JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Tennessee will play its 50th bowl game on Friday against Iowa in the TaxSlayer Bowl in Jacksonville. The Volunteers are tied with Georgia and Virginia Tech for the fourth-most bowl appearances in college football, trailing only Alabama, Texas and Nebraska.
After losses in three of its last four bowls, Tennessee is 25-24 all-time in the postseason games, and a win against the Hawkeyes would move the Vols ahead of Nebraska, which lost Saturday night in the Holiday Bowl, and Florida State, which plays Oregon in a College Football Playoff semifinal tonight, for the sixth-most bowl wins in college football.
Before Tennessee kicks off at EverBank Field on Friday afternoon, though, the Times Free Press takes a quick look back at some of the Vols' more memorable and most important bowl games.
1. 1999 Fiesta Bowl: Tennessee 23, Florida State 16
The Vols rose to the pinnacle of college football by winning the 1998 national championship with a victory over the Seminoles in the first BCS championship game in Tempe, Ariz. Tennessee jumped out to a 14-0 lead in the second quarter on fullback Shawn Bryson's 4-yard touchdown catch and Dwayne Goodrich's 54-yard interception return. With the game in the balance in the fourth quarter, Tee Martin and Peerless Price memorably hooked up for a 79-yard touchdown pass that made it 20-9 and send Tennessee on its way to its sixth and most recent national title.
2. 1986 Sugar Bowl: Tennessee 35, Miami 7
The two recent ESPN documentaries about Miami largely ignored this one. Tennessee blitzed the second-ranked Hurricanes and quarterback Vinny Testaverde -- next season's Heisman Trophy winner -- in a win that led to the Vols finishing the 1985 season at No. 4 in the Associated Press poll, the program's highest final ranking since Tennessee ended the 1974 season ranked 20th. After Miami took a 7-0 lead on Testaverde's touchdown strike to future Dallas Cowboys star Michael Irvin, Daryl Dickey threw an 18-yard touchdown pass to Jeff Smith, and receiver Tim McGee recovered a Tennessee fumble in the end zone before Sam Henderson (1 yard), Jeff Powell (60) and Charles Wilson (6) added scoring runs in the second half. Tennessee sacked Testaverde seven times, forced him to fumble three times and intercepted him three times.
3. Three Florida flings
a. 1996 Florida Citrus Bowl: Tennessee 20, Ohio State 14
The Vols thwarted Eddie George, the Buckeyes' Heisman Trophy-winning running back, on a fourth-and-inches near the goal line in the second quarter and forced three turnovers on Ohio State's final four possessions to make two fourth-quarter field goals by Jeff Hall stand up. Jay Graham had 154 rushing yards and a 69-yard touchdown run, and Peyton Manning threw a 47-yard scoring pass to Joey Kent. The 11-1 finish was Tennessee's best since 1989, and the Vols' No. 2 finish in the coaches' poll was the program's highest in nearly 30 years.
b. 1997 Florida Citrus Bowl: Tennessee 48, Northwestern 28
Manning passed 408 yards and threw four touchdown passes, including two to Peerless Price, in a masterful performance thought at the time to be potentially his last college game. Of course, he wound up deciding to return for his senior season a few weeks later. He turned in one of his best performances in orange against the Wildcats, though, as Tennessee jumped out to a 21-0 lead and ripped off 20 straight points after Northwestern tied the game in the second quarter. Manning completed 27 of 39 passes and set Tennessee bowl records for passing yards and touchdowns.
c. 2002 Florida Citrus Bowl: Tennessee 45, Michigan 17
Perhaps the most talented team of Phillip Fulmer's 16-year tenure as coach ended a season of what-ifs in dominating fashion with a 28-point rout of Michigan. Quarterback Casey Clausen threw for 393 yards, ran for one touchdown and hit Kelley Washington twice and Jason Witten once for touchdowns -- the big tight end outran everyone on his 64-yard score -- while Donte Stallworth caught eight passes for 119 yards. All-American defensive tackle John Henderson forced one fumble and recovered another as the Vols rebounded from a SEC championship game loss to Nick Saban and LSU that knocked them out of a potential BCS championship game showdown with Miami.
4. 1991 Sugar Bowl: Tennessee 23, Virginia 22
Tony Thompson leaped into the end zone from a yard out with 31 seconds left as the Vols rallied from a 16-0 halftime deficit with a 20-point fourth quarter. Thompson ran for 151 yards and two touchdowns, Andy Kelly threw a fourth-quarter touchdown pass to Carl Pickens and Dale Carter notched the game-sealing interception. Tennessee's Cotton Bowl win against No. 10 Arkansas the previous season capped an 11-1 season, but the SEC champion Vols went 9-2-2 against a schedule that included five top-15 teams. The comeback against the unranked Cavaliers allowed Tennessee to notch its second straight top-10 finish.
5. 1939 Orange Bowl: Tennessee 17, Oklahoma 0
Why not go back to the first of Tennessee's 50 bowl games? The Vols clinched their first national championship by completing an 11-0 season in 1938 with a rout of the fourth-ranked Sooners. In its third season of Gen. Robert Neyland's second stint as coach, Tennessee wrapped up a season in which it allowed only 16 points by blanking the Sooners, who entered the game on a 14-game win streak. Bob Foxx and Babe Wood ran for touchdowns, and George Cafego set up one of the scores with a nice punt return.