25 Years Ago Johnny Majors

#26
#26
Boca Vol said:
That was before HDTV! :)

I remember those days as well. Every game was sold out. There were no empty sections in the stadium. As much as I like watching every game on TV or going to the games, there was something about helping Dad out in the yard with the leaves and listening to John Ward call the game. Later that day I couldn't wait for the highlights on the local news....Bob Kesling.
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Grew up doing the same thing Boc.... I'd play my pee wee football games early Saturday morning, then get home in time to listen to John call the games as I worked in the yard with mom and dad. Great memories.
 
#27
#27
Freak said:
Quite the run. Wasn't it the 88 team the started 0-5 and finished by winning the last six in a row? Combine the two and that's a solid stretch of football.
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Yep! That's when local sportscaster Duncan Stewart spent 6-8 weeks atop a billboard here in Nashville. The VOLS turned it around & won the final 5 games of the season. That crazy time seemed to turn Tennessee football fortunes around. :crazy:
 
#28
#28
KBVol said:
I was a junior at UT in 1988. For the sake of accuracy, I respectfully submit that they actually started 0-6 and finished with 5 straights wins. But you're absolutely right Freak.... if you look at the 2 years, after losing those 6 straight, they rattled off 16 of 17... that's some damn good football. Given the awful football we've witnessed the last 6-7 years around here, that seems like 2 lifetimes ago.
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Yeah my mistake. They finished 5-6 that year so I typed it backwards. Winning 16 of 17 is an impressive run, though.

Those years are starting to seem like fiction. Sometimes I question if they ever really happened because it's been so long since Tennessee was a force to be reckoned with.

I keep telling myself that, sometime soon, one of these teams is going to come and out surprise some people --- much like Auburn and Missouri did last year.
 
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#30
#30
:)
Pump Guy said:
I went to the UCLA in 89' with a buddy. American Express had this deal that if you got a card, you could get a round trip ticket anywhere in the lower 48 for $99. That was also when football players could sign students up for tickets, so we got in the game free.

The game was electric with (I would estimate) 8 - 10k TN fans. The Rose Bowl was sparsely attended except for the corner where they put the TN fans. I don't think the UCLA people had any idea what was going on with us making all that noise.

Doug Matthews has an interesting write-up about 88' and the change-up mid year; https://t.e2ma.net/message/lbfrf/ljdrkl .
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#34
#34
Yes he did resign!

CJM could get quality assistants, I think that's why he had so much coach turnover
 
#35
#35
Pump Guy said:
I went to the UCLA in 89' with a buddy. American Express had this deal that if you got a card, you could get a round trip ticket anywhere in the lower 48 for $99. That was also when football players could sign students up for tickets, so we got in the game free.

The game was electric with (I would estimate) 8 - 10k TN fans. The Rose Bowl was sparsely attended except for the corner where they put the TN fans. I don't think the UCLA people had any idea what was going on with us making all that noise.

Doug Matthews has an interesting write-up about 88' and the change-up mid year; https://t.e2ma.net/message/lbfrf/ljdrkl .
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My ex and I, along with our three kids, attended this game, too. We stayed in Pasadena and had a great time.

On game day, we got there early to do a little tailgating. And yeah, there were about 10,000 UT fans there. We filled one end zone.

While walking to the stadium (across a golf course fairway turned into a 'parking lot') Bruin fan after Bruin fan would yell at us---"Where did ALL of you come from?" "Did you leave anyone IN Tennessee?" "I've never seen so much orange in my life." Several very nice UCLA fans actually stopped us and sincerely asked "What is going on?" They did not understand how or why so many fans of a team would travel over 2,000 miles for a football game. It was beyond them. (When UCLA has played in Neyland I've noticed that about 500 of their fans make the trip from L.A.)
 
#36
#36
amavol2 said:
Yes he did resign!

CJM could get quality assistants, I think that's why he had so much coach turnover
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Posters now go bat-sh&t crazy on here when an assistant leaves. Heaven help them if they grew up in the Major's era! There would be the constant stench of mattresses burning because coaches came and went...but look at some of the coaches that were here when Majors was here:

Joe Avezzano
Dom Capers
Doug Matthews
Phil Fulmer
Larry Marmie
Kippy Brown
Walt Harris
Ron Zook
David Cutcliffe
Ken Donahue
Kevin Steele
Jim Bates
Mel Foels
John Chavis
Tommy West
Larry Lacewell
Not to mention a certain grad assistant!

Good assistant coaches move on to other opportunities. If you have the exact same staff for many years, either that staff is 100% content or something is wrong. Cutcliffe had aspirations of being a head coach whereas Chavis, not so much. That's not a knock on Chief, he's happy running his D at the top of the mountain in college football (UT and LSU).
 
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#37
#37
Yeah, Johnny kickd Cobb off the team for a failed drug test less than a week before the Bama game. Cobb was a Heisman candidate at the time. Do you think Saban, Meyer, Spurrier, etc. would do that today??
 
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#38
#38
Boca Vol said:
Posters now go bat-sh&t crazy on here when an assistant leaves. Heaven help them if they grew up in the Major's era! There would be the constant stench of mattresses burning because coaches came and went...but look at some of the coaches that were here when Majors was here:

Joe Avezzano
Dom Capers
Doug Matthews
Phil Fulmer
Larry Marmie
Kippy Brown
Walt Harris
Ron Zook
David Cutcliffe
Ken Donahue
Kevin Steele
Jim Bates
Mel Foels
John Chavis
Tommy West
Larry Lacewell
Not to mention a certain grad assistant!

Good assistant coaches move on to other opportunities. If you have the exact same staff for many years, either that staff is 100% content or something is wrong. Cutcliffe had aspirations of being a head coach whereas Chavis, not so much. That's not a knock on Chief, he's happy running his D at the top of the mountain in college football (UT and LSU).
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This aint nothing compared to his assistants at Iowa St. I know Jimmy Johnson was one of them. Can't remember the others.
 
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#40
#40
Freak said:
I think you might be right about that. And didn't Donahue resign at the end of the season?
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story goes that after we went 0-5, JM told Matthews he was going from RB to DB and that he (DM) would run the D meetings & practice. KD said that would not work for him or the team & resigned.
 
#42
#42
WillisWG said:
story goes that after we went 0-5, JM told Matthews he was going from RB to DB and that he (DM) would run the D meetings & practice. KD said that would not work for him or the team & resigned.
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Did he resign mid-season then?
 
#44
#44
Freak said:
Yeah my mistake. They finished 5-6 that year so I typed it backwards. Winning 16 of 17 is an impressive run, though.

Those years are starting to seem like fiction. Sometimes I question if they ever really happened because it's been so long since Tennessee was a force to be reckoned with.

I keep telling myself that, sometime soon, one of these teams is going to come and out surprise some people --- much like Auburn and Missouri did last year.
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Just remember that we also had a sixteen-year drought between Dickey's last SEC championship (1969) and Majors' first (1985). The proverbial worm will turn again.
 
#47
#47
Boca Vol said:
Yes. He was asked to stay on but he left mid-season.
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Don't think that was the case. With KD dead, JM is only one guy now who knows how it really all went down and he probably would not talk about.
 
#50
#50
That was also the year poor Duncan Stewart, a Nashville radio personality vowed to stay on top of a Nashville billboard until TN finally won a game.
As a 15 year old who lived and breathed the big orange, that was misery like I had never experienced until the past 6 years...
 
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