For fun. If Johnny Majors had remained coach would he have won a NC?

#4
#4
He was on a trajectory of getting there. He had 3 SEC championships in his last 6 years. He was a NCAA icon as far as coaches were concerned. He was having trouble with Bama but his teams were more than competitive with Florida and UGA. He knew how to get his players play as a team and not stars. I just wonder if his personal issues may have incapacitated him at some point.
 
#5
#5
I always liked the guy and sorta think he was done dirty. Could he have won a NC if the coup hadn't taken place?
I’m going to answer your question with a question (don’t you hate it when people do that?). Do you think Coach Majors would have promoted Coach Cutcliffe from QB coach to OC? If so I suspect JM would have won a national championship. If not, I’d say unlikely.
 
#11
#11
Yes, so long as Fulmer or Cutcliffe stayed as OC, and recruited well. We weren't that far away in 1989.

Not saying it would've automatically happened, but we had many of our best QBs in program history in the 90's. We got Shuler under Majors. So long as we still get Manning, and Tee Martin, I think we could've won a national title under Majors.
 
#13
#13
I’m going to answer your question with a question (don’t you hate it when people do that?). Do you think Coach Majors would have promoted Coach Cutcliffe from QB coach to OC? If so I suspect JM would have won a national championship. If not, I’d say unlikely.
If he had? He wouldn’t have KEPT him long enough. Fulmer had been with him the longest but would have been gone if Majors had been retained.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ArdentVol
#15
#15
I say no. Majors would never had been able to sign Manning and I credit Manning with a lot of the roster that won the 1998 National Championship as much as I do Fulmer. Most of those guys wanted to play with Manning thinking they’d win a NC with him.

Fulmer was a good recruiter but his best talent was when PM arrived on campus and the 3-4 years that followed.
 
#16
#16
I always liked the guy and sorta think he was done dirty. Could he have won a NC if the coup hadn't taken place?
Good chance that Majors would have been fired in 1994 given that the majority of players on that team were brought in when Majors was still head coach. Wonder if a 7-4 team with a 9th straight season without a win against Bama would finally ended Majors tenure here. Especially if Cutcliffe went with wherever Fulmer landed after 92 and there wasn't a qb like Manning or even Brandon Stewart that fans could place hope in taking over.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Smokey19rt
#18
#18
I always liked the guy and sorta think he was done dirty. Could he have won a NC if the coup hadn't taken place?

Majors was not done "dirty", he attempted to force some crap on UT President Joe Johnson at the time when UT was in a tight money situation...it was not a "coup" either. Majors made a poor decision.
 
#21
#21
Majors was not done "dirty", he attempted to force some crap on UT President Joe Johnson at the time when UT was in a tight money situation...it was not a "coup" either. Majors made a poor decision.
Wasn't there a wage freeze on at the time for university employees? The way I've heard it, Pres. Johnson promised Coach Majors a raise when the wage freeze was lifted. Majors believed he was underpaid considering all he had accomplished at Tennessee, compared with coaches at other SEC schools. He then made his dissatisfaction public, making speeches and such, when he probably would have been better off staying silent. Then if Johnson had failed to be a man of his word, Majors would have had the upper hand, especially in the court of public opinion.
 
#24
#24
I always liked the guy and sorta think he was done dirty. Could he have won a NC if the coup hadn't taken place?

I suspect yes.

If Majors had stayed, Fulmer goes to Clemson. He takes Cutcliffe with him and possibly a few others.

But one thing that Majors could do that Fulmer could not...he recognized great assistant coaching talent and brought them on board. He'd have replaced those guys with other good coaches. And the new blood might've been good.

Getting Heath Shuler was huge. It led to Tennessee signing more top rated QBs. If Fulmer leaves and Shuler still has a great 1993, I think Tennessee would have continued to sign top notch QBs. Shuler always credited Majors with being the reason he signed with Tennessee.

The variables are:

1) Would Majors have broken the Bama curse? I suspect so, since Bama went downhill.
2) Would Majors have still brought in top talent like Fulmer did? That would have been tough, but recruiting was on an upward trend. The young talent Fulmer inherited was better than any other during the Majors era. I supsect the answer to this question depends largely on who Majors hired as assistants after Fulmer and Cutcliffe left.
3) Would Majors have settled for a DC like Chavis and a DB coach like Slade? I'm guessing no. The programs would probably have better defensive coaching.
4) Would Majors have the Spurrier hangup like Fulmer did? I don't think so. Majors personality wasn't the type to be intimidated by a Spurrier like Fulmer seemed to be (and it bled down to players). Doesn't mean he wouldn't have still lost a few to Spurrier, but I don't think Majors teams were going to play uptight and beat themselves against Florida like Fulmer teams so often did.

So I think Majors would have continued the upward trajectory and won a Natty. And he might not have blown as many other opportunities to win the SEC as Fulmer did because of his Spurrier hangup. But who knows.
 
#25
#25
I always liked the guy and sorta think he was done dirty. Could he have won a NC if the coup hadn't taken place?
Phil-o-Potamus won a NC because of Cut & Chief.....notice how we fell off when Cut left for Ole Piss? Remember how many teams tried to hire Phil-o-Potamus when he was axed from UT? Here's a clue: its less than 1.
 

VN Store



Back
Top