Could Majors have won a NC here?

Would Majors have eventually won a NC here?

  • Yes

    Votes: 85 42.5%

  • No

    Votes: 115 57.5%
  • Total voters
    200
  • Poll closed .
#177
#177
Yes, majors COULD have won Nattys in 85, 89 and 90 had he not gone ultra conservative in key games vs Bama, Florida and a few others. Not sure if Majors would have done any better vs Spurrier in mid to late 90s. Both Fulmer and Majors played to not lose/ too conservative vs key rivals and had the same flaws. Best Majors example is 90 Bama. Losing that game was inexcusable.
 
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#178
#178
beamerman said:
Yeah, and winning after losing TRob against Bama. That 85 team had more heart than talent. That Miami SB win is legendary. Not sure Tn had any position player comparable with Miami players.
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Coaching was THE biggest mismatch that night. Miami OL didn’t have a clue where the next Vol was coming from each time Testaverde dropped back. Vol OL that night was very underrated. Wilkerson, Douglas, Bruhin & Smith all played in the NFL, several for a long time. Vols were also just as fast as Miami as evidenced when Powell ran by them & when Terry McDaniel absolutely blanketed Blades on a fly pattern.
 
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#180
#180
beamerman said:
Fulmer inherited a culture of winning and a loaded cupboard and won it all in 98. He never won another championship at any level again.
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Fulmer recruited much of the roster he inherited. PF did far better than JM with the same roster. Players, and coaches, responded to PF better than JM. PF recruited all of the guys on the '98 roster. The culture under Majors was suspect. Some described the coaching staff culture as toxic. The staff under Fulmer was very cohesive. PF was arguably the greatest recruiter ever to wear the orange. His biggest mistake was not replacing Cutliffe with a better OC.
 
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#181
#181
The 89 and 90 teams were stacked all over the field. Two NFL rookies of the year on that team. Multiple first round draft picks. A bunch of guys that played pro ball, and hung around for a few years. We should have been in contention those years, and probably would have if there had been a playoff. Majors just let Bama get in his head and tightened up.
 
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#183
#183
wmcovol said:
Considering Majors took over 3 programs at their bottom, for him to be on this list is impressive.
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Yup. Very few coaches on this list had to build programs from the bottom like Majors. Maybe Bowden and Paterno build their programs up. The others inherited elite programs. I still don’t think Saban could rebuild a bottom feeder program
 
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#185
#185
Volizona said:
Yup. Very few coaches on this list had to build programs from the bottom like Majors. Maybe Bowden and Paterno build their programs up. The others inherited elite programs. I still don’t think Saban could rebuild a bottom feeder program
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He really didn’t move the needle all that at Michigan State. Bowden did rebuild FSU (actually built) but he didn’t do it 3 times. Neither did Paterno.
 
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#186
#186
85,89 and 90 were great teams. The 85 and 89 teams could have easily won national championships. If Webb doesn’t go down in first game in 1990 that team may have won it all. In 1985 I don’t think anybody wanted any of Tennessee at the end of the year. If T-Rob hadn’t went down we probably beat Georgia Tech instead of being a tie. I remember it was Darryl Dickey’s first game after Robinson went down at Bama. Dickey and the offense had a tough night but Reviez nailed a 61 yarder with 1 second left and the Vols left Atlanta with a 6-6 tie. Everybody thought the season was lost, but Dickey and the offense got better every week and we ran the table. Missing out on the win in season opener at home against UCLA in 85 was the real kicker. I was there and we were up 26-10 with a little under 7 minutes left and Johnny went conservative and we allowed them to score 2 touchdowns and they scored both 2 point conversions and we ended up a 26-26 tie. That was my least favorite tie ever, they scored on first play from scrimmage and were up 7-0 quick. Tennessee then dominated the entire rest of the game until the final 7 minutes. That game cost us the national championship.
 
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#187
#187
LAVol1 said:
Fulmer recruited much of the roster he inherited. PF did far better than JM with the same roster. Players, and coaches, responded to PF better than JM. PF recruited all of the guys on the '98 roster. The culture under Majors was suspect. Some described the coaching staff culture as toxic. The staff under Fulmer was very cohesive. PF was arguably the greatest recruiter ever to wear the orange. His biggest mistake was not replacing Cutliffe with a better OC.
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Majors was a very good recruiter. He and his staff recruited the Atlanta area very well. Back in those days no coaches could accompany coaches on the home visits. I was able to accompany his assistants on their Friday night scouting visits and coach Majors often asked me to go with him on his closing recruiting visits. He was a great closer and Tennessee signed a bunch of all stars down there. He was a difficult head coach to work for and ran through a number of really good assistants, but he always replaced them with new assistants who were also very good.
 
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#188
#188
VOLINVONORE said:
Majors was a very good recruiter. He and his staff recruited the Atlanta area very well. Back in those days no coaches could accompany coaches on the home visits. I was able to accompany his assistants on their Friday night scouting visits and coach Majors often asked me to go with him on his closing recruiting visits. He was a great closer and Tennessee signed a bunch of all stars down there. He was a difficult head coach to work for and ran through a number of really good assistants, but he always replaced them with new assistants who were also very good.
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One thing about Majors teams, most of the time they were very tough. They won at the LOS most of the time. He could go to conservative at times. Tennessee was often most dangerous when we got behind, Majors would often open it up if we got behind. But Majors teams brought the fight the majority of the time. GBO
 
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#189
#189
wmcovol said:
He really didn’t move the needle all that at Michigan State. Bowden did rebuild FSU (actually built) but he didn’t do it 3 times. Neither did Paterno.
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I think Joe Pa was an assistant with Penn State then became head coach following the retirement of the head coach. It seems they were already decent to good but, he did take them to the top. Unfortunately, weak schedules often kept him from NC’s.
 
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#190
#190
Woodlawn VOL said:
One thing about Majors teams, most of the time they were very tough. They won at the LOS most of the time. He could go to conservative at times. Tennessee was often most dangerous when we got behind, Majors would often open it up if we got behind. But Majors teams brought the fight the majority of the time. GBO
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You know, I remember that BC bowl game at the end of the ‘92 season and how Fulmer had Peyton slinging the rock. Seems we were scoring a lot of points his first several years. But, similar to Majors, it seems that he became conservative as well. The one thing I did dislike about him was towards the end of his career, he began to play not to lose and hoping a turnover or flag would win it at the end.
 
#191
#191
#1fulmerite said:
You know, I remember that BC bowl game at the end of the ‘92 season and how Fulmer had Peyton slinging the rock. Seems we were scoring a lot of points his first several years. But, similar to Majors, it seems that he became conservative as well. The one thing I did dislike about him was towards the end of his career, he began to play not to lose and hoping a turnover or flag would win it at the end.
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I think you mean Heath
 
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#196
#196
#1fulmerite said:
You know, I remember that BC bowl game at the end of the ‘92 season and how Fulmer had Peyton slinging the rock. Seems we were scoring a lot of points his first several years. But, similar to Majors, it seems that he became conservative as well. The one thing I did dislike about him was towards the end of his career, he began to play not to lose and hoping a turnover or flag would win it at the end.
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Shuler was the QB that day.
 
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#197
#197
BernardKingGOAT said:
No doubt Majors enjoyed his bourbon as do a lot of people. That being said, it's sort of a false narrative that he was drunk all the time. He would have never lived up into his mid 80s
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I don't think saying Johnny was always drunk is a false narrative. I happened to work at a place that he was regularly in and out of. And that man was sweating whiskey. Every time I saw him. It would make your eyes water. And this was while he was Tennessee's head coach. Now, I have been around my share of alcoholics. And as to if Johnny was still consuming the amount of alcohol we had to have been at that time later on? No idea. But he reminded me of a Richard Burton character from one of his later movies, that said his liver needed to be buried separately with honors.

Never saw the man take a drink. But it a safe assumption back then? He had just had a few and was going to have a few more. Not sure what brand he drank, but when he died, their profit margins took a big hit.
 
#198
#198
VolTull said:
Majors had all the tools, the legacy, the history (Pittsburgh) to do so. He was perfectly set to do so.

Did he drink away our possibilities?
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More possibly he just used his football luck up before he got back to Tennessee.

Few coaches ever had three more difficult rebuilds in their career... Iowa State, Pittsburgh, Tennessee by 1977.

Look at year 4, 1980 Season for example....

Just a stupid non-conference/conference schedule he inherited.
Just missed in 1978 on having Jim Kelley as the QB in 1980 throwing to Lindsey Scott, Gault, Miller et al.
80 Heisman Winner RB George Rogers was committed to Tennessee just prior to Majors return
Lost his best RB Hubert Simpson in August
Lost his best DT, Lee Otis Burton prior to that...
80 D-Line could have been Stop Cofer, a healthy Lee Otis, NG Noonan, Carlton Gunn, Reggie White and Charles Morgan with the others... that's a top 10 national DLine
Had eventual NC Georgia and Herschel blown out in the Third Quarter.
Driving to beat or tie Southern Cal late
Good enough to win at Auburn 42-0
Nothing left after the Alabama-Pittsburgh losses.

That could have been a 10-2 bowl team if all fell right; 5-6 as it was.

What if....
 
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#199
#199
TNnative said:
I don't think saying Johnny was always drunk is a false narrative. I happened to work at a place that he was regularly in and out of. And that man was sweating whiskey. Every time I saw him. It would make your eyes water. And this was while he was Tennessee's head coach. Now, I have been around my share of alcoholics. And as to if Johnny was still consuming the amount of alcohol we had to have been at that time later on? No idea. But he reminded me of a Richard Burton character from one of his later movies, that said his liver needed to be buried separately with honors.

Never saw the man take a drink. But it a safe assumption back then? He had just had a few and was going to have a few more. Not sure what brand he drank, but when he died, their profit margins took a big hit.
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Always drunk? Yeah, that's a false narrative

In between our two posts, someone asked if Johnny drank away our chances......
 
#200
#200
Woodlawn VOL said:
One thing about Majors teams, most of the time they were very tough. They won at the LOS most of the time. He could go to conservative at times. Tennessee was often most dangerous when we got behind, Majors would often open it up if we got behind. But Majors teams brought the fight the majority of the time. GBO
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One word that could not be used to describe Majors teams was "slow". I don't care if they lost or wasn't a bowl team he was going to have some world class speed on the roster.

Fulmer's teams had speed most years, but the year Lucas T and Josh B started at receiver had to be one of the slower starting duos on a UT roster I had seen. They were good players but they ran about a 4.7 40 time. Unless you are Jerry Rice, had Peter Warrick juke ability or was a 6'3" or 6'4" 225 then you're limited.

After that we've had periods of speed issues with every coach since then. Even Heupel's team last year looked slow vs OSU and was criticized for lack of speed at WR. That was not the case vs Big Ten teams in the past.
 
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