joined the now-defunct Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association in 1912. However, a true rivalry has developed only relatively recently due to infrequent match-ups in past decades; in the first seventy-six years (1916-1991), the two teams met just twenty-one times. This changed in 1992, when the Southeastern Conference (SEC) expanded to twelve universities and split into two divisions. Florida and Tennessee were both placed in the SEC's Eastern Division, and have met annually on the football field since 1992. The rivalry quickly blossomed in intensity and importance, as both squads were perennial championship contenders throughout the 1990s. The games' national implications diminished in the 2000s, as first Florida and then Tennessee suffered through sub-par seasons. However, the intensity of each meeting still remains one of the highest in college football.
§Vanderbilt
Vanderbilt and Tennessee have played 108 times since 1892; Tennessee has a winning record of 73-30-5 (.699). When the rivalry first started, Vanderbilt dominated by taking 19 of the first 24 with 3 ties (.854). After 1928, UT has dominated the rivalry with numerous win streaks and since then UT has a record of 71-10-2 (.867). The largest margin of victory for Vandy was by 76 points in 1918 at Old Dudley Field in Nashville, 76-0. The largest margin of victory for UT was by 65 points in 1994 at Vanderbilt Stadium, 65-0. The longest winning streak for Vanderbilt is 9 from 1901 to 1913. The longest winning streak for Tennessee is 22 from 1983 to 2004.
§Kentucky
Tennessee and Kentucky have played each other 108 times over 114 years with Tennessee winning 75 to 24 wins by Kentucky (.736). Tennessee has won the most games in Lexington with 35 wins to 14 by Kentucky (.702). Tennessee also has more wins than Kentucky in Knoxville with 45 wins to 10 (.787). Tennessee has the most wins in the series at Stoll Field with 19 wins to 11 Kentucky wins (.621). The Series is tied at 3 a piece at Baldwin Park. Tennessee leads the series at Neyland Stadium with 35 wins to 7 Kentucky wins (.792). Tennessee leads the series at Commonwealth Field with 17 wins to 3 Kentucky wins (.850). Like many college football rivalries, the Tennessee-Kentucky game had its own trophy for many years: a wooden beer barrel painted half blue and half orange. The trophy was awarded to the winner of the game every year from 1925 to 1997. The Barrel was introduced in 1925 by a group of former Kentucky students who wanted to create a material sign of supremacy for the rivalry. It was rolled onto the field that year with the words "Ice Water" painted on it to avoid any outcries over a beer keg symbolizing a college rivalry.
The barrel exchange was ended in 1998 after two Kentucky football players died in an alcohol-related crash.
§Head coaching history
Tennessee has had 23 head coaches since it began play during the 1891 season. Robert Neyland is the leader in seasons coached and games won, with 173 victories in 21 seasons (spread out over three stints). John Barnhill has the highest winning percentage of those who have coached more than one game, with .846. James DePree has the lowest winning percentage of those who have coached more than one game, with .306. Of the 23 different head coaches who have led the Volunteers, Neyland, Wyatt, Dickey, Majors, and Fulmer have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta.
§All-time record
As of November 29, 2014 Tennessee is ranked 10th all-time won-lost records by percentage, and 8th by victories. page-68. The all time record is 810-370-53 (.678), and at Neyland Stadium the Vols have record of 449-121-17 (.779).
The UT football season records are taken from the official record books of the University Athletic Association. Tennessee is also one of two teams that have never lost eight games in a season, the other team being The Ohio State Buckeyes.
§History against all opponents
Interesting Informations
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