I hope all us negative people have not broke your spirit. I want you to stay loyal to the Vols after Todd is gone.
I was at UT from 1989-1993 so I saw the bad Mark Connor teams where the school (and seemingly the coach) did not give a damn about the program. Lower Hudson Field was a rustic dump and the teams had little talent on field or dugout.
Rod D.'s first 2 teams failed to qualify for post season but you could tell they were getting better. They had some talented guys mainly from California. At the same time, Central High School was getting a lot of publicity and we knew a few of their kids were coming to UT.
In 1993 those few of us who cared KNEW the team was going to be special even before they played. We had a nice stadium (by 1993 standards anyway) and we knew that team had an extraordinary mix of local and out-off-state talent that we may never see again.
They did even better than expected. Todd Helton was a Freshman A-A; our pitching was scary good (Chris Freeman, Bronson Heflin & Todd Helton as closer) our defense was as good as you could imagine (Jeff Foster at 3rd, Richie Wyman in CF, Alan Parker at SS; Fred Carr at 2b.
In 1994 the team was even better as no position was worse than year prior. Many were upgraded. R.A. Dickey came in an dominated that season as freshman.
That 1994 team was the best team UT ever had. Both 1993 and 1994 teams should have gone to Omaha. They did win the SEC-East Tournaments (there were separate tourneys) and hosted NCAA regionals those years.
The 1995 team was not quite as good as 1994. Todd Helton was a stud. R.A. Dickey was good but did not have the eye-popping win total as he did in 1994. The Vols won SEC for 2nd year in row. Won SEC-East Tourney in Knoxville and then region tourney in Knoxville to go to Omaha.
So a good coach like Delmonico (in his first 5 seasons anyway) did wonders in 2-3 seasons. And to be honest, it would be easier in some respect to rebuild in this age as there is more talent (even if traveling team kids) now than in early 90s.
