I forgot about the other 3 that werent completly consensus. I'd say we're still one of the SEC elite. I can understand a little griping. But the whole 'phil should be gone' people tick me off. I'm in no way a Phil lovefest kinda guy either but you cant say he hasnt helped UT.'
06-Finished 2nd in the east by 1 point
05-rather not say
04-Won the East, played in SEC champ
03-Finished 2nd in the east to UGA
02-Off year...
01-Won the East, Played in SEC Champ
00-Lost only 3 games all to Top SEC teams and not by mkuch
99-Lost only to Florida and Arkansas/Made BCS Bowl
98-We all know what happened...
Before the 98 Season, we played for one SEC title game...and won against auburn. Yeah, we had some before that but was the SEC that competitive back then. Talent at other schools and coaching has gotten better. We havent gotten worse.
Not to mention were always for the most part in the top 10 with recruiting.
Over 32 All Americans
Have 745-306-54 All time record (.699)
35 First round NFL Draft picks. Compare to Fla's 35 UGAs 24 Bama's 33 and LSU's 25
13 SEC Titles (9 Outright)
0 Heisman Trophy winners but at least 3 runners up
That screams elite to me....
We had to deal with florida. We still deal with Florida. We just had to start dealing with UGA. Say what you want but as far as the record shows we compete in the SEC, no doubt about it.
that's all great...and i can understand why you would think the way you do. looking at those numbers and results for face value alone, backs up you line of thought.
what i think has people up in a bunch is the trend we have been on since the turn of the century. and that trend has not been good. Overall, i think most would tell you that you're right.
but what had been going on with this program 3-5 years prior to 05 in no way is close to the success we enjoyed in the 90's. and i would also tell you that those same things we saw in 02, 03 and even in 04 to some extent were real issues that culminated in 05.
the point...it shouldn't have taken us going 5-6 and losing to Vandy for the current regime to see that we weren't exactly lighting it up like we had been used to.
to your point about other programs getting better, us not getting worse, that just adds fuel to the fire. for the majority of the 90's, our thorn was FL and Spurrier. He left in 01 and we were just coming off 2 BCS appearances, 2 conf. titles and a NT w/in the previous 5 years. with spurrier leaving, there was no reason not to believe that TN could step in and take over the East.
that didn't happen. all the sudden guys like Mark Richt, Ron Zook and Nick Saban took over and became the dominant team. and one had to ask...what changed? it certainly wasn't us, and watching other schools make changes that resulted in conf. and national titles while we stayed the same was extremely frustrating to many.
so in that context, the frustration was valid...especially considering how we have played for two SEC titles and lost them. win those games and TN has 4 SEC titles in less than 10 years and most everyone is a lot happier these days. but to now go almost 10 years w/out an SEC title.....the trend says, while we may not have been getting worse at the time (which i disagree with btw), it was clearly evident that other teams and programs were getting better. All the while we stayed the same. and the only thing that changed any of that was having to be subjected to an embarassing 05 season.
the oldest form of insanity is doing the same things over and over again, expecting different results. and we proved that over a 4 year span from 02 to 05.
bottom line, it shouldn't have had to come down to going 5-6 for the people in charge to wake up and say "hey, this is broke, we need to fix this".
and i'm not saying Fulmer should have been fired or anything either....but he was the classic "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" leader...when a lot of people/fans were of the mind set "if it ain't broke, BREAK IT".
