November 17, 1990 at Memphis

Without question, this was the most meaningful game between Ole Miss and Tennessee since the late '50's as the winner had the inside track to the Sugar Bowl. Ole Miss was on a 7 game winning streak and needed to beat UT and Miss State the following week to get to New Orleans for the first time since the '70 Sugar Bowl win over Arkansas. UT was coming off an emotional loss to #1 Notre Dame the previous week and seemed ripe for picking. This game was originally to be played in Oxford but a grocery store chain in Memphis offered Ole Miss $1 million dollars if they moved the game to the Liberty Bowl. They did, and the record crowd of 66,467 was just about divided equally, certainly costing Mississippi home field advantage.

Trailing 7-3 late in the second quarter, Tennessee put its final drive of the first half in for a score -- Andy Kelly hitting Alvin Harper for the TD -- and did likewise in the waning seconds of the third quarter -- a Tony Thompson run for six points -- to take control of the game.

Greg Amsler led a fourth quarter drive that led to Greg Burke's second field goal of the day and gave the Vols a 20-7 lead. Ole Miss made a valiant comeback and cut the lead to 20-13 with over 2 minutes to go, but the extra point was blocked and returned 97 yards for 2 points by Floyd Miley, thus ending the comeback.