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2. Alabama 1982
If the un-ranked Tennessee Vols were supposed to lay down and let the No. 2 Alabama Crimson Tide roll right over them, no one told them that. Because Tennessee played better than the Crimson Tide throughout the entire contest. But Alabama would make the Neyland crowd of 95,000-plus sweat it out with one last drive. And Vol Nation watched in sheer exhilaration as Lee Jenkins and Bill Bates converged upon an Alabama wide receiver in the end zone, Jenkins deflecting the pass into the waiting arms of Mike Terry. The interception preserved a 35-28 win that snapped Tennessee’s 11-game losing streak to Alabama in what would be Bear Bryant’s last ever trip to Knoxville. The Vols finished a medicore 6-5-1 that year, but they had finally snapped the streak that helped get them over the hump in becoming a legitimate SEC contender, year-in, year-out, for the better part of the two decades that would follow.
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