While there have been many, many lows for Tennessee in LSU games this millennium, there was one night of excitement and sheer joy. Yes, the night we walked into Tiger Stadium, watched one of the two worst halves of football of a UT quarterback ever, came back from a 21 point halftime deficit (and 17 point 4th quarter deficit!), and crashed LSU's home opener/Les Miles' home opener, oh yeah, and their hurricane Katrina party. For those that don't remember, this game was played on a Monday night. Why? Because Slive did his one and only favor for UT in his tenure and forced LSU to move the game. Why? Because Hurricane Rita was ripping through the area that Saturday, and LSU administration wanted to play the game anyway. This is a top 5 favorite victory of mine. And the lesson learned? Tennessee ain't skeer'd of Tiger Stadium.
The stories of Tennessee fans riding around after the game with Rock You Like a Hurricane blasting will always make me smile.
Slive could have had them play in Knoxville instead and that would have been a more responsible decision.
I was living in New Orleans at the time, and actually evacuated to Baton Rouge a month prior for Hurricane Dennis. I ended up riding out Katrina in Mobile, AL before making my way to Boston a week later. Will never forget watching that game in sports bar in Boston…in the first half, every tv in the bar was on the Red Sox game, with the exception of one TV in the back corner with UT @ LSU….and my miserable drunk ass trying to figure out who to single-handedly superstitiously change our fortunes by switching my drinks, turning my shirt inside out, switching chairs… midway through the 4th quarter, they’d turned every tv in that bar on the UT game, we had Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” on the jukebox, and every local Bostonian in that bar became a drunk, honorary UT fan, at least for that one night. College football is not their thing up there, but the excitement of that comeback on an otherwise uneventful Monday night was too infectious. Everybody was cheering, high-fiving, celebrating Tennessee….just a random, but unforgettable night.
At the time, no visiting team had ever overcome a 21-point deficit to win in Death Valley. I don’t know if anyone else has done it since, but Vols were historic that night.
One of my friends had to get hustled out of Walmart before getting beat to death after saying “oh yeah well at least my house isn’t under water”
The highlight of this game will always be the Ainge bouquet toss and getting slammed into the [uck fay]ing goal post.
And in exchange for that improbable win on the heels of Louisiana having their heart ripped out in the aftermath of a devastating hurricane a voodoo witch priestess casted a 15 year curse dooming Tennessee football. Was all downhill for Fulmer and Tennessee football from that point forward.
Don't forget that Rick Clausen was a third string qb for lsu the year before and had transferred. He was hilariously trolling the student section at the end of the game.
I watched a guy who put 500 bucks on Tennessee he didn't have nearly die during the game. He was hyperventilating and mumbling to cheering. We watched it in Knoxville Place, which is now dorms, partied all night and went to campus to greet the team. I made the local news standing on the Rock singing Rocky Top with a half drunk bottle of Jack Daniels. I didn't go to class on Tuesday
He harbored a lot of ill will towards LSU but I didn't really understand why he went there in the first place. Saban and Jimbo were using an offense that didn't fit him at all. Rick majored in Leisure Studies, which always made me laugh
If you would have told me at halftime of that game that we’d go on to finish 5-6 and unranked, I would’ve bought it. If you would have told me that two hours later, it would’ve been the most unrealistic nonsense I’d ever heard.
I’m thinking the voodoo priestess was R. Davies mother and the curse started when we knocked him out of the SEC championship game in 2001.
