By Bud L. Ellis
In 1998, Tennessee marched into the Georgia Dome for the SEC championship game, and marched out with a 24-14 victory over Mississippi State. The victory helped propel the Vols to the national championship.
On the final day of the next decade, the Vols hope to do something they haven’t done since that early December day 11 years ago: win at the corner of Northside Drive and Simpson Street in downtown Atlanta.
In five games inside the Georgia Dome since winning that SEC title game, the Vols are 0-5. Three of the losses have come in SEC title games, and two of the losses occurred in the Chick-fil-A Bowl.
The Vols are back in the Chick-fil-A Bowl this year, facing Virginia Tech on New Year’s Eve. Tennessee, a surprise runner-up in the SEC East, hopes to parlay the bowl matchup against the Hokies into a victory that would give Tennessee a big boost heading into the offseason.
It also would end a frustrating streak of defeats in Atlanta for the orange and white.
Three years after winning that SEC title game during their national championship march, the Vols made it to the conference championship game, losing to LSU in 2001, 31-20. One year and four weeks later, the Vols were back in the Dome for the Chick-fil-A Bowl, losing 30-3 to Maryland in an ugly loss.
Tennessee made it back to the Chick-fil-A Bowl the next season, losing on Jan. 2, 2004, to Clemson, 27-14. Then came a frustrating 38-28 loss in the SEC title game in 2004 to Auburn, and a close 21-14 defeat to LSU in the 2007 SEC championship.
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Tuesday, December 29, 2009 at 11:23 pm by bud
Tags: Auburn, Chick-fil-A Bowl, Clemson, Georgia Dome, LSU, Maryland, Mississippi State, SEC championship game, Tennessee, Virginia Tech
By Bud L. Ellis
The reports last week were true, and two of the South’s most storied football programs will conclude their season in the Georgia Dome on New Year’s Eve.
The Chick-fil-A Bowl will feature Tennessee from the Southeastern Conference and Virginia Tech of the Atlantic Coast Conference in Atlanta on Dec. 31, a matchup of two teams that look to head into 2010 on an upswing in the final hours of 2009.
Virginia Tech definitely won’t have to ask for directions to Atlanta. The game marks the third time this season the Hokies will play in Georgia’s capital city. Virginia Tech opened the season with a 34-24 loss to eventual BCS national championship game qualifier Alabama in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Classic at the Georgia Dome Sept. 5. Six weeks later, the Hokies were back in Atlanta as the fourth-ranked team in the nation, losing an ACC Coastal Division showdown to then No. 19 ranked and eventual ACC champ Georgia Tech in heartbreaking fashion. 28-23.
But after losing to unranked North Carolina 20-17 on Oct. 29, the Hokies have found their stride. Virginia Tech comes into the Chick-fil-A Bowl riding a four-game winning streak. In those four wins over East Carolina, Maryland, N.C. State and Virginia, the Hokies have outscored the opposition 132-35.
Tennessee’s season didn’t start as strong as the Hokies, but the Vols have mirrored Virginia Tech’s strong closing kick.
Under first-year head coach Lane Kiffin, the Vols dropped three of their first five games, losing by 10 to then-No. 1 ranked Florida on Sept. 19 in Gainesville, and a bitter 26-22 loss at home to Auburn on Oct. 3. But after blowing out Georgia 45-19 on Oct. 10 for Kiffin’s first SEC victory, it’s been mostly smooth sailing for the Vols.
Tennessee narrowly missed upsetting Alabama on Oct. 24, losing 12-10 on a blocked field goal attempt at the finish. But the Vols regrouped and closed the season with four victories in their final five contests, topping 30 points in all four victories to finish second in the ultra-tough SEC East.
The Chick-fil-A Bowl matchup is just the second time since 1937. The Vols downed the Hokies 45-23 in the 1994 Gator Bowl in Jacksonville. All told, the teams have faced each other seven times, the first six meetings coming between 1896 and 1937 (UT leads the series 5-2).
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Monday, December 7, 2009 at 9:34 pm by bud
Tags: ACC, Alabama, Auburn, Chick-fil-A Bowl, East Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Georgia Dome, Georgia Tech, Maryland, N.C. State, North Carolina, SEC, Tennessee, Virginia, Virginia Tech
