Vols jumped to No. 1 after victory over UAB
Editor’s note: This is the eighth story in a series reflecting on the 1998 Tennessee football team that finished 13-0 and won the BCS national championship.
Thrilling, narrow victories over Syracuse, Florida and Arkansas highlighted Tennessee’s undefeated run in 1998.
But a rather mundane win over lowly Alabama-Birmingham in the eighth game of the season propelled the Volunteers to their first No. 1 national ranking of the season.
Ohio State entered the weekend ranked No. 1, but the Buckeyes lost at home to an unranked Michigan State team coached by Nick Saban. That outcome opened the door for the Vols to climb atop the Associated Press poll for the first time since 1956.
A homecoming crowd of 106,508 watched as Tennessee easily handled the visiting Blazers 37-13. Chants of “It’s great to be a Tennessee Vol” rang out from around the stadium as fans exited knowing the Vols almost assuredly were going to be No. 1 the following Monday.
In his book “A Perfect Season,” Phillip Fulmer wrote that he noticed more questions for his team about its ranking and standing in the first year of the Bowl Championship Series entering the UAB game than questions about the actual game.
“My concern was not in overlooking a team but in being distracted by things over which we had no control,” Fulmer wrote. “That’s what I shared with out players. I said we have little control over how some computer ranks us or how the Bowl Championship people rank us. But we do have ultimate control over our games against UAB, Arkansas, Kentucky and Vanderbilt.”
The Vols lost three fumbles against UAB but led 24-3 at halftime thanks to touchdown runs from Travis Henry, Travis Stephens and Tee Martin. Tennessee never punted in the game.
Tennessee’s 15th straight homecoming victory brought the Vols within three wins of a perfect regular season. A game against 10th-ranked Arkansas was next.
Word broke about Ohio State’s loss as the Vols returned to the locker room after the game. The team erupted in cheers.
“We sang our Tennessee Victory Song with a little more enthusiasm today,” Fulmer wrote. “The players were excited about the possibility of being ranked number one in the nation. I’ve got to admit as I drove home Saturday night, I was excited, too. It had been a great Homecoming day at Tennessee. We had climbed another step.”