15 fun facts about Tennessee’s game against Western Carolina
The Vols take on the Western Carolina Catamounts Saturday. Here are 15 fun facts about the game.
Photo by Steve Jurvetson. Courtesy of creativecommons.org.
After a heartbreaking defeat at the hands of Oklahoma last week, the Tennessee Volunteers take the field again on Saturday at 7 p.m. ET against Western Carolina on ESPNU. Here are 15 facts to get ready for this weekend:
1. Tennessee fans turned the noise in Neyland Stadium to 11 last week when they set a record for the loudest sound recorded there – 114 decibels, significantly louder than a jet taking off 305 meters away.
2. Saturday’s game will be the first ever meeting between Tennessee and Western Carolina.
3. The Volunteers, an inaugural member of the Southern Conference, are 46-4-2 all-time against current members of the SoCon.
4. While they were still in the Southern Conference, UT had a record of 50-13-6 in conference games. This mark is still the fourth-best all-time winning percentage in conference history.
5. Head coach Butch Jones has only coached against a team from the Southern Conference once, when last year, the Vols defeated Chattanooga 45-10.
6. The last time the Vols lost to a SoCon opponent was in 1958, ten years before Jones was born. Chattanooga beat UT 14-6.
7. Tennessee is 5-0 all-time against FCS opponents, with one win coming in each of the last five years. The cumulative score of these games has been 233-39 in favor of the Vols.
8. Tennessee has a winning record against teams from North Carolina at 44-28-3. The last time the Vols played a North Carolina team was when they won the 2012 Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game against NC State, 35-21.
9. Sept. 19 has been good to Tennessee, with the Vols posting a 5-1 record in games played on that date. The only loss came in 2009, a 23-13 defeat at the hands of then-No. 1 Florida.
10. A win on Saturday would give UT 19 consecutive wins over non-Power Five schools.
11. WCU’s football team is the only one in the country to use the nickname “Catamounts.” The only other school to use the nickname is the University of Vermont, a school without a football program. A catamount is defined as “any of various wild cats, such as a cougar or lynx.”
12. Western Carolina has never won against an FBS team in 49 games. In addition, WCU is 0-16 against current SEC teams.
13. The Catamounts’ last loss to an SEC opponent came in 2014, when they fell to No. 1 Alabama, 48-14. Western Carolina was the only team that year that managed to score a touchdown on their first drive against the Crimson Tide.
14. There are three wide receivers on the Catamounts’ roster with the last name Robinson – Jacob, Spearman and Terryon. None of them are related.
15. The Director of Athletic Performance at WCU, Evan Barr, spent two years as a walk-on at Tennessee from 2004-2006 under head coach Phillip Fulmer.
Featured image by Steve Jurvetson
Edited by Cody McClure
Quinn is an assistant sports editor for TNJN and a sophomore majoring in Journalism and Electronic Media at the University of Tennesse. When he's not writing, he's probably doing something else. You can follow him on Twitter (@QuinnNotCook) or e-mail him at qpilkey@vols.utk.edu.
Very well written article, full of great facts!