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Published Sep 19, 2024
Series Snapshot: Tennessee vs. Oklahoma
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Noah Taylor  •  VolReport
Managing Editor
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Tennessee and Oklahoma have met in a few high profile clashes over the last 85 years. On Saturday night, they'll add another but for the first time as members of the same conference.

The No. 7 Vols (3-0) will play the No. 15 Sooners (3-0) at Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium for just the second time ever, serving as Oklahoma's first league game since joining the SEC.

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There are a plethora of storylines attached to the matchup, including the return of Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel, who led the Sooners to their last national championship as a quarterback in 2000 before an eight-year stint as an assistant coach.

The two programs have twice played in the postseason, both in the Orange Bowl in 1939 and 1968. Tennessee last played Oklahoma in a home-and-home series in 2014 and 2015 in Knoxville. The Sooners won both.

Ahead of the fifth meeting between both teams in Norman on Saturday, here's a closer look at the all-time series between Tennessee and Oklahoma.

GAME INFORMATION

Who: No. 6 Tennessee (3-0) at No. 15 Oklahoma (3-0)

When: Saturday, Sept. 21 | 7:30 p.m. ET

Where: Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium | Norman, Oklahoma

TV: ABC (Chris Fowler, play-by-play; Kirk Herbstreit, analyst; Holly Rowe, reporter)

Series: Oklahoma leads, 3-1

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LAST MEETING

In the second of a home-and-home series at Neyland Stadium, Tennessee was looking to get back on the national stage in then-head coach Butch Jones' third season.

The Vols opened the season in the top 25 and had beaten Bowling Green the week before hosting No. 19 Oklahoma and quarterback Baker Mayfield. Tennessee jumped out to a 17-0 lead after a touchdown pass and run from Josh Dobbs.

Mayfield brought the Sooners' back to life, though, tossing two touchdown passes in the fourth quarter to send the game into overtime. Jalen Hurd put the Vols back in front on an 8-yard touchdown run, but Mayfield rushed for a touchdown and then passed for another to Sterling Shepard, allowing Oklahoma to escape with a 31-24 win in double overtime.

MEMORABLE MATCHUPS

Jan. 1, 1939: Robert Neyland's first national championship team didn't run into many challenges in 1938. The Vols won all of their regular season games by a combined 276-16, including seven shutouts.

That Tennessee roster featured Bob Suffridge, Bowden Wyatt and George Cafego, among others. The Vols won the SEC and were No. 2 in the polls before being paired with Oklahoma, which was also undefeated, in the Orange Bowl in Miami on New Year's Day.

Cafego, Tennessee's star tailback who was appropriately nicknamed, "Bad News," made an early statement by laying a devastating on Sooners' All-American tailback Waddy Young. The tone was set.

In what was dubbed by the writers that covered it the "roughest ever played," there were a combined 25 penalties, totaling 220 yards. Players were ejected, Joe Little, a former heavyweight champion boxer in his native Ohio and Tennessee co-captain, among them after punching an Oklahoma player early in the game.

The Vols won, 17-0. Cafego rushed for 114 of the team's 205 rushing yards while the defense limited the Sooners to just 94 yards of total offense. Tennessee stretched its streak of consecutive shutouts to five--a streak that wouldn't be broken until exactly one year later in the 1940 Rose Bowl against Southern California.

MORE FROM VOLREPORT: The Tennessee-Oklahoma connection that took down Miami in '86 Sugar Bowl

Jan. 1, 1967: Doug Dickey brought Tennessee back to national prominence after being hired to take over the program in 1964.

The Vols had a major breakthrough in Dickey's fourth season in 1967. They opened the season with a narrow loss at No. 8 UCLA but ran the table the rest of the way, beating Auburn, Alabama, LSU and Ole Miss to win the SEC for the first time in more than a decade.

Litkenhous Ratings, one of the nationally recognized selectors, named Tennessee national champions at the end of the regular season, but the Vols had a chance to further prove it in the Orange Bowl against No. 3 Oklahoma.

For the first two quarters, it was the Sooners that looked they were trying to make a statement, running out to a 19-0 lead at halftime. The Vols snatched some momentum back with Jimmy Glovers' 36-yard interception return for a touchdown midway through the third quarter.

Jim Weatherford intercepted another pass on Oklahoma's ensuing possession, which set up a Charley Fulton touchdown run. Karl Kremser's 26-yard field goal pulled Tennessee within 19-17, but the Sooners extended their lead on an interception return for a score of their own.

Vols' quarterback Dewey Warren answered back quickly, plunging into the end zone for a score to again trim the deficit in the fourth quarter. The defense then made Oklahoma pay for a fourth down gamble on its own side the field to give Tennessee a chance in the final minutes.

Kremser, from 43 yards, attempted the game-winning field goal, but it sailed right and the Sooners hung on, 26-24.

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