I don't know about this because I was born in 1978, but my dad told me that we once lost to Chatt. Does anybody know if that is correct. I think it was in the 60's, but could be wrong.
90 bama would be my #1 tear my gut out loss.
Most years when UT-UK is close you can chalk it up to a combination of UT being lackluster and UK playing like it's their Super Bowl. But not this year; UK didn't do anything at all. Saturday's result was all on UT's offense being not "lackluster," not even "apathetic," but more like straight up quitters.
Classic "Johnny Ball". In 1990 we had beaten a very good Florida team 45-3 the week before and had handed Spurrier his worst loss ever and then the next week we lose to a 2-5 Bama team by a 9-6 score.
It was like when we played Bama, Majors would to into a time machine back to the 1950's and no matter how good our talent was, he would start that predicable run-the-ball-up-the-middle stuff and punt for field position.
But the actual worst loss was 1992 25-24 loss to a very very bad Ark team.
I think I heard my brain break like glass on the final FG.
I wanted Johnny fired that day, but he got to lose 2 more right after that before he is fired. UT was 9-3 that season.
Let me Ad the South Carolina game from the same year,had we taken care of business in those game,we would've played in the very first SEC championship game!
Which homecoming game did we lose in the early 80s? I remember a cold night game with only about 10 people in the stands near the end. Was it one of the Mississippi teams?
Kentucky this year obviously
Arkansas this year
Maryland in the Georgia Dome Bowl
Kansas State in the Cotton Bowl
Clemson in the Georgia Dome Bowl
LSU in the 2001 SEC Championship Game
Duke in 1981 or 1982
Nebraska twice in the Orange Bowl
Florida in 2006
Cal in 2007
These games all left me a feeling of rage toward the coaching staffs for not having the players mentally ready to compete. I also felt embarrassed when we represented the conference and program with substandard football (see all those bowl losses).
The "mail-it-in" disease seems to be particularly prevalent in Knoxville.