Away from Neyland Stadium, Tennessee football is unpredictable in openers | Mike Strange
So Tennessee football season begins not in Knoxville but at … should we describe Nashville as a neutral site?
The Vols leaving campus for a neutral site opener is nothing new. In fact, that’s exactly how UT football history began.
On Nov. 21, 1891, Tennessee’s fledgling, coach-less squad boarded a train to Chattanooga for its college football debut. The ride home wasn’t celebratory. Sewanee, aka the University of the South, won 24-0.
Most years, the Vols open in the friendly confines of Neyland Stadium. But let’s touch on some exceptions. Pack a toothbrush.
In the 2018 Belk College Kickoff in Charlotte, a familiar face awaited in a West Virginia uniform. Will Grier had beaten the Vols as Florida’s quarterback in 2015. He did it again in Charlotte, 40-14.
That Tennessee emerged a winner, 42-41, in two overtimes over Georgia Tech in the 2017 Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game in Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium was remarkable – Tech rushed for 535 yards.
Speaking of rushing, Jalen Hurd and Alvin Kamara strutted their stuff in a 59-30 win over Bowling Green in Nashville in 2015.
The 2012 Chick-fil-A Kickoff game provided the Vols’ final appearance in the Georgia Dome, a 35-21 win over N.C. State. Newcomer Cordarrelle Patterson scored on a 41-yard pass and a 67-yard run.
Wyoming came to Nashville in 2002 for a ho-hum 47-7 rout. My bingo card didn’t have Jomo Fagan scoring Tennessee’s first touchdown of the season. (It was his only career touchdown.)
Oh, for one more timeout! The 1990 Pigskin Classic in Anaheim, California, might be Tennessee’s all-time heavyweight opener. The No. 8 Vols and No. 5 Colorado battled to a 31-31 draw. Time ran out on the rallying Vols – literally – when Chuck Webb ran out of bounds at the Buffs’ 16 with zeros on the clock.
UT’s only regular-season game against the Big Ten came in 1987, via the Kickoff Classic in New Jersey. Phil Reich’s field-goal delivered a 23-22 win over Iowa. The enduring highlight is linebacker Darrin Miller rambling 96 yards for a touchdown with an intercepted option lateral.
Once upon a time there were SEC neutral site openers. Tennessee opened against Auburn five times in Birmingham. In 1952 and ’54, the Vols opened against Mississippi State at old Crump Stadium in Memphis.
Several true road openers are worth remembering.
This is the 25th anniversary of the 34-33 win at Syracuse that propelled the Vols down the road to the national championship. Orange QB Donovan McNabb was so dynamic that day I ended up voting for him for the Heisman.
In a 28-11 win at Louisville in 1991, Carl Pickens scored on a long pass and a punt return. Also, UT sacked Louisville quarterback Jeff Brohm seven times. I wonder if Brohm (Purdue’s coach) mentioned that during Tennessee’s 2017 coaching search conversation.
The 1988 opener, a 28-17 loss at Georgia, was a harbinger of the 0-6 start to follow. The 1981 opener at Georgia, a 44-0 spanking by the Bulldogs, was a harbinger of a 43-7 loss at Southern Cal one week later.
Eric Berry wasn’t the only Berry who was the difference in a Tennessee win. In the 1979 opener at Boston College, papa James Berry scored twice in a 28-16 victory.
The 1972 opener at Georgia Tech drew national attention. Condredge Holloway became the first Black quarterback to start a game for an SEC program. Tech QB Eddie McAshan was also Black, making it a tough day for Old South segregationists. UT romped, 34-3.
And last, rallying UCLA to a 20-16 win over Dewey Warren’s Vols at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum in 1967 kickstarted Gary Beban’s Heisman Trophy season.
Mike Strange is a former writer for the News Sentinel. He currently writes a weekly sports column for Shopper News.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Tennessee football: Away from Neyland Stadium, Vols are unpredictable
