Top 5 College Football Games I’ve Attended- Honorable Mention
By Tucker Harlin
Ahead of the 2024 football season, I have been to 75 college football games over the last 18 seasons. I will be adding at least seven more to that tally this fall.
Of course, a vast majority of that 75 is Tennessee, and a good chunk of the last 20 years for the Vols has been rough sledding.
Given that fact, my selection of Tennessee games for this list was pretty easy. However, there’s a non Tennessee game in there that might surprise you.
These are in ascending order, broken up by game, with an honorable mention.
HM- SOUTH CAROLINA @ TENNESSEE 2013- Gamecocks 21 Vols 23
This was the classic “no business” win for Tennessee, something it has only done once or twice in my viewing experience.
This game fell right in the middle of the 10 week gauntlet that Butch Jones’ squad had to run in 2013.
The gauntlet began with a thorough 59-14 blasting from Marcus Mariota and Oregon in Eugene. The very next week, the Vols lost another Swamp disaster 31-17 to Florida.
September ended with a win over South Alabama that felt more like a loss. The Jaguars scored 17 unanswered in the fourth quarter in the Vols’ 31-24 survival.
October began with the heartbreak of heartbreaks as the Vols fumbled away a win over Georgia in overtime.
South Carolina had suffered a 41-30 loss to that same Georgia team in Athens, but it had come out on top in every other game to start 2013.
Steve Spurrier’s bunch was in its last year of the program’s best four years ever. The Gamecocks had a future first overall pick in Jadeveon Clowney and a pretty nasty running back in Mike Davis.
The only “advantage” Tennessee really had going into this weekend was it was coming off a bye. South Carolina was in the midst of a road stretch, but it had just destroyed an Arkansas team that was arguably the worst in the SEC.
The first half of the game was primarily positive for the Vols.
South Carolina’s only lead came when Connor Shaw uncorked a deep pass to Damiere Byrd to give it a 7-3 advantage.
The Vols fired right back with a pass touchdown to Pig Howard to regain the lead. The Gamecock went three and out, and the Vols capitalized and took a 17-7 lead to half thanks to a Raijon Neal rush touchdown.
But this South Carolina team wasn’t just going to roll over and die.
On the Gamecocks’ second possession, the aforementioned Mike Davis ran for 21 yards and a score to cut Tennessee’s lead.
After another Vols three and out, the Gamecocks punched in a one-yard keeper from Shaw to take a 21-17 lead after three.
The Vols didn’t quit though. Michael Palardy hit a field goal to cut their deficit to one early on in the fourth.
There was an offensive stalemate for about minutes of game time, but Tennessee was about to shock the college football world.
Following a pair of incompletions, Tennessee was looking at a 3rd and 10 with a little over two minutes remaining.
Justin Worley looked down the sideline and somehow managed to stick a 39-yard pass right into Marquez North’s breadbasket to take the Vols to South Carolina’s 26-yard line.
A handful of Marlin Lane runs later, Tennessee was looking at a 19-yard field goal.
Michael Palardy nailed it.
Tennessee’s win over #11 South Carolina was just the beginning of one of the wackiest and somehow most forgotten days of SEC football in recent memory.
Vanderbilt won 31-27 against the same Georgia team that had taken down Tennessee and South Carolina earlier in the season that afternoon.
Later that afternoon, #24 Auburn went to College Station and outran reigning Heisman winner Johnny Manziel and #7 Texas A&M in a 45-41 thriller.
That night, a late field goal lifted unranked Ole Miss to a 27-24 win over #6 LSU, a power that had been among the best in the country the last five seasons.
