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The original was posted on /r/cfb by /u/jimbobbypaul on 2023-08-08 19:59:47.
Main hub thread with the full 131 rankings
ROCKY TOP. Despite being just the 6th ranked SEC team in this list (8th if you include Oklahoma/Texas), Tennessee comes in at #17, a testament to how strong the conference is. I would call Tennessee #1 in the Champions of Life ranking, but I think Josh Heupel and Hendon Hooker exorcised all the demons of the 2010’s for Tennessee, so I’ll spare that for this post. Tennessee is one of those borderline blue blood programs, ranking 11th in all-time win percentage (.672), 10th in wins (867), and 12th in NFL Draft picks (360). They have one of the most rabid fanbases in all of college football, often close to filling out their 102,000 seat stadium.
Best Seasons and Highlights
1. 1998: 1. Tennessee: 13-0 (52.171) 2. 1995: 3. Tennessee: 11-1 (42.030) 3. 1997: 4. Tennessee: 11-2 (41.838) 4. 2022: 4. Tennessee: 11-2 (41.771) 5. 1985: 4. Tennessee: 9-1-2 (41.651) 6. 2001: 3. Tennessee: 11-2 (41.426) 7. 1989: 5. Tennessee: 11-1 (40.847) 8. 1990: 6. Tennessee: 9-2-2 (35.603) 9. 1996: 8. Tennessee: 10-2 (33.220) 10. 1993: 10. Tennessee: 9-2-1 (31.127) 11. 1999: 11. Tennessee: 9-3 (29.072) 12. 2015: 18. Tennessee: 9-4 (25.557) 13. 1987: 13. Tennessee: 10-2-1 (24.674) 14. 1991: 16. Tennessee: 9-3 (24.554) 15. 1992: 12. Tennessee: 9-3 (23.868) 16. 2003: 17. Tennessee: 10-3 (23.255) 17. 2006: 19. Tennessee: 9-4 (22.842) 18. 2004: 14. Tennessee: 10-3 (22.675) 19. 2007: 17. Tennessee: 10-4 (22.638) 20. 2016: 17. Tennessee: 9-4 (20.837) 21. 1994: 14. Tennessee: 8-4 (18.331) 22. 1983: 19. Tennessee: 9-3 (18.190) 23. 2000: 30. Tennessee: 8-4 (12.146) 24. 1984: 30. Tennessee: 7-4-1 (10.700) 25. 2019: 34. Tennessee: 8-5 (6.826) 26. 2002: 36. Tennessee: 8-5 (5.982) 27. 2009: 42. Tennessee: 7-6 (4.586) 28. 1986: 32. Tennessee: 7-5 (3.921) 29. 2021: 43. Tennessee: 7-6 (3.412) 30. 2014: 49. Tennessee: 7-6 (1.675) 31. 2005: 51. Tennessee: 5-6 (-5.232) 32. 1988: 58. Tennessee: 5-6 (-10.190) 33. 2011: 70. Tennessee: 5-7 (-10.840) 34. 2013: 73. Tennessee: 5-7 (-11.931) 35. 2018: 80. Tennessee: 5-7 (-12.508) 36. 2008: 70. Tennessee: 5-7 (-12.973) 37. 2012: 72. Tennessee: 5-7 (-14.141) 38. 2010: 74. Tennessee: 6-7 (-15.453) 39. 2020: 96. Tennessee: 3-7 (-24.220) 40. 2017: 99. Tennessee: 4-8 (-27.048) Overall Score: 37830 (17th)
- 323-165-7 record
- 1 national title
- 5 conference titles
- 19-12 bowl record
- 19 consensus All-Americans
- 186 NFL players drafted
Another national title team. In fact, every team from here on out has at least 1 national title in the last 40 years. It’s not just their title that’s impressive, they have 5 Top 5 finishes (6 in my rankings) as well. It’s been a struggle at times since 1998, not winning an SEC Championship since then, and experiencing 9 losing seasons in 24 years. From 1985-98 they were one of the top teams in the country under Johnny Majors and Phillip Fulmer, going 131-34-6 with 5 SEC titles and a 10-3 bowl record. Consensus All-Americans we won’t discuss below are the legendary DL Reggie White (1983), OL Bill Mayo (1984), OL Eric Still (1989), OL Antone Davis (1990), DB Dale Carter (1991), DB Deon Grant (1999), OL Cosey Coleman (1999), DL John Henderson (2000, 2001) who won the Outland Trophy and was a top 10 pick, P Dustin Colquitt (2003) of the legendary Colquitt punting family, OL Michael Munoz (2004) who’s the son of NFL HOFer Anthony, S Eric Berry (2008, 2009) who won SEC Defensive POTY and the Thorpe Award in back-to-back years, AP Evan Berry (2015) who had 3 kick return TDs, and DL Derek Barnett (2016) who holds the all-time Tennessee sack record with 33. Top NFL players include QB Peyton Manning, DL Reggie White, TE Jason Witten, RB Alvin Kamara, RB Jamal Lewis, RB Arian Foster, S Eric Berry, WR/KR Cordarrelle Patterson, DT John Henderson, DT Albert Haynesworth, LB Jerod Mayo, DT Malik Jackson, P Dustin Colquitt, and LS Morgan Cox.
Top 5 Seasons
Worst Season: 2017 (4-8 overall, 0-8 SEC)
No Tennessee fans, you weren’t imagining how bad the end of Butch Jones’ tenure was. It was a really bad sign when the previous year, Jones proclaimed that Tennessee’s players had won the “Championship of Life”, then proceeded to lose to Vanderbilt a few days later. #25 Tennessee opened 2017 with a genuinely hilarious 42-41 2OT win over Georgia Tech. Tennessee was outgained by nearly 300 yards, and the introduction of the “turnover trash can” was certainly a choice. I thought an article by Sports Illustrated put it well: “The optics were no better during Monday’s game, as Tennessee struggled against the Yellow Jackets, projected by most as a middling ACC team, and one of the Volunteer assistant coaches is holding up a giant trash can on the sideline like it’s the Stanley Cup.” Tennessee would be really really bad, only beating Indiana State, UMass, and Southern Miss, and they only beat UMass 17-13. Losses were a different comedy episode every week, going from a shutout 0-41 loss to Georgia, to a 9-15 field goal battle vs South Carolina, back to a 7-45 showing at Alabama where a Tennessee player proudly flipped off Alabama fans after cutting the deficit to 7-28. Jones was finally fired after a 17-50 loss to Missouri to fall to 4-6, and Brady Hoke took over as the interim coach, which was arguably more funny than Jones being fired. He went 0-2 with a 24-42 loss to Vanderbilt, finishing the year 4-8 as the 99th ranked team in my algorithm.
5. 1985 (9-1-2 overall, 5-1 SEC)
The Sugar Vols! The 1985 team was called the “Sugar Vols” because of their Sugar Bowl win. The season is credited with restoring Tennessee to national prominence with their first top 10 finish in 13 years and first SEC title in 16 years. And boy, did they have a resume. The regular season opened with a 26-26 tie with #10 UCLA, then they beat #1 Auburn 38-20, appearing on the cover of Sports Illustrated the following week. They had just a 3-1-2 record to start the year, but it was maybe the best 3-1-2 start ever, with wins over #1 Auburn and #15 Alabama, and ties with #10 UCLA and eventual 9-2-1 Georgia Tech. The one loss was to #7 Florida. Now #19, they’d sweep the rest of the regular season with backup QB Daryl Dickey, due to starter Tony Robinson going out with an injury. The combined score in their 5-0 finish to the regular season was 163-21, all against teams that finished with losing records, but 3 of them were SEC. The “Sugar Vols” won the SEC and earned a trip to the Sugar Bowl. Against #2 Miami (FL), Tennessee was a huge underdog as the Canes were stacked with players like Vinny Testaverde, Michael Irvin, Jerome Brown, and coach Jimmy Johnson. Miami had a shot at winning the national title with a win, but instead it was Tennessee who looked like one of the best teams in the country, sacking Testaverde 7 times and forcing 6 turnovers in a 35-7 win.
Tennessee finished the year #4, led by the “Orange Crush” defense which allowed just 11.7 PPG. DB Chris White was an All-American, leading the NCAA with 9 interceptions. Consensus All-American WR Tim McGee was a big help for an injury-riddled QB room, leading the SEC with 50 catches for 987 yards and 7 TD. K Carlos Reveiz was automatic, making 2nd Team All-American with 24 of 28 FGs. This is the only Johnny Majors-coached season in the top 5 of this list, but he is a CFB Hall of Famer who went 116-62-8 in 16 years with the Vols.
1985 Tennessee is my 144th best team since 1983.
4. 2022 (11-2 overall, 6-2 SEC)
We just watched ‘em, but do you remember how ridiculous their first half of the season was? This was a team that had become known as a circus over the previous 1.5 decades, yet they started 8-0 with a 5-0 record against Top 25 teams. QB Hendon Hooker established himself as an early Heisman frontrunner, throwing 2 TD 0 INT in a 34-27 win over #17 Pittsburgh, 2 TD 0 INT (+1 rush TD) in a 38-33 win over #20 Florida, 2 TD 0 INT in a 40-13 win over #25 LSU, 5 TD 1 INT in a 52-49 win over #3 Alabama, and 3 TD 0 INT (+1 rush TD) in a 44-6 win over #19 Kentucky. In the win over Bama, WR Jalin Hyatt had 6 catches for 207 yards and 5 TD, setting a school record with the latter stat. In just 2 months Tennessee had gone from unranked to #1, with Hooker as the Heisman favorite and Josh Heupel as the Coach of the Year favorite. Tennessee got no rest with a brutal SEC schedule, having to go on the road to play #3 Georgia for the Vols’ 3rd ESPN College GameDay in a little over 1 month. Georgia dominated, with the 27-13 score being closer than the actual game, but Tennessee only fell to #5 and still had a shot at the Playoff. Unfortunately against South Carolina on the road, the Cocks brought their A game and Hooker went out for the season with an injury, the Vols falling to 9-2 and #10. A 56-0 win over Vanderbilt with 5 touchdowns of 50+ yards only somewhat made things better. Former Michigan QB Joe Milton got the start against #7 Clemson in the Orange Bowl, throwing for 3 TD 0 INT in a 31-14 win, ending the year with 11 wins and a New Years 6 bowl win.
Tennessee finished #6 in the AP Poll and #4 in my rankings for the brutal schedule they endured. Hooker led the best offense in the country, averaging 46.1 PPG. He was a 3rd Team All-American, throwing for 3135 yards 27 TD 2 INT in just 11 games, winning SEC Offensive POTY and finishing 5th in Heisman voting. Jalin Hyatt won the Biletnik…
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