Tennessee vs. Vanderbilt
116 of their 120 meetings are on file: they first met in 1892, and the earliest on file is 1902; officially, Tennessee leads 79–33–5; as played, 81–31–4 in the games on file. Over the last 10 meetings it’s Tennessee 6–4. The NCAA vacated Tennessee’s two wins (2019 and 2020); they don’t count officially. This page counts every game as it was played. Share
- Official series
- Tennessee leads 79–33–5
- Tennessee wins on file
- 81
- Vanderbilt wins on file
- 31
- Ties
- 4
- Earliest on file
- 1902 first met 1892
- Longest streak
- 22 Tennessee
- Current streak
- 1 Vanderbilt
- Last 10 meetings
- Tennessee 6–4
- Most recent
- 2025
The series at a glance
| ’0 | ’1 | ’2 | ’3 | ’4 | ’5 | ’6 | ’7 | ’8 | ’9 | W–L | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1900s | 0–6 | ||||||||||
| 1910s | 2–4–1 | ||||||||||
| 1920s | 2–6–1 | ||||||||||
| 1930s | 7–2–1 | ||||||||||
| 1940s | 7–1 | ||||||||||
| 1950s | 8–2 | ||||||||||
| 1960s | 9–1 | ||||||||||
| 1970s | 8–1–1 | ||||||||||
| 1980s | 9–1 | ||||||||||
| 1990s | 10–0 | ||||||||||
| 2000s | 9–1 | ||||||||||
| 2010s | 5–5 | ||||||||||
| 2020s | 5–1 |
- Both ranked
- 1 meeting: Tennessee 0, Vanderbilt 1
- Average margin
- 18.6 points; 37 decided by one score (8 or fewer)
- At Tennessee
- 41–12–1 Tennessee’s record at home
- At Vanderbilt
- 19–39–3 Vanderbilt’s record at home
- Neutral sites
- 1–0 Tennessee first
- Shutouts
- 33
Every meeting on file, as played. Ranks are the AP poll’s going in.
Games that tell the story
- Tennessee’s biggest win1994: Tennessee 65, Vanderbilt 0by 65 points
- Vanderbilt’s biggest win1918: Vanderbilt 76, Tennessee 0by 76 points
- Upset2005: Vanderbilt 28, Tennessee 24Vanderbilt had a 19% chance, by our ratings before kickoff
- Upset1958: Tennessee 10, Vanderbilt 6Tennessee had a 27% chance, by our ratings before kickoff
- Upset1975: Vanderbilt 17, Tennessee 14Vanderbilt had a 31% chance, by our ratings before kickoff
- Ranked showdown2025: Vanderbilt 45, Tennessee 24No. 12 Vanderbilt at No. 18 Tennessee
Coach against coach
| Years | Tennessee | Series | Vanderbilt |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1913–1915 | Zora Clevenger | 1–2 | Dan McGugin |
| 1916–1920 | John Bender | 1–1–1 | Dan McGugin |
| 1921–1925 | Mark Banks | 0–4 | Dan McGugin |
| 1926–1934 | Bob Neyland | 6–1–2 | Dan McGugin |
| 1936–1939 | Bob Neyland | 3–1 | Ray Morrison |
| 1940–1948 | Bob Neyland | 3–1 | Red Sanders |
| 1949–1952 | Bob Neyland | 4–0 | Bill Edwards |
| 1955–1962 | Bowden Wyatt | 7–1 | Arthur Guepe |
| 1964–1966 | Doug Dickey | 2–1 | Jack Green |
| 1967–1969 | Doug Dickey | 3–0 | Bill Pace |
| 1970–1972 | Bill Battle | 3–0 | Bill Pace |
| 1979–1985 | Johnny Majors | 6–1 | George MacIntyre |
| 1986–1990 | Johnny Majors | 5–0 | Watson Brown |
| 1997–2001 | Phillip Fulmer | 5–0 | Woody Widenhofer |
| 2002–2008 | Phillip Fulmer | 6–1 | Bobby Johnson |
| 2014–2016 | Butch Jones | 2–1 | Derek Mason |
| 2021–2025 | Josh Heupel | 4–1 | Clark Lea |
Head-coach pairings with three or more meetings on file, the series read from Tennessee’s side (Clevenger 1–2 against McGugin). A season split between coaches goes to the one credited with the game.
Both programs through the years
Our Elo rating at the end of each season, a measure of how strong a team was, not a forecast; 1500 is an average FBS team.
Stars of the series
Biggest days
| Joe Milton III Tennessee | 22 of 33, 383 yards, 4 TD | 2023 Passing | |
| Eric Gray Tennessee | 25 carries, 246 yards, 3 TD | 2019 Rushing | |
| Arian Foster Tennessee | 40 carries, 223 yards, 2 TD | 2005 Rushing | |
| Earl Bennett Vanderbilt | 14 catches, 167 yards, 1 TD | 2005 Receiving |
Biggest days: the week’s best individual games by our big-days rule, from box scores (2004 on).
From the newspapers
1902 · The Montgomery advertiser, Alabama, Oct 26, 1902
1903 · The Columbia herald, Columbia, Tenn., Oct 23, 1903
1904 · The Birmingham age-herald, Nov 6, 1904
1908 · The Montgomery advertiser, Alabama, Nov 9, 1908
1909 · Evening star, Washington, D.C., Nov 7, 1909
Public-domain newspapers from the Library of Congress’s Chronicling America, found through the American Stories dataset (Dell and Harvard, CC BY 4.0). The earliest meetings with a story on file; each game’s page has the full text.
On television
| 2025 | ESPN | 4.0 million viewers |
Viewers: Nielsen, as compiled by nschultz7’s ratings tracker.
Every game
Every game is listed as played on the field; a win the NCAA later vacated is marked “vacated”; the official series above counts them the NCAA’s way.