The Tennessee Volunteers and Kentucky Wildcats first played a football game in October of 1893. Kentucky throttled Tennessee to the tune of a 56-0 shut out. But despite that impressive start, Tennessee has gone on to dominate the series. Especially over the last three decades.
Since the Wildcats eked out a 17-12 victory in 1984, they’ve only managed to win one game against the Vols since. Their 10-7 win in 2011 marked the first time in 26 years that Kentucky had defeated Tennessee, and it marked only the seventh time in 50 years that the Wildcats defeated the Vols.
But that win in 2011 has been Kentucky’s last so far. Tennessee currently owns a four-game winning streak over the Wildcats and have scored at least 50 points in their last two meetings.
Here is a look at the Tennessee-Kentucky series by the numbers.
78-24-9
That’s the overall series record for the Vols against Kentucky. The Wildcats have just one win against Tennessee in 31 years, and 19 of Kentucky’s wins game before 1964.
Tennessee owns more wins over Kentucky than they do any other school. The only other team the Vols have 70 wins against is Vanderbilt (75).
9
The Vols have scored 50 or more points against Kentucky nine times in the series, and all nine times have come since 1994. Tennessee has dropped 50 on the Wildcats in back-to-back seasons leading up to this Saturday’s match-up, and they scored 50 or more points five consecutive years from 1996-2000.
Kentucky has only scored 50 or more on the Vols twice. The first time was in the first ever meeting in 1893, and the second came in a four overtime game in 2007 when the Vols won 52-50.
32
Kentucky has been shut out 32 times in the series. The majority of those came early on in the series, with Tennessee shutting out Kentucky 25 times before the year 1952. The last time the Vols shut out Kentucky was in 2002 when Tennessee rolled to a 24-0 victory.
11.1
Over the 111 meetings between the two teams, Kentucky has only averaged 11.1 points per game. That’s actually the lowest average point total the Vols have allowed against teams they’ve played at least 20 games against. The second-lowest total is North Carolina’s 11.7 points per contest in 32 games against the Vols.
The Vols have beaten Kentucky by an average score of 20.3 to 11.1 in their 111 meetings. Tennessee has beaten Kentucky by an average score of 32.8 to 15.3 over the last six seasons.
7
Over the last three decades, the Vols have beaten seven different full-time head coaches at Kentucky. From 1985 to now, Tennessee has defeated seven different Kentucky head coaches in the series, and they have perfect records against five of them. The list of Kentucky head coaches the Vols have defeated over the last three decades are as follows: Jerry Claiborne, Bill Curry, Hall Mumme, Guy Morriss, Rich Brooks, Joker Phillips, and Mark Stoops. Only Claiborne and Phillips have wins against the Vols in that span.
