1999 team.....

#4
#4
jasonvols2.2 said:
Why did that team lack drive?
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They no longer had this guy...

tennessee-vols-al-wilson-o.gif
 
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#5
#5
It may be an exaggeration to say categorically that they lacked "drive," but, to answer your question, a host of factors were involved:


(1) Most importantly, a lion that has just gorged itself on a kill is not as hungry for some time. In short, it is much harder to repeat as a national champion than it is to win one in the first place. That is simply human nature. In retrospect, I believe that this may have even impacted recruiting; we did not reap the extraordinary benefits in the '99 recruiting class that one would have expected in the immediate aftermath of having won a national championship.

(2) The extraordinary leadership of Al Wilson was no longer there to galvanize them.

(3) David Cutcliffe had moved on to take the head coaching position at Ole Miss. Fulmer fully trusted Cutcliffe as offensive coordinator; he never relinquished the same degree of control to Randy Sanders.

(4) The close victories over Florida and Arkansas at home in 1998 became extremely close losses on the road in 1999.
 
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#6
#6
Never start a thread with just the team year! You could give folks on here a heart attack....they me thing the team got arrested or hurt or kicked off the, well, team
 
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#8
#8
volosaurus rex said:
it may be an exaggeration to say categorically that they lacked "drive," but, to answer your question, a host of factors were involved:


(1) most importantly, a lion that has just gorged itself on a kill is not as hungry for some time. In short, it is much harder to repeat as a national champion than it is to win one in the first place. That is simply human nature. In retrospect, i believe that this may have even impacted recruiting; we did not reap the extraordinary benefits in the '99 recruiting class that one would have expected in the immediate aftermath of having won a national championship.

(2) the extraordinary leadership of al wilson was no longer there to galvanize them.

(3) david cutcliffe had moved on to take the head coaching position at ole miss. Fulmer fully trusted cutcliffe as offensive coordinator; he never relinquished the same degree of control to randy sanders.

(4) the close victories over florida and arkansas at home in 1998 became extremely close losses on the road in 1999.
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#3 👍.
 
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#9
#9
VFL34 said:
#3 👍.
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I agree. I could just tell something was different about the '99 team. I chalked it up to losing Peerless Price at WR. He was a huge weapon...but the '99 WR group wasn't exactly chopped liver.
 
#10
#10
jasonvols2.2 said:
Why did that team lack drive?
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Team leaders included most talented 3 Jr players that were ready to go to the league.

J Lewis, D Grant and C Coleman

Add to that the drop off in discipline / play-calling from Cutcliffe to Sanders & the loss of Al Wilson and you have your answer.

The championship won the previous year seemed to somewhat extinguish the fire we saw in '98.
 
#11
#11
Lost 2 regular season games on the last play one with the ball ,one without. Guessing you are in your 20s and never watched them.
 
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#12
#12
Boca Vol, here is something else to consider. You typically expect a quarterback to show significant improvement after his first year as a starter. Tee Martin did not do so; he basically plateaued. That really wasn't his fault. Cutcliffe was, and is, an outstanding quarterback coach. Tee did not have the benefit of Cutcliffe's continued tutelage for his senior season. And Randy Sanders was just beginning to get his feet wet in that particular capacity.
 
#13
#13
Volosaurus rex said:
Boca Vol, here is something else to consider. You typically expect a quarterback to show significant improvement after his first year as a starter. Tee Martin did not do so; he basically plateaued. That really wasn't his fault. Cutcliffe was, and is, an outstanding quarterback coach. Tee did not have the benefit of Cutcliffe's continued tutelage for his senior season. And Randy Sanders was just beginning to get his feet wet in that particular capacity.
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I think you're correct. Take out Tee's development and take away Price...and that's pretty significant.
 
#14
#14
Oh, the days when our team finishes the regular season 9-2, lost both games by 2 and 4 points, and played in the Fiesta Bowl, and that year was considered a disappointing year.
 
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#15
#15
VolsSportsFan said:
Oh, the days when our team finishes the regular season 9-2, lost both games by 2 and 4 points, and played in the Fiesta Bowl, and that year was considered a disappointing year.
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If Nebraska didn't beat us so soundly in Fiesta Bowl maybe not such a disappointment.

Seemed like we didn't show up for that one.
 
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#16
#16
Also in an interview coach Fulmer said, we won the championship the year before and we left it up to the team to do the little things that got them there last year, but that was a mistake on our part. Never stop coaching!!!
 
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#17
#17
Orange Marlin said:
Also in an interview coach Fulmer said, we won the championship the year before and we left it up to the team to do the little things that got them there last year, but that was a mistake on our part. Never stop coaching!!!
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Amen. Never stop coaching. Never stop leading. Go Vols!
 
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#18
#18
ajvol01 said:
If Nebraska didn't beat us so soundly in Fiesta Bowl maybe not such a disappointment.

Seemed like we didn't show up for that one.
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We lost by 10 points (31-21).

Are you sure you're not thinking of the Orange Bowl after the 1997 season (when we lost 42-17)? Because it kind of looks like we did better in this one.
 
#19
#19
TrueOrange said:
Are you sure you're not thinking of the Orange Bowl after the 1997 season (when we lost 42-17)? Because it kind of looks like we did better in this one.
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Kind of off topic, but that was the first full game I watched. Sucked pretty bad watching Ahman Greene gash us all game.
 
#21
#21
TrueOrange said:
So people are saying that the 1999 team "didn't have drive" because they only won 9 out of their 11 games and made it to the Fiesta Bowl?

Yeesh.
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That's how spoiled we were back then. I feel sorry for our younger fans
 
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#22
#22
jasonvols2.2 said:
Why did that team lack drive?
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Not sure that team lacked drive. We lost two road games against the #2 and #3 ranked teams in the country by a total of 6 points. The Fiesta bowl was no surprise with Chavis defense trying to defend the option ran flawlessly by Eric Crouch. I don't ever remember us stopping a legit option team. Still it was a 17-14 game in the 3rd quarter. They did run it down our throats though.
 
#23
#23
What'sInYou said:
Kind of off topic, but that was the first full game I watched. Sucked pretty bad watching Ahman Greene gash us all game.
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That's pretty much what Nebraska did to more or less everyone in the 90s (you could almost just say "under Tom Osborne")...especially at that point in the mid/late 90s.



See what happened in Florida played them at the end of 1995.
 
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#25
#25
SDV said:
That's how spoiled we were back then. I feel sorry for our younger fans
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I don't even think most of our fans were upset with that season. Maybe they would have liked to have beaten Nebraska, but they still made a major bowl game and finished in the top 10.

But most seemed fine.
 
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