Editor’s note: This is a daily series revisiting 100 past Tennessee football games ahead of the Vols’ season opener against Syracuse on Aug. 30 in Atlanta. It is not a ranking of games.

The Tennessee football program had been waiting on this one for awhile.

So had the 85,936 Orange-clad faithful inside Neyland Stadium that Saturday afternoon on Sept. 29, 1979–at the time the largest crowd to see an SEC game ever.

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The Vols, who had wandered through the desert of college football mediocrity for the last five years, had a major breakthrough against Auburn, beating the Tigers, 35-17.

This signature win, the first of the Johnny Majors era, required no theatrics. Tennessee dominated, from the time the opening kickoff landed in the arms of Gary Moore.

Moore was the tone setter, taking the ball at the 2-yard line before streaking down the east sideline. He ran into a cluster of his own blockers around midfield, but bounced out of it.

Moore’s 98-yard return for a touchdown was also a trend-breaker for the Vols, who had gotten off to slow starts on previous games that season.

Not on this day.

The Auburn offense drove down and scored on its first possession, withstanding the first blow landed by Tennessee. But the blows didn’t stop.

The Vols landed another when quarterback Jimmy Streater linked up with Reggie Harper for a 10-yard score. Tennessee was in front for good this time.

Moore scored the Vols third touchdown, and his second. He powered Tennessee downfield in the second quarter, breaking off run after run to set the offense up at the Tigers’ 10.

He took another handoff from Streater, barreled through an Auburn defender and backed pedaled into the end zone for a 21-7 lead.

And it wasn’t just the offense. The Vols’ defense accounted for three interceptions, including a late second quarter snag from Val Barksdale that set up a drive against the clock.

Streater capped that drive with a 6-yard scoring scramble with four seconds left to open up a 28-7 advantage at halftime.

The Tigers tried to stay in it, scoring in the third quarter to trim its deficit to two scores. Streater clapped back with a 28-yard touchdown run.

Tennessee posted 479 yards of total offense, and Streater raced for 106 of those.

The Vols were 3-0 for the first time since 1973, and the triumph extended their win streak to six games dating back to the previous season.

The ‘79 season was a mixed bag. Tennessee lost to Rutgers and turned around the following week and pulled off another major victory over Notre Dame.

The Vols finished 7-5 and made a bowl game for the first time under Majors.

“I don’t know how good either team is,” Majors told reporters after the game. “But I know we are a long way ahead of where we’ve been. This was the best 60 minutes of football against a good team since I’ve been here.”

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