Tennessee Volunteers football

Tennessee Volunteers football
2023 Tennessee Volunteers football team
First season1891
Athletic directorDanny White
Head coachJosh Heupel
3rd season, 26–12 (.684)
StadiumNeyland Stadium
(capacity: 101,915)
Field surfaceTifway 419 Bermuda Hybrid
LocationKnoxville, Tennessee
ConferenceSoutheastern Conference
DivisionSEC East
Past conferencesSIAA
(1896–1920)
SoCon
(1921–1932)
All-time record864–414–53 (.669)
Bowl record29–25 (.537)
Claimed national titles6 (1938, 1940, 1950, 1951, 1967, 1998)
Unclaimed national titles6 (1914, 1931, 1939, 1956, 1985, 1989)
National finalist2 (1997, 1998)
Conference titles16 (13 SEC, 2 SoCon, 1 SIAA)
Division titles6 (1997, 1998, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2007)
RivalriesAlabama (rivalry)
Auburn (rivalry)
Florida (rivalry)
Georgia (rivalry)
Georgia Tech (rivalry)
Kentucky (rivalry)
South Carolina (rivalry)
Vanderbilt (rivalry)
Consensus All-Americans41
Current uniform
ColorsOrange and white
 
Fight songDown the Field (Official)
Rocky Top (Unofficial) Dixieland Delight (Unofficial)
MascotSmokey XI
Marching bandPride of the Southland Band
OutfitterNike
Websiteutsports.com

The Tennessee Volunteers football program (variously called "Tennessee," "Volunteers," "Vols," "UT," and "Big Orange") represents the University of Tennessee (UT).

The Vols have played football for 130 seasons, starting in 1891; their combined record of 867–410–53 ranks them eleventh on the list of all-time win–loss percentage records .672 and by-victories list for college football programs as well as second on the all-time win/loss list of SEC programs 405-273-33 .593. Their all-time ranking in bowl appearances is fifth (54) and eighth in all-time bowl victories (29), most notably four Sugar Bowls, three Cotton Bowls, two Orange Bowls, a Fiesta Bowl, and a Peach Bowl. They have won 16 conference championships and claim six national titles, including two (1951, 1998) from major wire-service: AP Poll and Coaches' Poll in their history.

The Vols play at Neyland Stadium on the university's campus in Knoxville, where Tennessee has won 485 games, the highest home-field total in college football history for any school in the nation at its current home venue. Additionally, its 101,915 seat capacity makes Neyland the nation's sixth largest and third largest in the Southeastern Conference.

History & Rivalries

History

Rivalries

The Vols' main rivalries include the Alabama Crimson Tide (Third Saturday in October) and Vanderbilt Commodores. Tennessee's longest and most played rivalry is with the Kentucky Wildcats. Since the formation of the SEC Eastern Division in 1992, the Vols have had emerging rivalries with the Florida Gators, Georgia Bulldogs, and the South Carolina Gamecocks. None of their games have trophies, although Kentucky–Tennessee used to battle over a trophy called the Beer Barrel from 1925 until 1999. The Volunteers used to have 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 annually.

Conference affiliations

Championships

National championships

Tennessee has been selected as national championships six times from NCAA-designated major selectors, including twice (2) from major wire-services: AP Poll and Coaches Poll.: 112–115  Tennessee claims all six national championships.

The Associated Press (AP) has selected Tennessee as national champions twice, in 1951 and 1998. The No. 1 Vols lost in the Sugar Bowl following the 1951 season after being named AP and UPI national champions due to the polls being conducted before the bowl season prior to 1965 and 1974 respectively. The 1938 and 1950 championships, while not AP titles, were recognized by a majority and a plurality of overall selectors/polls, respectively.

Year Coach Selectors Record Bowl Opponent Result Final AP Final Coaches
1938 Robert Neyland Berryman, Billingsley, Boand, Dunkel, College Football Researchers Association, Houlgate, Litkenhous, Poling, Sagarin, Sagarin (ELO-Chess) 11–0 Orange Oklahoma W 17–0 No. 2
1940 Dunkel 10–1 Sugar Boston College L 13–19 No. 4
1950 Billingsley, DeVold, Dunkel, Football Research, National Championship Foundation, Sagarin (ELO-Chess) 11–1 Cotton Texas W 20–14 No. 4 No. 3
1951 Associated Press, Litkenhous, United Press International (coaches), Williamson 10–1 Sugar Maryland L 13–28 No. 1 No. 1
1967 Doug Dickey Litkenhous 9–2 Orange Oklahoma L 24–26 No. 2 No. 2
1998 Phillip Fulmer Associated Press, BCS, FW, National Football Foundation, USA Today 13–0 Fiesta (BCS National Championship Game) Florida State W 23–16 No. 1 No. 1

Tennessee has also been awarded national championships by various notable organizations in six additional years of 1914, 1931, 1939, 1956, 1985, and 1989, though the school claims none.

Conference championships

Tennessee has won a total of 16 conference championships through the 2021 season, including 13 SEC championships.: 273–275 

Year Conference Coach Overall record Conference record
1914 SIAA Zora G. Clevenger 9–0 5–0
1927 SoCon Robert Neyland 8–0–1 5–0–1
1932 9–0–1 7–0–1
1938 SEC 11–0 7–0
1939 10–1 6–0
1940 10–1 6–0
1946 9–2 5–0
1951 10–1 5–0
1956 Bowden Wyatt 10–1 6–0
1967 Doug Dickey 9–2 6–0
1969 9–2 5-1
1985 Johnny Majors 9–1–2 5–1
1989 11–1 6–1
1990 9–2–2 5–1–1
1997 Phillip Fulmer 11–2 7–1
1998 13–0 8–0

Division championships

As winners of the Southeastern Conference's Eastern Division, Tennessee has made five appearances in the SEC Championship Game, with the most recent coming in 2007. The Vols are 2–3 in those games.

Year Division Championship Opponent Result
1997 SEC East Auburn W 30–29
1998 Mississippi State W 24–14
2001 LSU L 20–31
2003 N/A lost tiebreaker to Georgia
2004 Auburn L 28–38
2007 LSU L 14–21

† Co-champions

Head coaches

Tennessee has had 24 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.

Bowl games

This is a list of Tennessee's ten most recent bowl games. Tennessee holds an all-time bowl game record of 29–25 through the 2021 season.

Season Coach Bowl Opponent Result
2004 Phillip Fulmer Cotton Bowl Classic Texas A&M W 38–7
2006 Phillip Fulmer Outback Bowl Penn State L 10–20
2007 Phillip Fulmer Outback Bowl Wisconsin W 21–17
2009 Lane Kiffin Chick-fil-A Bowl Virginia Tech L 14–37
2010 Derek Dooley Music City Bowl North Carolina L 27–30 2OT
2014 Butch Jones TaxSlayer Bowl Iowa W 45–28
2015 Butch Jones Outback Bowl Northwestern W 45–6
2016 Butch Jones Music City Bowl Nebraska W 38–24
2019 Jeremy Pruitt Gator Bowl Indiana W 23–22
2021 Josh Heupel Music City Bowl Purdue L 45–48 OT
2022 Josh Heupel Orange Bowl Clemson W 31–14
2023 Josh Heupel Citrus Bowl Iowa TBD

Logos and uniforms

Tennessee Volunteer jerseys in 2007

In 2009, the Volunteers wore black jerseys with orange pants on Halloween night against the South Carolina Gamecocks. The Volunteers had originally worn black uniforms from 1911 to 1920.

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

UT fans at Neyland Stadium wearing the school colors.

The orange and white colors worn by the football team were selected by Charles Moore, a member of the very first Tennessee football team 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.). Tennessee football players did not wear the color until 1922 however.

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.

Checkerboard end zones

Orange and white checkerboard end zones are unique to Neyland Stadium.

Tennessee first sported their famous orange and white checkerboard end zone design in 1964 under coach Dickey and remained until artificial turf was installed at Neyland Stadium in 1968. They brought the design back in 1989. The idea was inspired by the checkerboard design around the top of the clock tower at the historic Ayres Hall.

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 IX before a November 2007 game against Vanderbilt.

Smokey is the mascot of the University of Tennessee sports teams, both men's and women's. A Bluetick Coonhound mascot, 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, which has won several mascot championships, at every Vols game.

Smokey was selected as the mascot for Tennessee 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 roaring and UT had found its mascot, Smokey. The current Smokey is Smokey X, after Smokey IX was retired at the conclusion of the 2012 season. The most successful dog has been Smokey VIII who saw a record of 91–22, two SEC titles, and the 1998 National Championship.

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. The walk became an official part of gameday in a Tennessee-Alabama match on October 20, 1990. 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 the game. The fans are always pumped up with Rocky Top played by The Pride of the Southland Band.

The T

The Pride of the Southland is in formation while the UT team runs the T.
5 min video of the opening sequence of a football game

The "T" appears in two special places in Vol history and tradition. The "T" first appeared in 1964 when coach Doug Dickey added the familiar block letter T onto the side of the helmets; 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 end zone 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 end zone. 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

Davy Crockett waving the UT flag during a November 3, 2007, game against Louisiana–Lafayette

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.

Vol Navy

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, as he wanted to avoid traffic around the stadium. What started as one man tying his runabout to a nearby tree and climbing through a wooded area to the stadium has grown into one of college football's unique traditions. Many fans arrive several days in advance to socialize, and the Vols have built a large walkway so fans can safely walk to and from the shoreline. UT, the University of Pittsburgh, Baylor University, and the University of Washington are the only schools with football stadiums built next to major bodies of water.


All-time record

As of the end of the 2023 regular season, Tennessee is ranked eleventh all-time won-lost records by percentage and tenth by victories. The all-time record is 864–414–53 (.669). At Neyland Stadium, the Vols have a record of 478–141–17 (.765).

The UT football season records are taken from the official record books of the University Athletic Association. 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 478 games, the highest home-field total in college football history for any school in the nation at its current home venue. The stadium surrounds Shields–Watkins Field, the official name of the playing surface.

Hall of Fame

Tennessee boasts the most college football hall of famers in the SEC, seventh most in major college football, and the ninth most of all college football programs, with 24.

Hall of Fame DE Doug Atkins
Hall of Fame G Nathan Dougherty, considered the "founding father of UT Athletics"
Hall of Fame QB Peyton Manning

Players

Coaches

Retired numbers

Tennessee has retired eight jersey numbers:

No. Player Pos Career No. ret. Ref.
16 Peyton Manning QB 1994–1997 2005
32 Billy Nowling FB 1940–1942 1946
45 Johnny Majors HB 1954–1956 2012
49 Rudy Klarer G 1941–1942 1946
61 Willis Tucker FB 1939–1940 1946
62 Clyde Fuson FB 1942 1946
91 Doug Atkins DE 1950–1952 2005
92 Reggie White DE 1980–1983 2005
Notes
  1. ^ a b c d Died in service during World War II. They were honored as "Vol Legends" prior to the game v Air Force on September 9, 2006.

Individual award winners

Players

Peyton Manning1997
Peyton Manning1997
Peyton Manning1997
Steve DeLong1964
John Henderson2000
Peyton Manning1997
Michael Munoz2004
Eric Berry2009
Jalin Hyatt2022

Coach

Phillip Fulmer1998
Phillip Fulmer – 1998
David Cutcliffe1998
John Chavis2006
Phillip Fulmer – 2009

Past and present NFL players

RB Alvin Kamara (2015–16)
TE Jason Witten (2000–02)

Future opponents

Conference opponents

From 1992 to 2023, Tennessee played in the East Division of the SEC and played each opponent in the division each year along with several teams from the West Division. The SEC will expand the conference to 16 teams and will eliminate its two divisions in 2024, causing a new scheduling format for the Volunteers to play against the other members of the conference. Only the 2024 conference schedule was announced on June 14, 2023, while the conference still considers a new format for the future.

2024 Conference Schedule

OpponentSiteResult
Alabama
at Arkansas
Florida
  • Neyland Stadium
  • Knoxville, TN (rivalry)
at Georgia
Kentucky
  • Neyland Stadium
  • Knoxville, TN (rivalry)
Mississippi State
  • Neyland Stadium
  • Knoxville, TN
at Oklahoma
at Vanderbilt

Non-conference opponents

Announced schedules as of June 22, 2023.

2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 2030
vs. NC State (Charlotte) vs. Syracuse (Atlanta) Furman Nebraska vs. West Virginia (Charlotte) at Washington Washington
Chattanooga UAB at Nebraska
Kent State Western Michigan
UTEP

This page was last updated at 2023-12-23 16:30 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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