The Best Team before the 2022 Team?

#3
#3
I would take Clausen back right now. All he did was win big games on the road
Ah yes! Alabama twice on the road. Florida twice on the road. Notre Dame once in the road. 3 of those were when he was a sophomore. Miami, Florida and Bama on the road when he was a senior. That 4th and 19 throw at Bama was a thing of beauty. Deluxe moxey and big time gamer
 
#4
#4
Was the 2001 team. We're about to have another one in that league. Within the first four years of the s**t show Heupel walked into in 2021

Thanks, Danny!
The 2001 team was better than the 1998 team. Although it should have been Fulmer's last year, he should have retired after the SEC championship game debacle. Finished 2000 getting hammered in the Cotton bowl, then blows the 2001 SEC title game, then the 8-5 2002 disaster.

2001 also started the 20 year voodoo root.
 
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#5
#5
The 2001 team was better than the 1998 team. Although it should have been Fulmer's last year, he should have retired after the SEC championship game debacle and then getting hammered in the Cotton bowl.

2001 also started the 20 year voodoo root.
Who hypothetically takes over for Fulmer in 2002? Chavis? Sanders? Kippy?
 
#7
#7
The 2001 team was better than the 1998 team. Although it should have been Fulmer's last year, he should have retired after the SEC championship game debacle and then getting hammered in the Cotton bowl.

2001 also started the 20 year voodoo root.
I would take the 98 team every single time over the 2001 team.
 
#8
#8
Ah yes! Alabama twice on the road. Florida twice on the road. Notre Dame once in the road. 3 of those were when he was a sophomore. Miami, Florida and Bama on the road when he was a senior. That 4th and 19 throw at Bama was a thing of beauty. Deluxe moxey and big time gamer
That throw to Cj Fayton was one hell of a play
 
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#9
#9
The Miami 03 game was a beauty, five turnovers, and played keep away just long enough
I believe Cutcliffe was 1-7 vs Florida and Sanders was 3-4
2012 we had great offensive line, horrible D
2016 talent if coached up would have been phenomenal
06 team lost a few breaks
02 and 05 injuries and confusion of qbs
03 was an interesting year
01 was deep all over the place
00 rebuilding
99 certain players thinking about the nfl
98 had heart
 
#10
#10
Ah yes! Alabama twice on the road. Florida twice on the road. Notre Dame once in the road. 3 of those were when he was a sophomore. Miami, Florida and Bama on the road when he was a senior. That 4th and 19 throw at Bama was a thing of beauty. Deluxe moxey and big time gamer
True, & CC was phenomenal...but always remember his poor showing on a frozen field at the Cotton Bowl. Kansas St. frustrated him. The Wildcats frustrated Tennessee freshman quarterback Casey Clausen into a miserable 7-of-25, three-interception performance. Clausen did throw a 17-yard TD pass to TE David Martin, forcing a 7–7 tie in the first minute of the second quarter.Cold weather thing? We were there & it was bad. :cool:
 
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#13
#13
The Miami 03 game was a beauty, five turnovers, and played keep away just long enough
I believe Cutcliffe was 1-7 vs Florida and Sanders was 3-4
2012 we had great offensive line, horrible D
2016 talent if coached up would have been phenomenal
06 team lost a few breaks
02 and 05 injuries and confusion of qbs
03 was an interesting year
01 was deep all over the place
00 rebuilding
99 certain players thinking about the nfl
98 had heart
A lot of players playing/played on sunday on that 2016 team.
 
#17
#17
The 2001 team was better than the 1998 team. Although it should have been Fulmer's last year, he should have retired after the SEC championship game debacle and then getting hammered in the Cotton bowl.

2001 also started the 20 year voodoo root.
Lol we hammered Michigan after the SEC Championship loss. We lost the Cotton Bowl the year before. Crazy that you have convinced yourself otherwise
 
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#18
#18
Fulmer had our program rolling but IMO he had more talent than Heupel has had to work with. The biggest difference, however, was that Fulmer also didn't have the level of competition (at that time) that Heupel has had to face. Even Florida, under Spurrier, did not recruit at the level of Alabama under Saban or Georgia under Kirby Smart.

We were also helped that we had ACC teams like FSU and Miami that pulled in SEC talent and kept our competition down. This isn't the case anymore. SEC is stronger than ever. Heupel has had a lot more challenges to deal with than Fulmer at that time.
 
#19
#19
The 2001 team was better than the 1998 team. Although it should have been Fulmer's last year, he should have retired after the SEC championship game debacle and then getting hammered in the Cotton bowl.

2001 also started the 20 year voodoo root.
We smoked Michigan in the Citrus Bowl after we lost in 2001 SEC title game. We had a preseason top 3 team going into 2002 and we were decimated by injuries that season.
 
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#20
#20
We smoked Michigan in the Citrus Bowl after we lost in 2001 SEC title game. We had a preseason top 3 team going into 2002 and we were decimated by injuries that season.

The 2002 season was a disaster and IMO started the downfall of the Fulmer era. We were never as elite after that year. I still don't understand how we lost to Rex Grossman and Florida that year. It was my freshmen year of college and we had such high expectations. We were technically ranked #4 in the preseason but we were the highest ranked SEC team.

We were #3 in the 2005 preseason. Again, another disaster year.
 
#21
#21
The 2002 season was a disaster and IMO started the downfall of the Fulmer era. We were never as elite after that year. I still don't understand how we lost to Rex Grossman and Florida that year. It was my freshmen year of college and we had such high expectations. We were technically ranked #4 in the preseason but we were the highest ranked SEC team.

We were #3 in the 2005 preseason. Again, another disaster year.
We couldn’t handle a snap to save our lives in that 2002 monsoon game vs Florida. We had “The Future” doing his workout routine in his underwear on Gameday before that Florida game. There were way too many guys reading their own press clippings before that season. Clausen broke his collarbone and missed some big games and Kelly Washington pretty much mailed it in after that with an injury. After the 2001 title game we did seem different, but I we still had some very good teams . I think 2004 might’ve been Fulmer’s best coaching job to get us to Atlanta w/ 2 true freshman QB’s and Rick Clausen.
 
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#22
#22
We couldn’t handle a snap to save our lives in that 2002 monsoon game vs Florida. We had “The Future” doing his workout routine in his underwear on Gameday before that Florida game. There were way too many guys reading their own press clippings before that season. Clausen broke his collarbone and missed some big games and Kelly Washington pretty much mailed it in after that with an injury. After the 2001 title game we did seem different, but I we still had some very good teams . I think 2004 might’ve been Fulmer’s best coaching job to get us to Atlanta w/ 2 true freshman QB’s and Rick Clausen.

Great Memory! I hated that. Kelly Washington sound like a moron. Rumors are that he ran off Donte Stallworth who was a more solid WR. Still, a lot of that is on coaching. The snap issues and lack of discipline on the offense. We had the talent in 2002 to win the SEC but we did NOT put it together.

1998 and 2007 are contenders for Fulmer's best years as well. 2007 started out very rough with ugly losses to Cal and Florida to start 1-2 but we still won the SEC East. 1998 was supposed to be a rebuilding year but they won the National Title.

1999, 2002, and 2005 were Fulmer's worse years coaching. Not sure how 2008 would have played out if there wasn't the meltdown after the UCLA loss. The UCLA game in 2008 ended Fulmer's career because everyone knew that UCLA team was garbage and we should NOT have loss to them. (UCLA went 3-9 that year). In hindsight, the fanbase should have had more patience with Fulmer and the 2008 team. We had Clawson as a first year OC and he could have probably turned things around. We got antsy and pulled the trigger and started the downfall.

I don't see Tennessee winning a title with Fulmer but I don't see us falling off the map like we did with Kiffin, Dooley, Jones, and Pruitt.
 
#25
#25
Fulmer had our program rolling but IMO he had more talent than Heupel has had to work with. The biggest difference, however, was that Fulmer also didn't have the level of competition (at that time) that Heupel has had to face. Even Florida, under Spurrier, did not recruit at the level of Alabama under Saban or Georgia under Kirby Smart.

We were also helped that we had ACC teams like FSU and Miami that pulled in SEC talent and kept our competition down. This isn't the case anymore. SEC is stronger than ever. Heupel has had a lot more challenges to deal with than Fulmer at that time.
I don't think it's debatable that Fulmer had more talent during the 90s run. We were loaded from the mid 80s, which he helped recruit
 
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