KNOXVILLE – Were you to poll the Big Orange Nation about the biggest games on the University of Tennessee football schedule each year, odds are most of their responses would center on Alabama and Florida, with Georgia coming in a somewhat distant third.
Even Kentucky and Vanderbilt might get a few mentions, if only because they’re usually wins won at a critical time for bowl bids, and because the Volunteers have faced the Wildcats a total of 113 times and Vanderbilt 111 times.
But when it comes to an opponent having an immediate impact on the UT program, it would be hard to top the role that South Carolina – which welcomes the Vols to Columbia on Saturday night – has played since joining the Southeastern Conference in time for the 1992 season.
Or don’t you remember what happened that year following the Vols’ 24-23 road loss to the Gamecocks?
It was in the week following that defeat that Johnny Majors was asked to resign in order to promote then-assistant Phillip Fulmer to the top spot. The Vols would win their final three regular-season games with Majors officially still at the helm, but he declined to coach the Hall of Fame Bowl in Tampa against Boston College.