Vols look to break Georgia Dome jinx in Chick-fil-A Bowl
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
