Will get a chance this Saturday Vanderbilt To break a pair of streaks – one lasting eight years, and the other to maintain the program’s existence.
Currently boasting a 9-2 record, coach Clark Lee, quarterback diego pavia And the Commodore will travel tennessee Knowing victory against the volunteers would be a double achievement. Vanderbilt’s win would be the first in Knoxville since 2017 and the first 10-win season in school history.
The last time Vanderbilt came out on top against its rivals, things were a little different for both programs. Unsurprisingly, Tennessee was in the midst of a brutal conference campaign. The Volunteers were on the verge of one of the most memorable coaching carousel moments in recent memory.
However, the script was flipped in Nashville. The Commodores were at their best run in the rivalry in decades, as well as their strongest under then-head coach Derek Mason.
Remember that the 2017 game now provides a fascinating lens into the progress of both programs — showing how far Tennessee has climbed since the depths of the late 2010s, as well as how high Vanderbilt’s ceiling has been raised compared to previous high-water marks for the program.
As the two teams meet at Neyland Stadium on Saturday, we take a look back at how things were eight years ago.
A volunteer season in shambles
Not all lost seasons are created equally. Tennessee’s 2017 campaign was as bad as it could be for a team that entered the season with the preseason ranking.
Things started out haphazardly, with the Volunteers escaping an overtime thriller if victorious. georgia tech In week 1. loss in mid september Florida It was the first SEC loss, but things became even more worrisome a week later when Tennessee couldn’t bounce back from MassachusettsThings will only spiral from there,
The Vols would finish 0–8 in conference play, their first winless SEC slate. Head coach Butch Jones was fired after a crushing defeat. missouriThree different quarterbacks started at least one game, none of whom threw for more than 1,000 yards on the year,
An unforgettable coaching carousel whirlwind begins in Knoxville
If Tennessee’s collapse was tumultuous on the field, the upcoming offseason brought nothing else on the way to stabilityAt least at first.
Just one day after the Volunteers’ defeat at the hands of the Commodores, then-AD John Curry thought he had his man. he and Ohio State Defensive coordinator Greg Schiano had signed a memorandum of understanding to make Schiano the next head coach in Knoxville. However, when news of Schiano’s pending rental leaked, fans rebelled with several protests. with citing a reference While Schiano was there he allegedly testified about an incident involving Jerry Sandusky and a boy penn state(Schiano denied the allegation,)
Tennessee backed out of the deal, and then failed to acquire several other potential targets, leading former Vols coach Lane Kiffin to resign. set her social media on fireUltimately, the school and Curry parted ways before the hiring took place, with new athletic director Phillip Fulmer ultimately stepping in and working out a deal with Jeremy Pruitt,
Vanderbilt takes control of the rivalry for the first time in a generation
While Tennessee’s dominance of the in-state rivalry in the 2000s and 2010s was not as completely strong as it was in previous generations – the Volunteers won every edition of the annual game from 1983 to 2004 for scale – it was still generally quite strong. But a few years into James Franklin and Derek Mason’s tenure in Nashville, the Commodores found a spark.
Starting in 2012, Franklin’s second three-year coaching career at Vanderbilt, the Commodores won five of the next seven games in the rivalry. Franklin’s consecutive wins over Tennessee in 2012 and 2013 were Vanderbilt’s first consecutive wins in the game since the 1920s. Mason topped that streak with three consecutive wins over the Volunteers from 2018-20 – also the first such occurrence since the Roaring 20. Franklin and Mason both won one game each at Neyland Stadium, accounting for two of Vanderbilt’s three total wins in Knoxville since 1975.
Looks to be finding its footing under Commodore Mason
There’s no doubt about it: Vanderbilt is not an easy place to win in football.
Before Franklin’s arrival in 2011, the Commodores had won nine games only once, in 1915. They had not had a winning record in conference play since 1955, compared to 18 different winless SEC seasons between the 1955 campaign and Franklin’s arrival.
Mason was hired after Franklin left for Penn State, and while his first campaign was rough, his string of successes against Tennessee were consistent with a program that was finding its feet again with a solid SEC floor. Vanderbilt went 6–7, 5–7, and 6–7 under Mason from 2016–2018 – prior to Franklin, the most recent Commodore coach to have multiple six-win seasons during his tenure was Bill Edwards in the 1960s.
However, things would go awry soon after. Vanderbilt won only one SEC game in Mason’s final two seasons in 2019 and 2020 and Clark Lee was hired to replace him.
Elsewhere in the world of college football…
As the Commodores and Volunteers faced off at Neyland Stadium during the final week of the 2017 regular season in a game with little at stake other than local pride, a lot of the chaos was causing a change in the rankings across the rest of the country.
Both the country’s No. 1 and No. 2 teams fell from the top rankings that weekend. alabama Number 6 was removed by golden brown color In the Iron Bowl, while No. 2 miami was harassed on the road by the pit On Friday afternoon.
Interestingly, only one of these results proved consequential for the final College Football Playoff field. Miami fell to seventh in the upcoming playoff rankings and then rose to the new No. 1 CLEMSON In the ACC Championship Game. Alabama, which dropped to fifth in the rankings, will return to the final zone having recently reached No. 4. wisconsin and No. 2 Auburn each lost in their own conference championship games.
