2022 was the year of home-field advantage for Tennessee

Tennessee looked at home at Hard Rock Stadium Friday night. The Vols were in their traditional home uniform, wearing white helmets, orange jerseys and white pants. They scored the first two touchdowns of the game in a checkerboard end zone. The majority of the announced crowd of 63,912 fans in the stadium were Tennessee fans. 

No wonder the sixth-ranked Vols had no problem taking care of No. 7 Clemson in their 31-14 win in the 89th Capital One Orange Bowl. After all, 2022 was the year of Tennessee home-field — or home-court — advantage.

Tennessee football, Tennessee men’s basketball and Tennessee baseball combined to go a staggering 60-5 in home games during the 2022 calendar year.

Football went a perfect 7-0 at Neyland Stadium, the first perfect record in Knoxville for the Vols since 2007. Rick Barnes’ basketball team was 15-0 at Thompson-Boling Arena and Tony Vitello’s baseball team was 38-5 at Lindsey Nelson Stadium during an unprecedented season. 

The three teams won 92.3 percent of their home games.

Tennessee football went undefeated at home for first time since 2007

Tennessee football set the tone for its 11-win season — the first time the Vols won 11 games since 2001 — during a Thursday night season-opener against Ball State on September 1. The first snap of the game was a Tamarion McDonald interception. The first snap for Tennessee’s offense was a touchdown pass from Hendon Hooker to Jalin Hyatt. 

From there, Tennessee would hang 63 on Akron at home, snap a five-game losing skid against Florida and beat Alabama for the first time since 2007 in an all-time thriller, winning 52-49 on a walk-off field goal on October 15. The capacity crowd rushed the field after the game, sang Dixieland Delight, smoked cigars then tore down the goal post, carrying them out of the stadium and throwing them in the Tennessee River.

The Vols put 65 on UT Martin at home a week later, picked off Kentucky quarterback Will Levis three times on October 29 and scored 66, the most during the Josh Heupel era to date, in a win over Missouri at home on November 12. 

Vols went a combined 53-5 at home in basketball, baseball

Tennessee baseball’s 23-game win streak last season was fueled by 15 home wins. The Vols swept South Carolina and Missouri at Lindsey Nelson and took two of three at home against Alabama, Auburn and Georgia. They started the season with eight straight wins at home, the start of what would end up being a 57-win season, setting a new program record. 

At Thompson-Boling, Tennessee basketball’s 15-0 record at home included a 77-73 win over a previously undefeated Arizona team, another home win over Kentucky — the fifth home win over the Wildcats during the Barnes era — and others wins over LSU, Florida, Auburn and Arkansas.  

Tennessee is currently 6-0 at home to start the 2022-23 seasons, running the Thompson-Boling win streak to 22 games.