There’s a reason the Homecoming slot on a football schedule is usually filled by a low-tier opponent — nobody likes to lose on what is supposed to be a day of celebration.
On Nov. 8, 2008 the Tennessee football team waltzed into Neyland Stadium having won 24 of its last 25 Homecoming games. It was a down year for the Vols, but nobody knew just how bad it could get in the years that would follow. For reference, Lane Kiffin was employed by the Oakland Raiders at the time.
See, Tennessee was living in an era that knew pretty much nothing about failure — at least at the level Tennessee fans as of late would count as failure.
The Vols had lost two in a row heading into Homecoming week against the 3-6 Wyoming Cowboys, a team that possessed the single worst scoring offense in the nation and also ranked No. 111 out of 119 teams in offensive efficiency.
The Vols desperately needed a 4 touchdown victory before facing off against Vanderbilt and Kentucky to end the season. A 6-6 record and a bowl game were certainly still on the table for head coach Phillip Fulmer and the Vols. The Vols had only missed a postseason bowl game once in the past 19 years heading into the 2008 season.
Tennessee packed Neyland Stadium in a near sellout against the Cowboys — the announced attendance was 99,489. Half of Knoxville showed up to watch Tennessee embark on perhaps the worst football game ever played at Neyland Stadium.
Sloppy is an understatement — from both teams. The Vols turned the ball over 4 times, including a strip-sack in the first possession of the game that set the Cowboys up within the 5-yard line. Less than three minutes in, Wyoming had taken a 7-0 lead.
Early in the second quarter, Tennessee turned the ball over again. Quarterback Nick Stephens threw an errant pass directly to Wyoming defender Ward Dobbs, who returned the interception to the house. The PAT was missed, and the score sat at 13-0, Wyoming.
Sure, the Vols were missing the services of star running back Arian Foster, but there’s not much of an excuse for putting up just 219 yards of total offense against a team with as many struggles as Wyoming had that season. The Cowboys didn’t score again for the rest of the game, but it didn’t matter — when the scoreboard read double zeroes, the final score was Wyoming 13, Tennessee 7.
“In this day and age in college football, anybody can beat you, especially if you help them,” Fulmer said postgame.
Fulmer, understandably, was on the hot seat soon after. In a span of just four years, he’d led the Vols to their first and second seven-loss seasons in school history. Even besting Kentucky and Vanderbilt to close out the 2008 season wasn’t enough to save his job.
Anyone who follows Tennessee football knows what happened next.
A decade of disappointment was on the plate for Vol Nation, and a lot of it started with this loss on Homecoming week to Wyoming, a team that went on to lose both of its final two games of the season to UNLV and Colorado State.
Fulmer’s final statement served as a microcosm for the reality that was Tennessee football’s disappointing 2008 season.
“I still think our defense played well enough for us again but we just didn’t get it done offensively,” Fulmer said. “Again.”
