A look back at Tennessee Football's history in the Music City Bowl

Tennessee Football is headed back to Nashville for the Music City Bowl, facing Illinois on Tuesday, December 30 in a 5:30 p.m. Eastern Time start on ESPN at Nissan Stadium.

The Vols and Illini have never met on the football field, but Tennessee will be making its fourth trip to the Music City Bowl in the last 15 years.

Here’s a look the previous trips ended in 2010, 2016 and 2021:

2010: North Carolina 30, Tennessee 27

The clock expired in regulation as North Carolina attempted to spike the football. Tennessee players poured onto the field, the referee announced the game was over and Derek Dooley and Butch Davis shook hands. Then the play was reviewed, a second was put back on the clock and the Tar Heels kicked a field goal to force overtime. 

UNC would go on to win in double overtime and the 10-second runoff rule was born as a result. North Carolina had too many men on the field when spiking the football on third down, with the field goal team running onto the field in the midst of the chaos. 

The penalty was enforced despite UNC having no timeouts left, moving the Tar Heels back five yards, with a second on the clock and the clock stopped. The 10-second runoff rule now requires 10 seconds to be taken off the clock on a penalty by the offense, unless the offense has a timeout to use.

“Just when you thought you’d seen it all,” a stunned Dooley said after the game, “you haven’t.” 

Earlier that same season, Tennessee lost 16-14 at No. 12 LSU after having too many men on the field on defense as the time expired with the Tigers at the goal line.

“I thought I’d seen it all at LSU,” Dooley said.

2016: Tennessee 38, Nebraska 24

Josh Dobbs accounted for 409 yards of total offense and four total touchdowns and Derek Barnett setTennessee’s new career record for sacks as the Vols beat Nebraska 38-24 to cap a second straight nine-win season. 

Barnett had 33 sacks in three seasons with the Vols, including 13.0 as a junior in 2016, after 10.0 each in 2014 and 2015. He entered the game tied with Reggie White for the Tennessee record, got the sack he needed late in the game and Tennessee took a timeout to celebrate the milestone. 

Dobbs, in his final game with the Vols, threw for 291 yards and a touchdown and rushed 11 times for 118 yards and three scores on the ground. He ended his Tennessee career with 9,928 total yards and 85 total touchdowns.

2021: Purdue 48, Tennessee 45

Tennessee lost another Music City Bowl in overtime after another controversial finish in 2021. Jaylen Wright was ruled short of the goal line on fourth-and-goal in overtime and the ruling of the spot was upheld after review, with the Boilermakers following the sequence by kicking a field goal to win it. 

“I thought we scored, but you know it’s a tough call,” Tennessee quarterback Hendon Hooker said after the game. “Feels like me and my teammates gave it our all.”

Tennessee was penalized 14 times for 128 yards in the loss, while accounting for 639 yards of total offense. The Vols ended the first season under Josh Heupel with a 7-6 record. 

“End of the day you can’t control when the yellow hankies come out,” Heupel said. “There’s some things I don’t agree with. Yeah, everyone knows that. But it’s about what we can control.”