The Tennessee Volunteers football team represents the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UT) in the sport of American football. The Volunteers compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) and the Eastern Division of the Southeastern Conference (SEC).
Having played their first season in 1891, the Vols have amassed a successful tradition for well over a century, with their combined record of 799-356-52 ranking them ninth on the list of all-time winningest major college programs as well as second on the list of winningest SEC programs. Their all-time ranking in bowl appearances is third (49) and sixth in all-time bowl victories. They boast six national titles in their history and their last national championship was in the 1998 college football season.
The Vols play at historic Neyland Stadium, where Tennessee has an all-time winning record of 430 games, the second-highest home-field total in college football history for any school in the nation at its current home venue. Only Georgia Tech's Bobby Dodd Stadium, which opened in 1913, eight years before the 1921 opening of Neyland, has hosted more victories (432) for its team. Additionally, its 102,455 seat capacity makes Neyland the nation's fourth largest stadium and largest below the Mason-Dixon Line.
On November 3, 2008, Head Coach Phillip Fulmer announced that he would be stepping down from his position at the end of the season after a winning total of 152 games at his alma mater, followed, four weeks later, by UT's November 30 announcement that Oakland Raiders former head coach Lane Kiffin had been selected as his replacement. Lane Kiffin then left the program on January 12, 2010 to become USC's head coach after less than 14 months on the job. On January 15, 2010, Derek Dooley was named as the Vols' 22nd all-time head coach. However, following a 32-41 record over 3 seasons, Dooley was fired as the head coach after a November 17, 2012 loss to the Vanderbilt Commodores and was replaced with Butch Jones, formerly the head coach of the University of Cincinnati, in December 2012.
Read more about Tennessee Volunteers Football: Logos and Uniforms, Rivalries, Head Coaching History, All-time Record, Bowl Games, Current Coaching Staff, Captains, Hall of Fame, Past and Present NFL Players, Future Non-conference Opponents
Famous quotes containing the words volunteers and/or football:
“Friendship is but another name for an alliance with the follies and the misfortunes of others. Our own share of miseries is sufficient: why enter then as volunteers into those of another?”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“Idon’t enjoy getting knocked about on a football field for other people’s amusement. I enjoy it if I’m being paid a lot for it.”
—David Storey (b. 1933)