1940 Tennessee Volunteers football team

1940 Tennessee Volunteers football
National champion (Dunkel, Williamson) SEC champion
Sugar Bowl, L 13–19 vs. Boston College
Conference	Southeastern Conference
Ranking
AP	#4
1940 record	10–1 (5–0 SEC)
Head coach	Robert Neyland (14th year)
Base defense	Single-wing
Home stadium	Shields-Watkins Field

1940 SEC football standings
	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		T			W		L		T
#4 Tennessee $	5	–	0	–	0			10	–	1	–	0
#9 Mississippi State	4	–	0	–	1			10	–	0	–	1
Ole Miss	3	–	1	–	0			9	–	2	–	0
Alabama	4	–	2	–	0			7	–	2	–	0
Auburn	3	–	2	–	1			6	–	4	–	1
LSU	3	–	3	–	0			6	–	4	–	0
Georgia	2	–	3	–	1			5	–	4	–	1
Florida	2	–	3	–	0			5	–	5	–	0
Kentucky	1	–	2	–	2			5	–	3	–	2
Tulane	1	–	3	–	0			5	–	5	–	0
Vanderbilt	1	–	5	–	1			3	–	6	–	1
Georgia Tech	1	–	5	–	0			3	–	7	–	0
Sewanee	0	–	1	–	0			3	–	5	–	0
$ – Conference champion Rankings from AP Poll

The 1940 Tennessee Volunteers represented the University of Tennessee in the 1940 season. Playing as a member of the Southeastern Conference (SEC), the team was led by head coach Robert Neyland, in his fourteenth year, and played their home games at Shields-Watkins Field in Knoxville, Tennessee. They finished the season with a record of ten wins and one loss (10–1 overall, 5–0 in the SEC), as SEC Champions and with a loss against Boston College in the 1941 Sugar Bowl. This team won the school's second national championship after being recognized as national champion under the Williamson System, a power rating system created by Paul Williamson, a New Orleans geologist, and the Dunkel System, a power index system devised by Dick Dunkel, Sr.^[1]

Schedule

Date	Opponent^#	Rank^#	Site	Result
September 28	Mercer*		Shields-Watkins Field • Knoxville, TN	W 49–0
October 5	Duke*		Shields-Watkins Field • Knoxville, TN	W 13–0
October 12	Chattanooga*		Shields-Watkins Field • Knoxville, TN	W 55–0
October 19	at Alabama	#5	Legion Field • Birmingham, AL (Third Saturday in October)	W 27–12
October 26	Florida	#5	Shields-Watkins Field • Knoxville, TN (Third Saturday in September)	W 14–0
November 2	LSU	#7	Shields-Watkins Field • Knoxville, TN	W 28–0
November 9	at Southwestern*	#5	Crump Stadium • Memphis, TN	W 41–0
November 16	Virginia*	#5	Shield-Watkins Field • Knoxville, TN	W 41–14
November 23	Kentucky	#6	Shields-Watkins Field • Knoxville, TN (Battle for the Barrel)	W 33–0
November 30	at Vanderbilt	#6	Dudley Field • Nashville, TN (Rivalry)	W 20–0
January 1, 1941	vs. #4 Boston College*	#6	Tulane Stadium • New Orleans, LA (Sugar Bowl)	L 13–19
*Non-conference game. Homecoming. ^#Rankings from AP Poll.

• Reference:^[2]

References

1. National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). "National Poll Rankings" (PDF). 2011 NCAA Division I Football Records. NCAA. pp. 75, 77. Retrieved January 3, 2015.
2. "Tennessee Football History and Records: Tennessee Results 1940–49". University of Tennessee Athletics. Retrieved March 12, 2012.