Tony Thompson couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

The high school football standout from Lake Wales, Florida watched from home as Jeff Powell raced down the Louisiana Superdome sideline to put the finishing touches on Tennessee's 35-7 thumping of No. 2 Miami in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans on Jan. 1, 1986.

The Vols didn’t just knock off one of the premier college football programs of the 1980s, they set in motion a dominant run of their own, one that caught the attention of Thompson and paved the way for him to make his own Sugar Bowl memories in the same building six years to the night.

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“To me, what started it was the ‘85 Sugar Bowl team,” Thompson recalled. “Before that season, Tennessee was good, but I’m from Florida. They were still pulling in (recruits) regionally until that year. Once they beat Miami on that national stage in that Sugar Bowl…you beat the Miami Hurricanes in the middle of the 80s, Tennessee became a national school. I wouldn’t have gone to Tennessee if they didn’t beat Miami. I saw Johnnie Jones, I saw Tony Robinson but it wasn’t enough to pull me out of Florida. Everybody expected me to go to one of the Florida schools.

“Once they won that game, Tennessee became a viable option for me. They got me on a recruiting trip and I was like, ‘I love this place. I love the people. I love the football program. I love the coaches.’”

By Thompson’s senior season, Tennessee had won an SEC championship in 1989 and were primed for another in 1990. They had all the pieces to do it—and the confidence.

Ahead of the 100th season of Tennessee football, the Vols opened in the top 10 of both major polls and returned junior quarterback Andy Kelly, a homegrown kid from Rhea County who was thrust into the starting role following a 47-30 loss to Alabama the year before.

The backfield featured Thompson and Chuck Webb and the receiving corps was headlined by Carl Pickens and Alvin Harper.

On defense, Tennessee added versatile safety Dale Carter and defensive end Chuck Smith from the junior college ranks while returning linebacker Darryl Hardy and defensive back J.J. McClesky, among others.

“During the whole camp, we felt like we had a good team,” Pickens said. “We felt like we could give it a run. We had a good team, offensively. We had some good JUCO guys come in and help us out on defense, so we felt like we could play with anybody in the country.”

“There were high expectations for that team because we were a loaded team. We had plenty of talent. Olympic caliber, world class caliber talent," Thompson added. "Back then, in those days, Tennessee was a destination. It was a destination for recruits. Tennessee could pull the top recruits from all over the nation. We had many players from the West Coast, from all over. Florida, Ohio, New Jersey, all the top tiers.

"It was a destination spot. We had top tier talent from all over...We were pretty confident about that team and the coaches were."

Tennessee had a chance to prove how good it could be right out of the gate.

The Vols opened the season against fifth-ranked Colorado in the Disneyland Pigskin Classic in Anaheim, California, matching the No. 8 and No. 5 teams, respectively in the Associated Press Top 25.

Colorado led 31-17 late in the fourth quarter when Kelly pulled Tennessee within one score with a 14-yard touchdown pass to Pickens and a 74-yard drive ended in a Webb run with the ensuing extra point preserving a 31-31 tie to start a season of promise with mixed emotions.

"We thought about (going for two points) the whole game,' Tennessee head coach Johnny Majors told reporters after the game. "But I thought we would get the ball back, and we did. But I know darn well we didn't deserve to lose."

All of the goals remained on the table, especially the SEC, but the Vols would have to do it without Webb. He suffered a season-ending injury in the second week of the season in a 55-7 win over Pacific but Thompson was a more than capable back. He rushed for 248 yards and two touchdowns vs. Mississippi State a week later.

Tennessee entered its week 5 bout with No. 3 Auburn at Jordan-Hare Stadium on a dominant three-game win streak and ranked fifth, but the Vols found themselves on the other end of a late rally with the Tigers overcoming a 19-3 deficit to even the final score at 26-26.

MORE FROM VOLREPORT: How it started: A look at Vols' preseason AP Top 25 history

Another top 10 opportunity presented itself a week later in Knoxville and Tennessee left no path for a comeback in its 45-3 dismantling of No. 10 Florida that was highlighted by a 28-point third quarter, sparked by Carter's 91-yard kickoff return for a touchdown.

Then the momentum came to a screeching halt again in the form of a frustrating 9-6 home loss to unranked Alabama to drop the Vols to 4-1-2.

Visions of a national title were fading.

“The confidence never wavered, but I think we were overconfident in some instances,” Thompson said. “We didn’t think we were ever going to lose and there were some instances where we should have prepared a little bit better, where we took the competition a little too lightly. That was the problem with that team.”

Tennessee didn’t take Notre Dame lightly in November.

The Fighting Irish were No. 1 and unbeaten, giving Tennessee a chance to get back into the national picture on its home turf.

Kelly had a career day, completing 35 of 60 passes for 399 yards and setting program records in attempts and completions. His performance helped Tennessee to a 23-20 lead in the fourth quarter, but Notre Dame scored twice to go in front.

A Kelly touchdown pass to Harper with less than two minutes left put the Vols within 34-29 and an onside kick gave them a shot at a game-winning drive. Tennessee reached the Notre Dame 20-yard line, but an interception ended any hopes of a comeback.

The loss ended Tennessee's 21-game win streak in the month of November.

“We played (Notre Dame) hard. We didn’t have anything to lay down about,” Pickens said. “We came to play the same as they did. Even though they were No. 1, they were in for a dog fight. We weren’t intimidated by their name, their reputation. When it’s Saturday at 1 o’clock, it’s time to play so that’s the approach we took.”

Tennessee ended the regular season with three-straight wins, including one over No. 15 Ole Miss and the Vols were named conference champions for the second consecutive season after beating Vanderbilt, 49-20.

For the seventh time in program history, Tennessee would play in the Sugar Bowl.

Maybe there was still an outside chance Tennessee could win a national championship, Thompson thought.

The prospect was unlikely, but an SEC championship and potentially beating a power like Florida State or Miami on a national stage would make for an impressive resume in a season where neither major selector could decide on a consensus champion.

At the very least, Tennessee could work its way into the top five of the final polls and that provided plenty of motivation. Instead, the Vols were matched with the ACC's third place team in Virginia.

The Cavaliers reached No. 1 in the AP poll and stayed there for three weeks during the regular season, but injuries plagued them down the stretch—including to quarterback Shawn Moore—and they ended up dropping out of the top 25 after losing three of their last four games.

"What we really wanted to do was play a higher ranked team," Thompson said. "We thought that if we beat a higher ranked team, we still had a shot at the national title in our mind. Or we would at least get a bump and finish in the top three. We wanted to play one of the teams that had all the hype. So we wanted to play Florida State or Miami.

"It was like, ‘OK, if we could get any one of those two, we would rather play them.’ We wanted a stage. We wanted a national stage and everything that comes with it."

So Tennessee players enjoyed New Orleans.

In the week leading up to the game, Thompson and his teammates felt confident. The Vols were five point favorites, champions of the SEC and by that point, seasoned veterans of big games, making it easier to enjoy all that the Big Easy had to offer.

“That was part of the problem. We partied really hard in New Orleans the whole time. That’s why we kind of came in flat," Thompson said. "For one, we underestimated Virginia because they did fall out of the top 10 but they got everybody back...Virginia was highly motivated because they felt disrespected. We kind of dismissed them in a sense. So, (Virginia) felt that and all the weekly activities, shoot, it was New Orleans. It was like, ‘let’s go out and experience some of this stuff.’ We weren’t locked in. You’re talking about 18, 19, 20-year-old kids. It’s just different.

"You’re just having fun. Our boys had a lot of fun at all of the events and even some of the unsponsored events. We had a blast.”

Virginia might have felt disrespected. It might have been that the Cavaliers' game plan to take Tennessee out of its element was sound. Maybe it was both.

Whatever it was, for two quarters, it looked like Virginia was the only team inside the Superdome that was interested in being there.

Kelly threw a pair of interceptions and Thompson had a fumble. On special teams, Virginia wisely kept the ball away from Carter and its offense—with Moore back— used the option to eat clock and keep the Tennessee offense off of the field.

"We came into that came and we were flat. I mean, in every phase, we were flat," Thompson said. "The kicking game, the defense, the offense. We all had miscues. Give Virginia some credit. You could tell they looked at a lot of game film and you could tell that game plan they had for us was excellent in every phase of the game...They just ran the ball. They kept the ball. We barely had the ball on offense...We were sitting on the sideline like, ‘are we ever going to get a chance?’"

The result of Virginia's approach was a 16-0 halftime advantage that seemed more insurmountable than it actually was. When Tennessee filed into the locker room, Thompson saw a side of Majors he had never seen.

"Johnny Majors lit us up, dude," Thompson said. "I’ll sum it up like this, (Majors) was going on a rant and basically, he knew that we weren’t doing what we were supposed to do. He said, ‘You guys have done everything wrong except for shit in the middle of the field and let the air out of the ball.' ...He had never gotten to that point before. He had confidence in us, but we didn’t make those kinds of mistakes either. Especially in every phase."

Midway through the third quarter, Virginia drove down to the 25 and Moore was looking to provide the knock out punch, but his pass wobbled towards Carter, who tipped the ball into the hands of Floyd Miley. Tennessee had the ball back but were backed up to the shadow of its own goal line.

Then Thompson took over.

“I huddled the boys up and I said, ‘Hey, we’re just going to do what we do and we’re not going to do this anymore," Thompson said. "'We’re going to get it right.’ We just started playing Tennessee football.”

Thompson, who rushed for more than 1,000 yards that season, gave Tennessee some breathing room with back-to-back first down runs up the middle to end the quarter.

The first play of the fourth was another give to Thompson at the Vols' own 32-yard line. Thompson caught the outside, split two defenders and shrugged another off his back before being brought down 30-plus yards down field.

For the first time all night, the Tennessee offense had life.

Four plays later, Kelly pitched the ball to Thompson. He sidestepped one defender and walked into the end zone from seven yards out for the Vols' first touchdown and a momentum shift as wide as the Mississippi River a few blocks away.

"We knew they couldn’t stop us. We got physical with them," Thompson said. "When we scored that touchdown, we knew that they had a whole quarter to stop our offense from scoring 12 points. That wasn’t going to happen. It just wasn’t going to happen. When we punched it in, we felt good.”

Virginia added a field goal that extended its lead to 19-10, but as Thompson took a breather on the sideline after carrying Tennessee the previous drive, it was Greg Amsler's turn. He hauled in a screen pass from Kelly on the second play, hurdled defensive end Benson Goodwyn and got across midfield.

Amsler powered Tennessee as far as the 15 but on second down with less than five minutes remaining, Kelly went through the air, dropping back and finding a wide open Pickens in the back of the end zone to cut the deficit to 19-17.

“Andy, that’s my guy,” Pickens said. “I wasn’t there for Heath Shuler. I wasn’t there for Peyton Manning. A lot of people ask me, ‘Who is your favorite (Tennessee quarterback)?’ And I tell them Andy Kelly, regardless. That’s my guy. For some reason, he had a lot of choices to throw the ball to, but Andy and me were always on the same page. He knew the offense inside and out. Had a good group of receivers, had a great running back, had a great, great offensive line. We were just able to go out and make plays.

"He just knew where everybody was going to be at all times. He made some plays himself, but his job was to get us the ball and spread it around and put it in the right peoples hands.”

MORE FROM VOLREPORT: Tennessee football opponent preview: Virginia

As Colorado wrapped up its AP national title season with a 10-9 Orange Bowl win over Notre Dame on NBC, Tennessee and Virginia were also coming down to the wire on ABC.

"This wasn't the most glamours match up on New Year's Day but it's been anything but a turkey. It's been a good one," Al Michaels said on the broadcast following Kelly's touchdown.

Narrow as their lead was, the Cavaliers had a chance to ice it.

Moore hadn't thrown a completion in the second half, but he used his legs on the first play of the drive to rattle off a 20-yard run and a penalty on Tennessee after the play added another 15 yards.

The clock was inside three minutes before Moore rolled out at the Vols' 28 on third-and-5, but his eighth pass of the half landed harmlessly in the middle of the field to bring up fourth down. Virginia settled for a field goal to go up 22-17.

Tennessee had to go 79 yards with 2:20 left and quickly faced third-and-6 two plays in. Kelly kept the drive going with a 7-yard pass to Pickens for a first down. He went back to Pickens on the next play. Pickens was up-ended over the Sugar Bowl logo that stretched across both sides of the 50, his body clinging to the ball as he crashed to the turf at the Virginia 45 with just over a minute and a half on the clock. First down.

On the sideline, Majors was preparing for the game-winning play.

“They had confidence in me and they had already planned (the go-ahead touchdown play) as soon as we crossed the 50," Thompson said. "I went to the sideline, we threw some passes but they already said, ‘we’re getting ready for Tony T. time. We’re gonna close this thing out.’"

Tennessee still needed a few plays to get to that position. Kelly tried to link up with Pickens again on a critical third-and-1 but the pass sailed wide, leaving the outcome to a do-or-die fourth down conversion attempt.

The play went to Amsler. He plowed forward and picked up the first and then some. Kelly connected with Harper at the five and Amsler's second carry of the drive got within inches of the goal line.

With 34 seconds left, the call that had been in Majors' back pocket went to Thompson.

Tennessee lined up in a power formation with fullback Roland Poles and Amsler split in front of Thompson. Poles and Amsler provided a path as Poles plowed linebacker P.J. Killian five yards back. Thompson went high.

For Thompson, a journey that began watching Tennessee in the Sugar Bowl on TV ended with him laying in the end zone of the Superdome and the Vols leading for good, 23-22.

"When I got in, I already knew what the play was going to be," Thompson said. "Was it going to right? Was it going to left? Was it going to right up the middle? Either slam that thing in there or go up and over which I had done plenty of times. We felt very confident that we were going to score. That was the play we were going to run. It felt pretty good.”

Pickens sat in his hotel room in New Orleans, nursing a sore leg.

He took part in the festivities leading up to the game but in the hours after a comeback win that book-ended a roller coaster of a season for Tennessee, Pickens reflected.

"That was a hard-fought game. We laid it on the line,” Pickens said. “I’m not sure what a lot of the guys did after the game. I scraped my leg up pretty bad, so I stayed in the hotel room...We knew why we were there. We understood that and made it a point to follow that.”

It was a sign of things to come.

The close, crushing defeats against Alabama and Notre Dame and the near-finishes vs. Colorado and Auburn were lessons learned. The following season, Kelly led Tennessee to one of the biggest wins in program history—a thrilling 35-34 comeback victory at Notre Dame.

The Vols experienced a successful run through the rest of the decade, completing six top 10 finishes and winning consecutive SEC titles in 1997 and 1998. Tennessee won its first national championship in more than 30 years when it beat Florida State in the inaugural BCS title game on Jan. 4, 1999.

MORE FROM VOLREPORT: Tennessee tabbed top 10 program in AP Top 25 Poll era

For the 1990 team, learning how to finish that night in New Orleans set the stage.

“You could say we paved the way,” Pickens said. “We had some athletes for a three or four year stretch there that really enjoyed working hard, playing hard. You know, just being in Knoxville there and having everyone coming from different places for one common goal and that was to win. We didn’t win a national title, but some could say that we started the run.

"We had some good quality teams…You could say that there were one or two teams there in the early 90s that set the precedent.”

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