Jeff Powell could feel what he couldn't see.

As he straightened out his path on the Louisiana Superdome turf, the Tennessee running back locked eyes with Bennie Blades—the last roadblock between himself, the end zone and one of the most iconic plays in program history.

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Blades extended both hands. Powell dipped his shoulder. He knew he was gone. It was Powell's 60-yard touchdown run that put the exclamation point on the Vols' 35-7 romp of Miami, nearly three quarters after the Hurricanes seemed bound for their second national title in three years in New Orleans on New Year's Day 1986.

"There was Bennie Blades right there, staring at me. When you’re a fast guy like me, your first instinct is to get to the sideline," Powell told VolReport. "I could out-run this angle and get to the sideline and that’s what I did. I could feel him reaching for me...I thought to myself, ‘If I don’t feel his hand, if he doesn’t get me here, I’m gone.’ And that’s exactly what happened.”

Tennessee, on the heels of its first SEC championship in 16 years, had finished off its campaign in a performance that everyone but themselves was blindsided by.

It was teetering on a blowout before Powell’s run. He just provided the knockout blow—one that was felt inside the Louisiana Superdome, around college football and especially in Norman, Oklahoma.

No one stood more to gain from a Tennessee win than the Oklahoma Sooners, who had a hand in the Vols' triumph nearly 40 years before the two programs will meet as conference foes for the first time on Saturday (7:30 p.m. ET, ABC).

This is the story of that season, a collaboration that changed the fortunes of three teams and the unlikely heroes that made it happen.

Jeff Powell walked into Doug Mathews' office in spring 1985.

Powell was from Nashville and a two-sport athlete at Whites Creek High School where he starred in football and track. It was track that led him to William & Mary where he was a record-setting All-American, but playing at Tennessee remained in the back of his mind.

He transferred to Tennessee in 1984, joined the track team on a scholarship and earned All-America status for the second time in his career. But the dream of playing football for the Vols remained.

So he ventured over to the team facilities and introduced himself to Mathews, the running backs coach on head coach Johnny Majors' staff.

“We had a great relationship with the track team," Mathews said. "We had a bunch of guys that ran track and played football. Jeff came in and we didn’t even know he was on campus. He walked in and asked if he could come out for the team before spring practice."

Powell returned before fall camp to meet with Mathews again. This time, though he was less receptive to the idea. Tennessee's running backs room was crowded and included sophomore Charles Wilson and touted freshman Keith Davis, another Nashville native.

But Powell had one year of eligibility left and he was going to spend it playing football. Even what seemed as sound advice and barely a place on the depth chart wasn't going to deter him.

"(Mathews) told me not to bother to come out because they really didn’t know me and they had some good backs already," Powell said. "They really didn’t need me, or anyone else at that position. They certainly didn’t need someone they didn’t know. I told him, ‘I’m coming out anyway.’ To me, it was clear that I was just an afterthought. He put me at the bottom of the depth chart.

"I don’t know if he was trying to make me quit, but he was not really entertaining the possibility of me making any headway there.”

In order to join the football team, even as a walk on, Powell had to give up his track scholarship—a big risk for a player who at the time had few prospects of getting on the field.

Powell, who hadn't played football since high school, used a scrimmage the week before Tennessee opened its season against UCLA to prove himself. It was a glorified dress rehearsal for the Vols' first team defense, but Powell performed well, enough to be called into Majors' office the following week.

"My attitude was, ‘OK, I’m going to show up,'" Powell said. "I played OK in the scrimmage, so Coach (Johnny) Majors gave me a football scholarship."

Powell was on the team, but still had a steep hill to climb. The week before the Vols played Alabama, Mathews advised Powell to play in a JV game, which was normally suited for underclassmen.

Powell said no. Offensive coordinator Walt Harris changed his mind.

“I flat refused. I just flat refused," Powell said. "I told them, ‘Look, I’m an All-American in another sport. I’m not a scrub. I’m a multi-All-American, national champion in another sport. I’m just not going to do that.’ Coach (Walt) Harris put his arm around me one day. He said, ‘I understand your position and what you’re saying. But we don’t know you. We haven’t seen you play. We don’t trust you.’ It was just honesty. He said, ‘But, we think that you have a chance to play on Sunday.

"'You won’t be able to play here if you can’t see you play in a game.’ And that convinced me to play. It was a hard decision. But that convinced me to play.”

Powell scored the first time he touched the ball, taking a screen pass for a touchdown. He was already making a name for himself at Tuesday practices against the starting defense, but that JV game is what began to convince the coaches to get him on the field.

He made his debut on the kickoff team against Alabama at Legion Field in the fifth week of the season. A few weeks later, he was returning kickoffs. Then the game reps at running back started to pick up.

"I was the expendable guy. (Mathews) would take me down there because this was the only opportunity in the week for the defense to get some live action," Powell said. "He would always shout, ‘Powell, let’s go! Ones vs. twos!' I would go down there and eat them up. I think through that process, he started to like me more and trust me more. He started to enjoy that because he thought, ‘I can take Powell down there and give them hell.’"

"We had absolutely no plans for him to even play," Mathews said. " It was kind of all the key factors coming together. He had great speed. But we had no idea what he was going to do. He did, but we didn’t."

Tony Robinson laid on the turf at Legion Field, his hands covering his face.

Moments before, Robinson, attempting one of his scrambles that had frustrated so many defenses before, was hit low by Alabama defensive linemen Cornelius Bennett and Curt Jarvis.

Suddenly, Tennessee's quest for an SEC title and possibly more seemed steering towards derailment.

Robinson, the Vols' superstar quarterback, had led them to a 38-20 thrashing of then-No. 1 Auburn earlier in the 1985 season, landing him on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Tennessee's lone blemish to that point was a one-score loss at No. 7 Florida and Robinson's 1,200 passing yards and eight touchdowns had him in the Heisman Trophy conversation.

Any prospect of individual accolades for Robinson were diminished following the diagnosis of a season-ending ACL tear. The prospect of Tennessee overcoming his loss was bleak.

Daryl Dickey, a career backup in his fourth season for the Vols, did enough to hold off Alabama and linebacker Dale Jones came up with the game-clinching interception to pull off a 16-14 win. Getting them through the rest of the season was another question. Dickey, though, was confident he could.

“I always prepared myself if something happened that I’d be able to go in and lead our team and do the things that I was capable of doing," Dickey said. "I didn’t have as much talent (as Robinson), but I knew how to operate our team and do the things that we needed to do to be successful."

It wasn't an entirely unfamiliar spot for Dickey. He started one game the previous season when Robinson was injured, but taking charge of the offense for the next seven games would be a first.

Dickey spent the early part of his life in Knoxville when his father, Doug Dickey, was the head coach at Tennessee from 1964-69. He moved to Gainesville, Florida when Doug Dickey took the head coaching job at his alma mater Florida in 1970 and played his senior year of high school football in Colorado.

A football camp in 1980 convinced Dickey to play at Tennessee. He enrolled in 1982, serving as the backup to Alan Cockrell and Robinson for the first three and a half years.

“I never expected such a turn of events, and the way things played out," Dickey said. "Certainly very grateful to have been a part of that team and that era...we had so much that we went through."

Life after Robinson was tough at first. Tennessee drew Georgia Tech to a 6-6 tie on two 50-plus yard field goals from Carlos Reveiz the following week, but the Vols didn't run into many more challenges after that.

Tennessee won its next five regular season games, outscoring opponents 163-21. In the game that clinched the Vols' conference championship, Dickey passed for nearly 300 yards and three touchdowns to beat Vanderbilt, 30-0 at Neyland Stadium.

"We had a great coaching staff," Dickey said. "They were able to put together plans that gave us the opportunity to be successful and we had a very unselfish team that was committed to winning a championship. That’s what we did.”

Powell had a hand in that surge, too. Injuries to Charles Wilson and Keith Davis moved him up the depth chart and he had become a staple in the run game in Tennessee's 34-14 road win over Ole Miss.

The Vols had more than overcome the loss of Robinson. They were SEC Champions and bound for the Sugar Bowl. They did it with the help of two unlikely heroes.

“It’s a great example of two young men who just kept working at it," Mathews said. "When they got an opportunity, they took advantage of it.”

Doug Mathews noticed the shift.

The week after Tennessee beat Vanderbilt, Mathews flew to Norman to meet with the Oklahoma coaching staff days before the Sooners' regular season finale against SMU. But it was Miami that prompted the visit.

The Vols were slated to play the No. 2 Hurricanes in the Sugar Bowl in less than a month. Miami had beaten Oklahoma, 27-14 earlier that season and Mathews was there to learn all he could about them.

He talked with the coaching staff, took notes, game film and snap counts then returned to Knoxville. It was on a viewing of the film that Mathews saw the Miami defense react to a Sooners' tight end shifting out and then back in. It looked like something to exploit.

“We knew that from the way that Miami changed their defense when we got into a particular formation, that we had a good opportunity," Mathews said. "We had seen them make that adjustment against Oklahoma, and we felt like we could run an off-tackle play."

There were a few factors that led to the budding relationship between the Tennessee and Oklahoma staffs. The first was a connection that could be traced back to Frank Broyles' Arkansas staff in the mid-1960s.

Johnny Majors was hired by Broyles as an assistant coach after a four-year stint as a defensive backs coach at Mississippi State in 1964. Barry Switzer, Oklahoma's head coach was also an assistant on that staff, as was Sooners' offensive line coach Merv Johnson.

Together they helped the Razorbacks go unbeaten, win the Southwest Conference and claim the national championship by the decision of a number of nationally recognized selectors.

The roster included future Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and Miami head coach Jimmy Johnson, who later worked under Majors at Iowa State and Pittsburgh before landing his first head coaching job at Oklahoma State in 1979, though that relationship played a different role in the pending clash between Tennessee and Miami.

"We kind of came up with an offensive game plan," Mathews said. "We came up with a couple of things that we felt like could work against Miami and their defense. A lot of it was gleaned from what Oklahoma could tell us from playing them. The whole game plan, both sides, was greatly helped by Oklahoma…

"They had a lot of information on their defense, and certainly helped us put together a gameplan.”

Oklahoma's motivation was more than just to help out some old friends.

The Sooners had already won the Big 8 Conference and clinched an Orange Bowl berth against top-ranked Penn State before Mathews' trip to Norman. A national title was in reach, too but Oklahoma needed help.

Miami was ranked No. 2 with one loss—a 35-23 defeat at the hands of Florida in its season opener. The Hurricanes also had the advantage in the head-to-head match up and a win over Tennessee would likely be the deciding factor.

Switzer and Johnson plead their teams' case for a month in the event they both won.

For the Vols, a win would provide validation in an era where the Sugar Bowl was the ultimate prize for an SEC team. What Mathews saw on that tape made him believe it would happen.

“We had a month before we played the game," Mathews said. "So, we had a lot of conversations back-and-forth with (the Oklahoma coaches)...We both had a big interest in winning that ball game."

Jeff Powell knew it in the first team meeting.

Following a 10-day break after Tennessee's win over Vanderbilt, the team returned to campus in early December, a little less than a month before the Sugar Bowl.

By that point, the the coaching staff had watched the film. They were confident and the players picked up on it.

"‘We’re going to beat this team.’ That’s what they said," Powell said. "They said, ‘We’ve been watching the tape. We’re going to beat this team.’ And that’s all we needed to hear. We knew when we were practicing that we were going to win this game. We already knew it."

There was less confidence outside of Knoxville, so little that Tennessee was barely talked about in a game it was playing in.

Maybe it was the fact that Miami had beaten Notre Dame so badly in its last game of the regular season that some accused Johnson of running up the score in the name of style points. Maybe it was the Hurricanes' superstar roster that included quarterback Vinny Testaverde.

"It was a forgone conclusion that they were going to whip our ass and win a national championship," Dickey said. "We just kind of went about our business and tuned that out."

It might have been harder for Tennessee players to tune it out once they arrived in New Orleans. Miami players were nearly everywhere to remind them.

There were run-ins almost nightly on Bourbon Street. Even an event that hosted both teams was filled with tension and had to be "cut short" as Powell remembers it. But if the Hurricanes' tactic was to make the Vols feel unworthy to be playing the Sugar Bowl, it didn't work.

"They were acting like they were the bully on the block and we’re like, ‘Hey, we’re SEC champions,'" Powell said. "'We’re seven points away from being undefeated, untied and we’re the SEC champions. You really don’t know what you’re getting into. We play in the SEC. We’re not intimidated or scared of anyone.’"

That message still hadn't been received when Tennessee took the field on one end moments after the Hurricanes had entered from the other. Miami players gathered inside the T formed by the Pride of the Southland Marching Band as the Vols made their turn towards the sideline.

By that point, Tennessee players were plenty motivated. If they weren't before kickoff, Majors ensured they were after his pregame speech.

"They don't have any respect for you," Majors said inside a Superdome locker room. "Make them remember you as long as they live. The way you hit. The way you hustle...Attack, attack, attack."

“We were fired up," Powell remembered. "This was like 30 days in the making. Man, we were so ready to play by the time (New Years' Day) came. That pregame speech just solidified that. We were ready to go."

Miami struck first, it's first quarter scoring drive kept alive by a fake punt that set up a Testaverde touchdown pass to Michael Irvin to lead early. That was the extent of the Hurricanes' highlights.

Tennessee's defense, under the direction of coordinator Ken Donahue, sacked Testaverde seven times and pressured him nearly every time he dropped back to pass. They forced three fumbles and intercepted him three more times.

Dickey, who was named the game's MVP after going 15-of-25 passing for 131 yards, charged Tennessee's offense down field with relative ease. His one touchdown pass went for 6-yards to Jeff Smith to even the score in the second quarter.

Powell was seemingly on his way to his first career touchdown, but the ball was knocked loose at the end of an 8-yard run and rolled into the end zone. It was recovered by Tim McGee for the go-ahead score. It was Tennessee's night.

Powell's chance came in the third. The Vols were up 21-7 and on the cusp of putting it away. Then Walt Harris saw where the ball was placed, the same spot Mathews saw on film a month before. It was time.

"We kind of waited," Mathews said. "There were a couple of things that we had to have just right before we called it, and Harris said, ‘We’ve got that situation.’ It was on the hashmark. It was on our side of the field. When we moved (the tight end) back in, they indeed gave us the look that we wanted.”

Smith lined up outside of the left hash, then shifted back in. Miami defensive lineman Jerome Brown reacted, moving further out. That's when Powell noticed linebacker George Mira Jr.

"(Mira) just looked antsy. He looked like he was going to blitz," Powell said. "I kept my eye on him when the ball was snapped…I didn’t have to look at the ball. I could look at the defense. So when the ball was snapped, I was looking at him. And sure enough, he blitzed. And he blitzed to the side we were running on."

Powell went wide after taking the hand-off, wider than he normally would on an off-tackle run. Offensive tackle Bruce Wilkerson made the block that allowed him more space. All that stood between him and a score after that was Blades, who was then regarded as one of the fastest players in college football. He was no match for Powell's All-American track speed.

"Powell just comes roaring down the greensward of the Superdome," Tennessee radio play-by-play man John Ward exclaimed over the airwaves in a call that has since become as immortalized as the run itself.

Now it was all but certain. Tennessee had put Miami away. Oklahoma beat Penn State that same night and the Sooners were crowned consensus national champions by the pollsters the next day.

One loss and two ties had kept the Vols from staking their own claim. But on that night, there was no convincing them that they weren't the best team.

''I'm not campaigning for the national championship," Majors told reporters after the game. "I don't think there is a better football team in the country after the way we played tonight.''

Editor's Note: Inspiration for this story came from a 2020 episode of "A Host of Volunteers" podcast that can be found here.

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