Most people would traced Battered Vol Syndrome back to the 2001 SEC Championship game. Tennessee just beat the Florida Gators in what would turn out to be Steve Spurrier’s final home game to reach No. 2 in the nation.
All the Vols had to do was beat an 8-3 LSU Tigers team in the SEC Championship, and they’d go to the Rose Bowl to face the Miami Hurricanes for the national championship. Remember, this was when only two teams could play for the title.
Up 17-7 and with LSU losing its starting quarterback and running back, the ticket to Pasadena seemed to be all but a lock. However, the Tigers, with this upstart coach named Nick Saban, somehow managed to come back and win the SEC, costing UT a dream season.
Since then, it’s been a long, downward slide into mediocrity for the Vols and a tough climb out of it under Josh Heupel. That slide included so many other blown chances, missed opportunities, disappointing seasons and an all-around desire to just give up on the program.
As they climbed out of that mediocrity, though, BVS was still a thing. There was the 63-38 loss to the South Carolina Gamecocks two years ago and a shocking 19-14 loss to the Arkansas Razorbacks in the middle of this season.
So when the Vols fell behind 14-0 to the Vanderbilt Commodores, it was definitely setting in, right? All they had to do was beat this unranked 6-5 team to lock up a College Football Playoff spot, and that meant that, on he final week of the regular season, they were going to slip up.
After all, it’s not just Battered Vol Syndrome that would be a factor this year. It’s also the fact that a record seven ranked SEC teams had lost to unranked SEC teams on the road. Tennessee was one of those ranked SEC teams in a previous game. Vanderbilt was one of those unranked teams in a previous game.
Add in the chaos of the past week, and there was no reason to believe UT wouldn’t do the same thing.
However, Heupel and co. began the process of not just moving the program past BVS in the second quarter of this game but shattering it. In that quarter alone, the Vols got an interception, a fourth down stop, a 50-yard field goal, an 86-yard touchdown pass from Nico Iamaleava to Dont’e Thornton and a 96-yard touchdown drive.
All of that was just to go up 24-17 at halftime.
However, as they went up, they made it clear in front of a majority Vol fan base at Vanderbilt Stadium in Nashville that they weren’t going to let this CFP opportunity slip away. Heupel’s team regrouped and continued to pour it on in the third quarter. At one point, after trailing 17-7, they scored 29 unanswered and touchdowns on three straight drives.
With that, the Vols punched their CFP ticket. They destroyed BVS for good and sent it into the dustbin of history. It’s on to bigger and better things for this program, but mark Saturday’s win over Vanderbilt as the moment in which they ended a torturous period in their history.
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Great season no matter what happens next and hopefully the games after that. I have to admit I was sweating it in the 1st quarter. I still thought they would win, but figured it to be a real slog. I should have had more faith. They just blew them out until the mop up late!