Since 98 what Tenn. team ........

#1
Fine Vol

Fine Vol

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#1
After 1998 what Tenn. team did you feel early in the season could win a NC that year.
 
#4
#4
99, 2001 and 2005.

We were absolutely loaded in 99. I think we had the best team that year. Losing at Florida was a huge disappointment, but we still had a chance to go to the NCG until we choked at unranked Arkansas. I think we could've beaten Miami in 2001 as well, but we choked in the SEC CG. 2005, well, that's too recent and traumatic to discuss.
 
#5
#5
2002 had a lot of hype going into the season. They'd just wrapped up an 11 win season in 2001, brought back Casey, Kelley, and a talented group of running backs...that team was hammered by injuries, and finished with only 8 wins...I think that team had to replace its entire starting defensive line from 2001 too - very tough to compete for a championship when that happens. I think we were preseason #4 in the AP in '02.
 
#6
#6
2001.

If we had beaten LSU in the SEC champ. game, we would have played for the nat'l title.
 
#7
#7
Nobody thought we'd win a NC preseason in 2001. We came off an 8-5 season.

1999, 2002, and 2005
 
#10
#10
VolinArizona said:
Nobody thought we'd win a NC preseason in 2001. We came off an 8-5 season.
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Wrong. Expectations were high that year. We had a good, young QB who stepped in and won most of his games (including beating Bama in his first try). We had a good, veteran RB (Stephens) and a few highly touted young RBs (Houston, Davis, Tinsley). We had Jason Witten, a weapon at TE we'd never really had before. We had Kelly Washington, who was a freak of nature and absolute gamebreaker. And we had a solid D with Overstreet, Haynesworth, Henderson, Kevin Burnett, E-Mo, etc.
 
#11
#11
wbarron said:
Wrong. Expectations were high that year. We had a good, young QB who stepped in and won most of his games (including beating Bama in his first try). We had a good, veteran RB (Stephens) and a few highly touted young RBs (Houston, Davis, Tinsley). We had Jason Witten, a weapon at TE we'd never really had before. We had Kelly Washington, who was a freak of nature and absolute gamebreaker. And we had a solid D with Overstreet, Haynesworth, Henderson, Kevin Burnett, E-Mo, etc.
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ROFL

Before the season, what had Washington, Witten, Stephens done? Hell, nobody knew TOO much about Henderson or Haynesworth before 2001.

We were ranked 8th in the 2001 preseason poll, with Florida at #1.
 
#13
#13
I find that being pessimistic before the season makes me less disappointed as the season progresses and pleasantly surprised when we win a national title every 50 years or so.
 
#14
#14
2002 and 2005 had the highest expectations. They were also the two crappiest seasons.

Both of those seasons follwed a year where UT ran the football extremely well (2001 - Travis Stephens sets UT single season rushing record, 2004 - Cedric Houston and Gerald Riggs each rush for 1,000 yards). Then, the running game really disappeared the following year. Last year we couldn't run the ball at all, which is why we weren't that great. If things aren't different this season, get ready for more disappointment.
 
#15
#15
1999 had the highest expectations and it's not even close

most talent TN's ever had
 
#16
#16
Henderson had a good 2000, so I was wrong there.

However, Travis Stephens was an unknown. It's easy to say after the fact how good these players were, but we had tons of questions, and only had NC hopes after Florida.
 
#17
#17
I thought TN was good enough to win it all in 2001

Top 10 ranking, lots of veterans, ton of talent.
The only team I was afraid of was Florida, I knew TN was better than every other team on the schedule
 
#18
#18
Stephens, Witten, Stallworth, and Washington were all unknowns going into 2001. Haynesworth, too.
 
#19
#19
2001 was a loaded team.

I haven't seen anyone include Dante Stallworth on the list of playmakers, or Fred Weary being on the OL.

That entire defense essentially played in the NFL, along with the 2-deep on the DL.

2005...one thing the media consistently leaves out about the "bad year" that we "bounced back from" was that the talent wasn't overrated. 2006 validated the talent of that offense, and the defense validated itself on the field in 2005.

Therein lies the atrocious nature of that coaching job. It wasn't as if they took a so-so team, had a few bad bounces, and suffered through one of those mediocre years. They took a fabulous team, had some good breaks, to avoid being 3-8. That may have well been the worst coaching job in America in the modern football era.

1999 was more of a standard underachievment.
 
#20
#20
VolinArizona said:
Stephens, Witten, Stallworth, and Washington were all unknowns going into 2001. Haynesworth, too.
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you can say that...but you can't tell someone what they personally were thinking before the start of a season

I thought TN was good enough to compete for all of it in 01 and they were

they were ranked in the freaking top 10, so obviously it was a popular idea that TN was gona be pretty dang good in 01
 
#21
#21
VolinArizona said:
Stephens, Witten, Stallworth, and Washington were all unknowns going into 2001. Haynesworth, too.
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Yeah, hindsight is 20/20, but I don't know that there were honestly very many people thinking national title in 2001. I don't think anybody thought the offense was going to be as good as it turned out.

I'd say '99 and '02 had the highest expectations. '05 had high expectations too, but it was tough to get too excited with all the uncertainty at QB.
 
#22
#22
Stephens was a 5th year senior...hardly unknown.

Stallworth was a JR who went pro after the year...hardly an unknown.

Witten had been talked about since the day he came on campus...and he was a Soph and the best TE to ever play at TN.

Washington played in the spring as a 21 year old FROSH who was already being interviewed by the national media.
 
#23
#23
eloist said:
2001.

If we had beaten LSU in the SEC champ. game, we would have played for the nat'l title.
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I'll never forget losing that game, I was so angry, we should have one, I started losing hope in Fulmer around that time.
 
#24
#24
volsgal03 said:
I'll never forget losing that game, I was so angry, we should have one, I started losing hope in Fulmer around that time.
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Amen sister. That might be the worst I've felt about a game...it was all there for the taking...:banghead2:
 
#25
#25
Liper said:
Stephens was a 5th year senior...hardly unknown.

Stallworth was a JR who went pro after the year...hardly an unknown.

Witten had been talked about since the day he came on campus...and he was a Soph and the best TE to ever play at TN.

Washington played in the spring as a 21 year old FROSH who was already being interviewed by the national media.
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Like I said, it's easy after the fact to say how studly they were, but Stephens, Washington, Stallworth, and Witten had done very little to make us all think "best offense in 20 years." Period. Anyone who says they expected all 4 of them to be as good as they ended up being is lying.
 
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