As a Southeastern Conference assistant football coach, Rodney Garner has made 26 consecutive appearances in bowl games.
Should Tennessee defeat South Alabama this Saturday night in Neyland Stadium, that would make it 27 straight.
The longtime defensive line coach has experienced everything from the BCS national championship contest after the 2013 season, when Auburn came within seconds of knocking off Florida State for the crown, to the Liberty Bowl three years earlier with a 6-6 Georgia, which wound up falling to Central Florida. There have been Sugar Bowl trips with Georgia and Auburn along the way as well as an Orange Bowl journey in his first go-around with the Volunteers during the 1997 season, and a postseason appearance this year would be much more about his players than anything personal.
“Obviously I’m disappointed that we haven’t had the success that we all wanted,” Garner said Tuesday in a news conference, “but when I watch the film on Saturday nights after the games, I’m amazed at how hard they’re playing. We’ve got to play smarter, but they’re straining for one another and competing for one another.”
Garner inherited an experienced nucleus with seniors Ja’Quain Blakely, La’Trell Bumphus, Matthew Butler and Aubrey Solomon, promising sophomores Elijah Simmons and Omari Thomas, and also obtained two additions via the NCAA transfer portal – Da’Jon Terry from Kansas and Caleb Tremblay from Southern California.