How Tennessee's mentality propelled the Vols in the 1974 Liberty Bowl 

Bill Battle pondered the message from a pew inside the Park Avenue Baptist Church in Memphis. 

As the pastor talked about the battle of life being won and lost in the mind, Battle’s own mind was at the Liberty Bowl, where 24 hours later his Tennessee team would play Maryland in the final game of the 1974 season. 

“I talked to our team about their mental attitude,” Battle told reporters. “I think the game may come down to who wants to play the most, who wants to hit people in the mouth and who would rather stand by the hand-warmer.”

For much of the following night, the Vols might have been longing for the hand warmer while the Terrapins’ defensive end Randy White did much of the hitting. But in the end, it was battered and bruised Tennessee, one familiar hero and an unlikely one that landed the final blow in a 7-3 Liberty Bowl win 51 years ago this week.  

It was a fitting finish for the Vols, who started their season with a tie against UCLA at Neyland Stadium worthy of a film script. 

Conredge Holloway, Tennessee’s own Houdini who made a living pulling off one magic act after another, pulled off arguably his greatest stunt when he went down with a brutal shoulder injury only to make a triumphant return from the hospital in the third quarter and score the game-tying touchdown late in a 17-17 draw. 

A month later, Holloway paid off Battle’s gamble when he slipped from the grip of the Clemson defense and passed to Larry Seivers in the back corner of the end zone on a go-ahead two-point conversion attempt to beat the Tigers, 28-27. 

In the win that locked up Tennessee’s Liberty Bowl bid, Stanley Morgan dove across the goal line to pull the Vols within two of Vanderbilt with seven seconds left. Holloway, bad knee and all, lofted another pass to Seivers in the end zone—this one for a 21-21 tie in Nashville. 

“I could have come to the sideline and hung it up,” Holloway said later. “My knee was hurting, but I kept telling myself, ‘This is the last one. This is the end.’ I wasn’t coming off that field unless it was on a stretcher.”

Holloway’s career was full of such moments, a virtual highlight reel for a player ahead of his time. He played through so much injury that Battle once gave him an out to pursue professional baseball. He scoffed at the idea, opting to stick it out at Tennessee. 

The Liberty Bowl against ACC Champion Maryland was supposed to be Holloway’s grand finale. Late in the third quarter, he was in vintage form. 

Holloway spent much of the night trying—often in vain—to get away from White, who went on to play 13 years for the Dallas Cowboys.

Tommy West learned the hard way. The Vols’ tight end was tasked with trying to slow White down. On the first play, he tried to set the tone, putting everything he had into a block. 

“When Tommy got back to the bench he said, ‘Oh man, I hit that guy as hard as I could and bounced off him,’” Seivers recalled in Russ Bebb’s book VOLS: Three Decades of Big Orange Football. “‘He just kept going. This is going to be a long day.’”

West was plenty motivated. Broadcaster Jim Lampley, who was on the call for ABC, bet West $100 before the game that he couldn’t get White on the ground at least once. Lampley held on to his money. 

Tennessee’s offense went two quarters without crossing midfield, and Maryland’s field goal in the early-going of the second quarter almost looked like it was going to be enough until Holloway put together the Vols’ best drive of the night. 

He kept the ball and danced through the Terps’ defense for a 26-yard run late in the third quarter. Holloway’s pitch to Mike Gayles went for 17 yards and set Tennessee up at the 5-yard line. 

The drive stalled there, though and a botched snap on a game-tying field goal attempt kept Maryland in front and the Vols on the ropes with few chances left.

To make the outlook even more bleak for Tennessee, White hit Holloway as he went for the loose ball and knocked him out cold. Randy Wallace, the sophomore quarterback from Jacksonville, Florida, was next in line. 

But the Terps were on the doorstep of putting the Vols away for good late. All they needed was one yard. 

On third-and-1, tailback Louis Carter got the call. He ran into Kevin Davis, but spun out of it. He didn’t have as much luck against Mike Mauk and Jon Murdic as the two crashing in to stop Louis short. 

The prospect of giving the ball back to Tennessee’s struggling offense might not have concerned Maryland too much, but a high snap to punter Phil Waganheim left the ball laying on the turf before orange jerseys swarmed to it. 

The Vols had the ball at the Terps’ 7 and some life. The first play was a handoff to Paul Careathers that went nowhere. On the next play, Wallace was thrown for a 4-yard loss by White. 

Battle called timeout, put his arm around Wallace on the sideline and called, “62-Flood Special.” Then as Wallace was trotting back to the huddle, Battle said, “Tell them they better block Randy White.”

Wallace dropped back, this time with some breathing room. It only took a moment for Seivers to break open in the middle of the end zone. Seivers leapt high over one defender and snagged the ball out of the frigid Memphis air. 

Tennessee had the lead for the first time, and now, for good. 

Before Wallace reached the sideline, Holloway was the first to greet him. 

“Randy said in the huddle that he’d just lay the ball up to me and he did,” Seivers said. “I’m sure glad we got that break.”

There was still some time—and drama left. Maryland drove down and had a couple of shots to the end zone to win it. The first was thrown by Carter and caught by Frank Russell, but just out of the end zone. 

Russell griped to reporters in the postgame that the SEC officiating crew got the call wrong. 

“That’s Southern football for you,” he said. 

There were no close calls on the second throw. Ernie Ward ran under a tipped pass for the game-sealing interception and the clock ran out on a Vols’ season that ended the only way it could. 

“We play with it for 58 minutes,” Gayles said. “Then we win in the last two.”