Question on the history of Tennessee Football teams...

#27
#27
nyc_vol said:
It's always bothered me that we lost that Rose Bowl game, thereby tarnishing an otherwise perfect season. I always chalked it up to train-travel fatigue mingled with culture shock. It was a home game for them after all.

We are 0-4 all-time versus the USC Trojans, with two of those losses coming in Rose Bowl games of that pre-WWII era. Of course, we also dropped a couple to SC in the early 80s, including a faceplant in the Coliseum, albeit against a very strong, Marcus Allen-led Trojan squad.

One of these days - when, frankly, both programs are strong and leaving aside the Kiffen grief - I would love to get another shot at them.
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In 1940, we played the game with the soon-to-be No. 1 pick in the NFL draft, who was the focal point of our offense, available only to punt. We were beat before the game even started.

The other Rose Bowl loss to USC was during World War II, after the '44 season. I think UT was the only Eastern team with a decent record they could get to come out there. We lost to them on the final play in '80 and they absolutely killed us in '81, 43-7, right after we lost 44-0 to Georgia. We went on to be the worst 8-4 team in the history of the SEC.

I wish we'd gotten a crack at them sometime in the 1990s. USC has always missed us when they were down.
 
#28
#28
jsc1973 said:
Georgia Tech did that, not Alabama. Some guy named Heisman was their coach. He's got a trophy of some sort named after him now. As far as that goes, neither Tech nor Bama has anything on the 1899 Sewanee team.

As for the original question...

Neyland's teams in his first and second stints as head coach were often down-rated in the rankings due to weak schedules. The first AP poll was in 1938, and you note that Tennessee wasn't ranked No. 1 in it despite the fact that any computer system you care to name rates the Vols as the best team that season, even before we shut out 10-0 Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl.

Also note that the same thing happened to Duke in 1938 that happened to UT in '39. Duke didn't allow a single point all season (against a much better schedule than we played in '39), but finished No. 3 in the AP poll and is usually third or fourth in computer ratings as well. Also, like UT, they lost the Rose Bowl to USC.

Tennessee shouldn't try to claim the 1939 national title. We weren't the best team that season. I think the Vols would have beaten USC if George Cafego hadn't been hurt (he meant as much to UT in those days as Cam Newton did to Auburn), but that's part of the game.
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Bama did more for Southern football in the 20s and early 30s than Heisman did at Clemson and GT at the turn of the century.

Besides that all excellent points. It should also be noted that Suff was not healthy for the Rose Bowl game and that hurt us MUCH worse than Cafego not playing.
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#29
#29
The main reason we did not get crowned as NCs in those late 30s years was because the south had about 1/8th as many sports writers as the north and the west. We would fall just short in the poll votes. Alabama and Ga Tech were the exceptions in those days. Most other southern teams did not get as much national coverage. Sort of how it is with ESPN today.
 
#31
#31
jmoore_21 said:
The thing is, we were actually named National Champions by a couple polls. The Athletic Department doesnt claim it though. We actually have 8 additional seasons that we have been named National Champions by various polls, but the AD wont claim them. A few of them I think we should claim.

What is funny is that we will claim the 1967 Championship in which we went 9-2, but we wont claim the 1939 one.
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Just out of curiosity, how many NC would we have if we claimed all the ones polls granted us?
 
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#34
#34
jsc1973 said:
Georgia Tech did that, not Alabama. Some guy named Heisman was their coach. He's got a trophy of some sort named after him now. As far as that goes, neither Tech nor Bama has anything on the 1899 Sewanee team.

As for the original question...

Neyland's teams in his first and second stints as head coach were often down-rated in the rankings due to weak schedules. The first AP poll was in 1938, and you note that
Tennessee wasn't ranked No. 1 in it despite
the fact that any computer system you care
to name rates the Vols as the best team
that season, even before we shut out 10-0
Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl.

Also note that the same thing happened to Duke in 1938 that happened to UT in '39. Duke didn't allow a single point all season (against a much better schedule than we played in '39), but finished No. 3 in the AP poll and is usually third or fourth in computer ratings as well. Also, like UT, they lost the Rose Bowl to USC.

Tennessee shouldn't try to claim the 1939 national title. We weren't the best team that
season. I think the Vols would have beaten
USC if George Cafego hadn't been hurt (he
meant as much to UT in those days as Cam
Newton did to Auburn), but that's part of the
game.
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We beat OU 17-0
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#36
#36
gallavol said:
The main reason we did not get crowned as NCs in those late 30s years was because the south had about 1/8th as many sports writers as the north and the west. We would fall just short in the poll votes. Alabama and Ga Tech were the exceptions in those days. Most other southern teams did not get as much national coverage. Sort of how it is with ESPN today.
Click to expand...

Yes. The "nation champion" is often called "mythical" because it is (was) 100% opinion based. A glorified popularity contest.
 
#37
#37
Coach Grizz said:
We beat OU 17-0
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I know that. I said "10-0 Oklahoma." That was the Sooners' record going into that game.

Tennessee has every right to claim a share of the 1938 national title, and it always has done so. Some power rating systems rate our '38 team as one of the greatest teams of all time.
 
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