KNOXVILLE - Tennessee's final football game of the calendar year was a 28-10 Southeastern Conference win over Vanderbilt on Nov. 30 at Neyland Stadium.
Tennessee's final football game of the 2019 season will be a January bowl in the Sunshine State.
The Volunteers, who went 7-5 in the regular season to reach bowl eligibility for the first time since 2016, will face Indiana (8-4) in the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl at 7 p.m. on Jan. 2 at TIAA Bank Field.
"I want to thank TaxSlayer Gator Bowl President and CEO Rick Catlett and chairman Rich Thompson, and the committee and volunteers that work so hard to make the Gator Bowl so special each year," Tennessee athletic director Phillip Fulmer said in a university release announcing the bowl destination. "The University of Tennessee is proud to be a part of its rich history, and we are very excited to bring this passionate fan base and hungry football team to Jacksonville."
During Fulmer's time as Tennessee's football coach, the Vols won their lone Gator Bowl appearance, beating Virginia Tech 45-23 in December 1994. Notably, that game was not played in Jacksonville but in Gainesville at the University of Florida's Ben Hill Griffin Stadium - better known as the Swamp - while the venue known as the Gator Bowl was razed and replaced with the current one.
Tennessee and Indiana will meet on a football field for just the second time. The Vols finished the 1987 season 10-2-1 thanks to their 27-22 Peach Bowl win over the Hoosiers in Atlanta.
The Vols will go to Florida having won five straight games and six of their past seven. This will be their fifth bowl appearance since the 2010 season, and Sunday's announcement came after multiple options seemed possible heading into conference championship weekend.
"We are extremely excited to be headed to the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl," coach Jeremy Pruitt said in the release. "This is a credit to our players, our coaching staff, our support staff, our administration and our fans.
"The Gator Bowl has a rich history and we are honored to be a part of the 75th edition of the game. Jacksonville is a fantastic city and I know our fans will travel and support us. We've had a great second half of the season, winning five straight, but we are not done yet."
Early this season, a bowl game felt more like a pipe dream. The Vols were 1-4 and coming off a 43-14 loss to Georgia when they started their turnaround with a 20-10 home win over Mississippi State on Oct. 12. Although they lost 35-13 a week later at Alabama - the Crimson Tide were undefeated and ranked No. 1 at the time - the Vols' performance in Tuscaloosa gave them and their fans reason for optimism.
Tennessee has since beaten South Carolina, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Kentucky, Missouri and Vanderbilt to secure their best regular-season record since 8-4 in 2016.
The Hoosiers have lost two of their past three games after winning four straight. All four of their losses were against conference opponents that were nationally ranked at the time: 51-10 to Ohio State, 40-31 at Michigan State, 34-27 at Penn State and 39-14 to Michigan.
Indiana has scored at least 27 points 10 times this season despite losing starting quarterback Michael Penix Jr. to injury midway through the schedule. Penix, a redshirt freshman who was committed to Tennessee at one point but withdrew his nonbinding pledge when Butch Jones was fired, threw for 1,394 yards and 10 touchdowns in six games.
Peyton Ramsey, a redshirt junior who started last year, took over for Penix and has passed for 2,227 yards and 13 touchdowns in 10 games this season.
Tennessee will be making its seventh appearance in the Gator Bowl - the game that started in the 1945 season was known as the TaxSlayer Bowl from the 2014 through the 2017 seasons - and is 4-2 in those games. Here's a breakdown of the Vols' past appearances.
Dec. 28, 1957 - Tennessee 3, Texas A&M 0: A Sammy Burklow field goal with 5:30 left to play provided the only points in the Vols' win over the Aggies in head coach Paul "Bear" Bryant's final game at A&M before taking over at Alabama. It was the lowest-scoring game in the history of the Gator Bowl as the teams combined for just 360 yards of offense, with the Vols' Bobby Gordon accounting for 60 yards rushing and 56 passing.
Dec. 31, 1966 - Tennessee 18, Syracuse 12: The Vols jumped out to an 18-0 lead on the strength of a pair of Gary Wright field goals and Dewey Warren touchdown passes of 24 yards to tight end Austin Denney and 2 yards to Richmond Flowers. Syracuse rallied behind running backs Floyd Little and Larry Csonka, who combined for 330 yards and had both scores. Tennessee made a late-game stop at its own 3-yard line that aided in the win.
Dec. 27, 1969 - Florida 14, Tennessee 13: The Vols outgained Florida by 137 yards but lost the turnover battle 3-1 and had a blocked punt that was returned for a touchdown. Curt Watson finished with 121 rushing yards, and Lester McClain caught a 12-yard touchdown pass from Bobby Scott to help the Vols go ahead 10-7 in the first half. The Gators took the lead in the third quarter, though, and a Tennessee possession that ended in a short field goal served as the difference because a touchdown would have given the Vols the lead.
Dec. 30, 1973 - Texas Tech 28, Tennessee 19: The Red Raiders led 14-3 at halftime, but Haskel Stanback had a pair of second-half touchdowns, one on a 5-yard run and another on a 7-yard catch on a throw by Condredge Holloway, who passed for 190 yards in the game. The latter score cut Texas Tech's lead to 21-19 but the conversion failed, and the Red Raiders drove downfield and scored on a Larry Isaac 3-yard run. Texas Tech rushed for 276 yards in the game.
Dec. 30, 1994 - Tennessee 45, Virginia Tech 23: James Stewart rushed for 85 yards and three touchdowns and passed for another score, and Tennessee jumped out to a 35-10 halftime lead before cruising to the win. The Vols had 495 yards of total offense and scored on five of their seven first-half possessions, with Peyton Manning tossing a 36-yard touchdown pass to Marcus Nash. Manning passed for 189 yards, including a 42-yard completion to Joey Kent, who finished with 116 yards on six receptions.
Jan. 2, 2015 - Tennessee 45, Iowa 28: Joshua Dobbs had two touchdown runs and one touchdown pass, and Jalen Hurd ran for two scores and 122 of the Vols' 283 rushing yards in a game they led 28-0 early in the second quarter and 42-7 entering the fourth. Tennessee's first postseason victory since the Outback Bowl on New Year's Day 2008 came after it won three of its final four regular-season games - beating South Carolina in overtime, routing Kentucky and triumphing by a touchdown at Vanderbilt - just to become bowl eligible.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3 or at Facebook.com/VolsUpdate.