*Niche Topic: 2001 SEC Title Game For Nostalgic Fans Only

[SquirrelOrange3]

Something that has always bugged me, and that many people have forgotten, is that with a little over 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter, and trailing by a touchdown, Tennessee had the ball first and goal on the LSU four yard line. Despite having one of the best offensive lines in the country and an All American running back, Tennessee threw the ball three straight times. After failing to score a touchdown, they had to settle for a field goal, which cut the lead to 24–20. I know Tennessee stopped LSU on the ensuing drive, and had a chance to take the lead before Stallworth fumbled the ball, but I’ve always felt that if they had tied the game at 24–24, they would have found a way to win.

Yeah, that was classic Randy Sanders. Cutcliffe would've had LSU put away by the 2nd quarter.

 

[SquirrelOrange3]

The semi-pro team that was the 2001 Miami Hurricanes would have kicked our teeth in, so the gut punch was inevitable.

If you want to take anything good from it, at least it allowed the team to end the year with a W over Michigan.

I also don't view this as the downfall of the Fulmer era. That's 2005. Losing to LSU sucked, but that Tennessee team still played like a top 5-6 team all year long. The 05 Vols were one of the most talented in the country and should have done great things. Oh well, I suppose.

Replacing Randy Sanders with Cutcliffe gave us two good seasons in '06-'07, with the hiring on Clawson in '08 being the nail in the coffin. We had already survived one disastrous OC hire with Sanders, but Clawson was too much with Saban, Miles, Spurrier, Tuberville, Petrino, Richt, and Meyer coaching in the SEC in '08 instead of the Shulas, Duboses, Zooks, Donnans, Goffs, and Hallmans of the world.

 

[PitterPatter]

I often think about this game for many reasons. It marked a turning point in my life. I was at the game with my dad, who passed away about two years later. I was 16 at the time. For me, it was both a turning point and the beginning of UT football’s long decline into irrelevance. In so many ways, it parallels my own life.

I’m 40 now, and the game still comes to mind during make-or-break moments. What went wrong that night? We were the better team. LSU’s quarterback got hurt, and it felt impossible that we could lose. Then, suddenly, we started making mistakes. I remember the Stevens fumble as an absolute gut punch — something we didn’t deserve, but that the universe seemed determined to deal us anyway. We should never have lost that game. I remember the look on Savana face as if his body language was saying “I stole that one, and I know I stole that one”. It marked Saban’s true ascendency and Fulmer’s actual decline. We still should have never lost that game.

To me, it was a sliding-doors moment in the history of our program. That game became symbolic of life itself: bad things will happen to you beyond your control, and you’ll have no choice but to endure them. From there, we drifted into twenty years of doldrums. I’ve often felt bitter about that night, still believing that if we had won, we would have gone on to the Rose Bowl and claimed our second national title in three years. But fate wouldn’t allow it.

Being in that stadium during the fourth quarter, I had never felt so powerless and defeated. The worst part was how inevitable it all felt, as if destiny had already been written.

Hopefully we now have cleared out karmic debt, and can get back to the level we were at on that night. We were the best team in the land. Don’t let anyone ever tell you otherwise. We are close to it now.

Go Vols

Great post.

 

[feathersax]

I often think about this game for many reasons. It marked a turning point in my life. I was at the game with my dad, who passed away about two years later. I was 16 at the time. For me, it was both a turning point and the beginning of UT football’s long decline into irrelevance. In so many ways, it parallels my own life.

I’m 40 now, and the game still comes to mind during make-or-break moments. What went wrong that night? We were the better team. LSU’s quarterback got hurt, and it felt impossible that we could lose. Then, suddenly, we started making mistakes. I remember the Stevens fumble as an absolute gut punch — something we didn’t deserve, but that the universe seemed determined to deal us anyway. We should never have lost that game. I remember the look on Savana face as if his body language was saying “I stole that one, and I know I stole that one”. It marked Saban’s true ascendency and Fulmer’s actual decline. We still should have never lost that game.

To me, it was a sliding-doors moment in the history of our program. That game became symbolic of life itself: bad things will happen to you beyond your control, and you’ll have no choice but to endure them. From there, we drifted into twenty years of doldrums. I’ve often felt bitter about that night, still believing that if we had won, we would have gone on to the Rose Bowl and claimed our second national title in three years. But fate wouldn’t allow it.

Being in that stadium during the fourth quarter, I had never felt so powerless and defeated. The worst part was how inevitable it all felt, as if destiny had already been written.

Hopefully we now have cleared out karmic debt, and can get back to the level we were at on that night. We were the best team in the land. Don’t let anyone ever tell you otherwise. We are close to it now.

Go Vols

Everything you say is correct. It was obvious that LSU fans had no idea their team would win...but, it happened. To this day I think the Tennessee booster ladies selling those wretched Orange Roses was the kiss of death. After the game Tiger fans were crazy with excitement. Yep, we shoud never had lost that game.

 

[landscapingvol]

The only thing that has taken a little bit of the sting off that game was now we know Saban was the best to ever do it. Plus I doubt we would have beaten Miami. We would have played them better than Nebraska did, though.

I agree, Fulmer never felt the same after that game. SEC got better. His recruiting slid. I hate Kiffin did what he did to put us in the dark ages, but moving on from PF was the right move. This has been argued many times on here and will be again, but the game had passed him by. I'll always be thankful for everything he did here as a player and coach though.

Im just thankful we have a coach that has gotten us much closer to where we belong. There will be ups and downs, but I forgot how good it feels to be part of a program that matters. And we certainly matter now.

And thank you for sharing a part of your personal story. That's not always easy to do.

Yes moving on from Fulmer was the right move but not with immature, inexperienced Kiffin. That was a mistake

 

[jasonvol18]

We never seemed to have a QB who could take over a game after Cutcliff left. We had everything else going for us in 2001, aside from Cutcliff.

Since you brought up the players who paraded with roses after the Florida win, I remember a sinking feeling that we were about to blow it after that game. I had not forgotten the Nebraska game from 1998 and the “we’re just better than them” attitude reminded me of the month leading up to the Orange Bowl.

It’s important to live in the moment and enjoy success, but reality sets fast when you abandon the work and the focus that got you there. That’s what I remember in the 2 weeks leading up to the 2001 SEC championship. Not enough people were concerned about the next opponent.

CC could definitely take over a game. He's still the most undervalued QB in my generation. He was tough as hell and left it all on the field. He did everything possible to win that 2001 SEC Championship game, but his teammates were still stuck in Fla victory mode. Casey will always be one of my all time favorite Vol QB's and players. He loved the game and knew you were getting MAX effort from him. I'd take another 4 year run with a QB like him. Hell, he was 3-1 against Ala and the line loss he was coming back from an injury and had no business playing. He was 2-1 vs Florida. AJ Suggs started in 2000 until CC was ready to make his Vols debut. He was 0-2 vs Ga, and was injured and didn't start 2 games vs them. 2001 game was the heartbreaking, hobnail boot game.

That 2001 team was one of the best Football teams I've seen in Knoxville. We had NFL talent on both sides of the ball and all over the field. I believe we had one of the few teams that year that could have given Miami a run for their money. We definitely would have been more competitive than Nebraska.

 

[jasonvol18]

Replacing Randy Sanders with Cutcliffe gave us two good seasons in '06-'07, with the hiring on Clawson in '08 being the nail in the coffin. We had already survived one disastrous OC hire with Sanders, but Clawson was too much with Saban, Miles, Spurrier, Tuberville, Petrino, Richt, and Meyer coaching in the SEC in '08 instead of the Shulas, Duboses, Zooks, Donnans, Goffs, and Hallmans of the world.

Exactly! Not to mention, players had to be super intelligent to be able to grasp Clawson's offense. And let's face it, we didn't have the smartest group! ... It literally takes a year plus to grasp the Clawfence, not sure what Fulmer was thinking. He had to know JC would have never picked up that offense in such a short time. That hire was equivalent to Fulmer's hire of Pruitt.

 

[RDU VOL#14]

Me opening Volnation and the first thing I see on Friday morning of a game week is LSU 2001 discussion…

 

[ETV]

We had more talent than LSU, yet we lost that game. But on the flip side, so many people say Miami had more talent than us so we would have lost the Rose Bowl.

Look. Miami had more talent than us on January 1st, 1986 in the Sugar Bowl, yet we won.
Miami had more talent than us on November 8th, 2003 in the Orange Bowl, yet we won.

As LSU taught us in the 2001 SECCG, they don't play this game on paper.

There’s no way Fulmer and his staff compares to Butch Davis at the time.

It may not have been a disaster like Nebraska was against Miami, but UT wasn’t going to beat them that year.

 

[BernardKingGOAT]

Exactly! Not to mention, players had to be super intelligent to be able to grasp Clawson's offense. And let's face it, we didn't have the smartest group! ... It literally takes a year plus to grasp the Clawfence, not sure what Fulmer was thinking. He had to know JC would have never picked up that offense in such a short time. That hire was equivalent to Fulmer's hire of Pruitt.

It was nowhere near the equivalent of hiring Pruitt

 

[BernardKingGOAT]

We had more talent than LSU, yet we lost that game. But on the flip side, so many people say Miami had more talent than us so we would have lost the Rose Bowl.

Look. Miami had more talent than us on January 1st, 1986 in the Sugar Bowl, yet we won.
Miami had more talent than us on November 8th, 2003 in the Orange Bowl, yet we won.

As LSU taught us in the 2001 SECCG, they don't play this game on paper.

Miami didn't have much more talent in 85. We had a stout OL. 3 guys from that unit had lengthy NFL careers. Tim McGee was a 1st team AA. We had a ton of good backs. Our defense had been great all year with a bunch of takeaways

 

[vols27]

We got outcoached, simple as that. Fulmer, Sanders and Chavis had no chance against Saban that night. We just didn't know it yet. That was the beginning of the end for Fulmer and rightfully so.

 

[Volholic]

That team lost its edge after beating Florida. And I disagree with a lot of you on whether or not they could have beat Miami. We had the lines to do it and the weapons. Just was not meant to be.

 

[robcovol]

I often wonder how much beating Florida the week before affected Tennessee against LSU.

 

[adam.vol]

CC could definitely take over a game. He's still the most undervalued QB in my generation. He was tough as hell and left it all on the field. He did everything possible to win that 2001 SEC Championship game, but his teammates were still stuck in Fla victory mode. Casey will always be one of my all time favorite Vol QB's and players. He loved the game and knew you were getting MAX effort from him. I'd take another 4 year run with a QB like him. Hell, he was 3-1 against Ala and the line loss he was coming back from an injury and had no business playing. He was 2-1 vs Florida. AJ Suggs started in 2000 until CC was ready to make his Vols debut. He was 0-2 vs Ga, and was injured and didn't start 2 games vs them. 2001 game was the heartbreaking, hobnail boot game.

That 2001 team was one of the best Football teams I've seen in Knoxville. We had NFL talent on both sides of the ball and all over the field. I believe we had one of the few teams that year that could have given Miami a run for their money. We definitely would have been more competitive than Nebraska.

This type of argument makes me sick. How can you in clean conscience state that we had great talent, while praising a QB who lost too many games to compete for a national title?

Clausen was flat footed and was a slow decision maker.

 

[vik]

Miami didn't have much more talent in 85. We had a stout OL. 3 guys from that unit had lengthy NFL careers. Tim McGee was a 1st team AA. We had a ton of good backs. Our defense had been great all year with a bunch of takeaways

Check this out:
https://www.stateoftheu.com/2020/4/15/21221009/miami-hurricanes-football-vinny-testaverde-jimmy-johnson-michael-irvin-jerome-brown-danny-stubbs

Scroll down to "Loaded Roster." There's a reason why the game is considered a big upset. You won't catch me minimizing that huge win. LoL.

 

[Frozevol]

Thanks for the reminder. Fulmer and his awe shucks look after the game was unbearable.

Clap three times and scowl.

 

[Ned Ray McWorkher]

We got outcoached, simple as that. Fulmer, Sanders and Chavis had no chance against Saban that night. We just didn't know it yet. That was the beginning of the end for Fulmer and rightfully so.

Fumbles, missed tackles, penalties & missed wide open td-passes is why we lost.
When the team is bad, and plays bad, blame the coach. When the team is good, but plays bad, also blame the coach. When the team is good and plays good, it's the players. Fulmer should have retired when his wife told him too.

 

[BernardKingGOAT]

Check this out:
https://www.stateoftheu.com/2020/4/15/21221009/miami-hurricanes-football-vinny-testaverde-jimmy-johnson-michael-irvin-jerome-brown-danny-stubbs

Scroll down to "Loaded Roster." There's a reason why the game is considered a big upset. You won't catch me minimizing that huge win. LoL.

I'm not minimizing it. I still call it my favorite Vols win of all time. I think we were 8 pt underdogs. I was only speaking about the quality of our roster. Theirs was stout

 

[Rickyvol77]

Man, the best team in the land wouldn't have lost to Matt Mauck running delayed QB draws all half. Or to a backup running back. UT had all the talent, but didn't have the discipline or focus to use it well. Not a totally unfamiliar story back in those days, not to those of us who were fans back then.

I always heard that a lot of the UT players were out partying super late the night before the game, including some of our best skill players. I recall reading that we had starting WRs and more out at 3 or 4 AM and didn't really take the game seriously. That may not be the truth - but it was one of the rumors that whole offseason.

Frankly, that parade around the track the night of the UT-FLA game the week before, with the UT players flaunting roses and waving to the crowd after getting back from Gainesville, will haunt any of us who saw it for the rest of our lives. I was too young to realize the danger at the time.

Saban's team didn't have our talent that year, but we saw them twice, and both times you could tell they were incredibly disciplined and very well coached. Even when they came to Knoxville, our talent didn't overwhelm their coaching. They lost 26-18 in our house, and it wasn't for a lack of effort. They kept coming that whole game. Never quit. And they were hungry for payback in Atlanta.

The players weren't out partying

The game came down to two things, we fumbled two key fumbles by Stephens and Stallworth and our defensive calls from Chavis refused to account for Mauck running draws, that literally was it..

 

[Lekvolrrah]

I often think about this game for many reasons. It marked a turning point in my life. I was at the game with my dad, who passed away about two years later. I was 16 at the time. For me, it was both a turning point and the beginning of UT football’s long decline into irrelevance. In so many ways, it parallels my own life.

I’m 40 now, and the game still comes to mind during make-or-break moments. What went wrong that night? We were the better team. LSU’s quarterback got hurt, and it felt impossible that we could lose. Then, suddenly, we started making mistakes. I remember the Stevens fumble as an absolute gut punch — something we didn’t deserve, but that the universe seemed determined to deal us anyway. We should never have lost that game. I remember the look on Savana face as if his body language was saying “I stole that one, and I know I stole that one”. It marked Saban’s true ascendency and Fulmer’s actual decline. We still should have never lost that game.

To me, it was a sliding-doors moment in the history of our program. That game became symbolic of life itself: bad things will happen to you beyond your control, and you’ll have no choice but to endure them. From there, we drifted into twenty years of doldrums. I’ve often felt bitter about that night, still believing that if we had won, we would have gone on to the Rose Bowl and claimed our second national title in three years. But fate wouldn’t allow it.

Being in that stadium during the fourth quarter, I had never felt so powerless and defeated. The worst part was how inevitable it all felt, as if destiny had already been written.

Hopefully we now have cleared out karmic debt, and can get back to the level we were at on that night. We were the best team in the land. Don’t let anyone ever tell you otherwise. We are close to it now.

Go Vols

This game caused more hurt to my soul than any

 

[Rickyvol77]

We never seemed to have a QB who could take over a game after Cutcliff left. We had everything else going for us in 2001, aside from Cutcliff.

Since you brought up the players who paraded with roses after the Florida win, I remember a sinking feeling that we were about to blow it after that game. I had not forgotten the Nebraska game from 1998 and the “we’re just better than them” attitude reminded me of the month leading up to the Orange Bowl.

It’s important to live in the moment and enjoy success, but reality sets fast when you abandon the work and the focus that got you there. That’s what I remember in the 2 weeks leading up to the 2001 SEC championship. Not enough people were concerned about the next opponent.

BS Clausen was the most clutch QB in decades and arguably the 2nd best QB in program history.

We lost to Nebraska because they allowed steroids and their HS program to Nebraska OL star cheat that the NCAA allowed was too much for mid 90s SEC teams

 

[Rickyvol77]

Firing Fulmer was the right move I agree. If Kiffen stayed, he would have been just fine , he has always regretted that. Hiring the next 3 goof balls where the problem, thanks a lot Fulmer for Cornbread!

Kiffin was mediocre too ...the correct hire for the program at the time was either Cutcliffe or Gary Patterson

 

[Rickyvol77]

Something that has always bugged me, and that many people have forgotten, is that with a little over 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter, and trailing by a touchdown, Tennessee had the ball first and goal on the LSU four yard line. Despite having one of the best offensive lines in the country and an All American running back, Tennessee threw the ball three straight times. After failing to score a touchdown, they had to settle for a field goal, which cut the lead to 24–20. I know Tennessee stopped LSU on the ensuing drive, and had a chance to take the lead before Stallworth fumbled the ball, but I’ve always felt that if they had tied the game at 24–24, they would have found a way to win.

THIS, play calling on both sides was awful at key times...Coaching lost this game for sure

 

[Rickyvol77]

It's unlikely we would have beat that Miami team

Miami was talented but hardly unbeatable, we definitely wouldve had a great shot