Music City (Bowl): History Repeats

( Photo from CNNSI.com, from "Miracle Worker" by Michael Silver, Sports Illustrated, January 17, 2000. )

Looking at the Music City Bowl trends that appear on the surface, as I did here a little, I wanted to look a little closer at the Tennessee Titans side of things. After Sunday's defensive domination over the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Titans got to 7-7, and with the way they beat the Jags (crazy D), it was nothing short of another Music City miracle that might help Tennessee earn a wildcard spot this year. So I searched for the Titans' past regular season results beginning in 1999 which is
the year that the Music City Miracle happened for the Titans and the first year both the Titans and the Music City Bowl played at LP Field, and I was looking for the Titans' result of their last home game prior to hosting the Music City Bowl and then look for any interesting trend(s) between the bowl game and Tennessee's last home game. Other than the Titans' losing that game the past two years, there really wasn't any interesting findings, and after looking at the results despite not finding the Tennessee Titans' 2000 result, I realized other than Auburn winning the Music City Bowl in 2003 which the Titans won their last home prior to the bowl game that year, there really wasn't going to be any correlation between the Tennessee Titans winning or losing their last home game prior to hosting the Music City Bowl because the Titans pretty much have won AND lost in the other years when the SEC's opponent in that bowl have won. In fact the closest interesting stat/trend I found is in the three wins that were won by four points or less in the Music City Bowl [01, 04, 05], the Tennessee Titans are 1-2 in that prior last home game. Not really a mind blowing revelation or anything.

However, while searching for something interesting, I did find just that. Maybe not mind-blowing and maybe not Super Interesting, but it is INTERESTING.

On December 29, 1999, the same year the Music City Miracle happened for Tennessee in the NFL Playoffs, the Titans actually faced the Jacksonville Jaguars in their last home game prior to hosting the Music City Bowl, tearing them up for a 41-14 taking and a twenty-SEVEN point winning margin, and it was ALSO the year the Kentucky Wildcats made it to the Music City Bowl for the first time and lost to Syracuse by SEVEN.

On December 17, 2006, for the first time since 1999, the Tennessee Titans again faced the Jacksonville Jaguars in their last home game prior to hosting the Music City Bowl and again beat the Jaguars, however surprisingly, with authority twenty-four to SEVEN-teen (24-17). A winning margin of SEVEN. That win has gotten the Titans to SEVEN and SEVEN (7-7) on the year and possibly keeping their playoff hopes alive. It's ALSO the FIRST time since 1999 that Kentucky has made its way back to the Music City Bowl. It will be SEVEN years to the day since Kentucky first made the trip to Nashville.

What does this all mean? Nothing really, but I found it interesting, very interesting, that for the first time since the year of the Music City Miracle the Tennessee Titans face the same opponent in their last home game prior to hosting the Music City Bowl AND while Kentucky gets back to the Music City Bowl for the first time since that same year it all happened.

If anything at all, I've made a very weak argument why the Tennessee Titans might just make it to the Super Bowl this year, and if by using this correlation and their related results both on Tennessee's side and Music City's side, I could make the argument that Kentucky might be destined to a 37-10 stomping by Clemson come this year's kick off of the Music City Bowl.

1999 Tennessee Titans' Last Home Game Prior To Hosting MCB
TEN 41 (+27)
JAX 14

1999 Music City Bowl
Syracuse 20 (+7)
Kentucky 13

2006 Ten. Titans' Last Home Game Prior To Hosting MCB
TEN 24 (+7)
JAX 17

?? 2006 Music City Bowl ??
?? Clemson 37 (+27) ??
?? Kentucky 10 ??