The real start of our slide into mediocrity...

#26
#26
I think the real slide has to start at our last peak...2001, ranked #2, winning at halftime in the sec championship. It was also the start of the Vols being unable to win in a game played at the Ga. Dome this decade.
 
#27
#27
TravisHenryCBlockedMe said:
I think the real slide has to start at our last peak...2001, ranked #2, winning at halftime in the sec championship. It was also the start of the Vols being unable to win in a game played at the Ga. Dome this decade.
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I disagree...I personally felt it began in 1999. However 2001 was the year it really manifested itself. See 2001 has great memories of exciting games, LSU at home, UF in the swamp however the UGA/UT game of that year was a microcosm of modern day Fulmer football.

I highly recommend anyone to go back and watch that game.

Synopsis: UT was outplayed on both sides of the ball. Special teams was utterly horrendous. No defensive or offensive adjustments all day. UT's getting pushed around by a RS QB (go figure). Now this UT teams loaded...top to bottom. UGA was good talent wise...aren't they always...regardless, UT should have been down by several TD's. However with just minutes left, with UT facing defeat we see Travis Stephens racing down the sidelines...one of the great plays in Vol history to take the lead with less than a minute to go. I think 56 seconds on the clock to be exact.

Trust me, Neyland hasn't been that loud since. Now as badly as we played that day...game in hand supposedly, what does Phil do...pooch kicks it, UGA gets it with amazing field position...with around 40 seconds to go...Richt burns Chavis's prevent repeatedly and the FB catches a dump pass from Greene to put a hobnail boot in our faces. That win has propelled UGA to where they are today and truly is a microcosm of what UT football has become. Sure we win the SEC game and we're playing for the NC but I personally have never gotten over that loss...and it was the day that I officially got off the Fulmer train.

I advise anybody to go back and watch that game and you'll see exactly what UT football would become/has become.
 
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#28
#28
My personal opinion is that the slide started on the night of Jan. 4, 1999. Ever since Fulmer has gotten that NC under his belt, it seems as if the program as a whole has gotten more and more complacent each year. We go 13-0 in '98, and then lose two games the next year. Everyone just writes it off, "well you can't win 'em all every season". Most people knew 2000 would be a bit of a reloading year, but we came back strong in 2001, and almost wound up in the NC again. Then the disaster of '02 happened and it's "well, we can't realistically be in the running for a NC EVERY season." Then we follow that with a couple of 9-3 or so seasons, and the '05 came around. "Well, we're going to miss out on a bowl game every blue moon, we've been in one every year for nearly 20 years, we'll get 'em next year." As the coaching staff got more and more complacent, recruiting has gradually fallen off, and the SEC has gotten better, and Tennessee has fallen behind the curve. So here we are now, and for the second time in 4 seasons we will struggle to reach .500. Just like it took Fulmer 5 or six years of having really good to great teams before he finally reaped what he had sown with his pantheon team, it has taken 7 or 8 years of good to mediocre teams to ultimately get to where we are now.
 
#29
#29
TN24 said:
I advise anybody to go back and watch that game and you'll see exactly what UT football would become/has become.
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Do you know of any way to actually watch the game in it's entirety? I haven't seen the full game except for the day it was played. However, CBS never wants to let us forget, as every time we play Georgia they feel the need to show the winning touchdown, with Larry Munson and that God-forsaken hobnail boot call providing the soundtrack to our misery.
 
#30
#30
bleedorange0037 said:
My personal opinion is that the slide started on the night of Jan. 4, 1999. Ever since Fulmer has gotten that NC under his belt, it seems as if the program as a whole has gotten more and more complacent each year. We go 13-0 in '98, and then lose two games the next year. Everyone just writes it off, "well you can't win 'em all every season". Most people knew 2000 would be a bit of a reloading year, but we came back strong in 2001, and almost wound up in the NC again. Then the disaster of '02 happened and it's "well, we can't realistically be in the running for a NC EVERY season." Then we follow that with a couple of 9-3 or so seasons, and the '05 came around. "Well, we're going to miss out on a bowl game every blue moon, we've been in one every year for nearly 20 years, we'll get 'em next year." As the coaching staff got more and more complacent, recruiting has gradually fallen off, and the SEC has gotten better, and Tennessee has fallen behind the curve. So here we are now, and for the second time in 4 seasons we will struggle to reach .500. Just like it took Fulmer 5 or six years of having really good to great teams before he finally reaped what he had sown with his pantheon team, it has taken 7 or 8 years of good to mediocre teams to ultimately get to where we are now.
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In other words, dying a slow death. Yeah the signs have been there this whole decade. Its just taken this long for them all to come to a head.
 
#31
#31
I don't think you'd wanna watch that game. We squandered tons of chances to win that game. Got up 14-0 and special teams bit us in the ass (sound famaliar?) by giving up a punt return for a td and missing at least one fg at the end of the half. Also turned the ball over late in UGA territory which IIRC, led to the fg that put them up 20-17. Of course, Stephens scored on the ensuing possession, then the longest 46 seconds ever was culminated by the hobnail boot.
 
#32
#32
Cartervol said:
In other words, dying a slow death. Yeah the signs have been there this whole decade. Its just taken this long for them all to come to a head.
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It's odd now to look back now and kind of see how obvious it was, and at the same time I can truly say to you, I never saw this coming.
 
#33
#33
orangetd88 said:
Got up 14-0 and special teams bit us in the ass (sound famaliar?)
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Frankly I would have been surprised to hear otherwise. It's something we've all come to expect. Speaking of which, me and my friends were discussing this during the game last weekend: was Leonard Scott's kickoff return against Georgia in '99 really the last time we returned a kick for a touchdown? It seems mind blowing that it could be that long ago, but for the life of me I couldn't think of one since then.
 
#34
#34
bleedorange0037 said:
It's odd now to look back now and kind of see how obvious it was, and at the same time I can truly say to you, I never saw this coming.
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10 years ago, I didn't see it. 7-8 years ago, if you had told me that we would be where we are now, I don't think I would be surprised at all, if given the timeline and layout of how it happened.
 
#35
#35
bleedorange0037 said:
It's odd now to look back now and kind of see how obvious it was, and at the same time I can truly say to you, I never saw this coming.
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The sloppiness has nearly always been there. We just made up for it in talent. You have too do a little more than just collect talent to succeed anymore in todays SEC.
 
#36
#36
Cartervol said:
The sloppiness has nearly always been there. We just made up for it in talent. You have too do a little more than just collect talent to succeed anymore in todays SEC.
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You are correct. Even in our heyday we were not the most disciplined team, particularly from a penalty standpoint. But our talent differential usually made up for the difference. Those days are long gone.
 
#37
#37
General Jack said:
You are correct. Even in our heyday we were not the most disciplined team, particularly from a penalty standpoint.
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That's true. One of the announcers made some point last week when UT was racking up all those stupid penalties that it was really out of character for a Tennessee team, as if we are normally some super disciplined team. It was as if he hasn't even seen UT play over the past ten years.
 
#38
#38
General Jack said:
You are correct. Even in our heyday we were not the most disciplined team, particularly from a penalty standpoint. But our talent differential usually made up for the difference. Those days are long gone.
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Went out the door when the landscape of the SEC changed. Teams improved, got marquee coaches and sealed off their borders. Exposed a very average coaching staff at tennessee.
 
#39
#39
General Jack said:
You are correct. Even in our heyday we were not the most disciplined team, particularly from a penalty standpoint. But our talent differential usually made up for the difference. Those days are long gone.
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tennessee's most talented team was 97 and they turned the ball over six times in the sec championship game against auburn and had a pat blocked and returned for two. The next time fulmer says "thats not us" throw the bull **** flag.
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#40
#40
orangetd88 said:
I don't think you'd wanna watch that game. We squandered tons of chances to win that game. Got up 14-0 and special teams bit us in the ass (sound famaliar?) by giving up a punt return for a td and missing at least one fg at the end of the half. Also turned the ball over late in UGA territory which IIRC, led to the fg that put them up 20-17. Of course, Stephens scored on the ensuing possession, then the longest 46 seconds ever was culminated by the hobnail boot.
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Yeah to this day I get utterly sick just thinking about it. And going up 14-0...it's unbelievable because we played horrible that day and yet still had chances to win, to put UGA out of it. Stephens is one of my favorite all-time Vols and that run down the sidelines was one of the great plays in Vol history...but you'll never see it because we lost the game. I've never forgiven Fulmer for losing that game and taking that away from Stephens. We're talking Johnnie Jones/Jay Graham/Garner/Stewart/Webb/Cobb type moments here. And then you pooch kicked it? At least make UGA earn it...terrible. Much like the no-catch against UF the year before...fans/me sat there in disbelief after the game.

I've been to only 10 games at Neyland since that year...and won't go back on a consistent basis until Fulmers gone. I love them, support them, want them to win every game regardless of Fulmer..but I stepped off the Fulmer train that day. And from my own experiences, from family and friends who attend all the games...Neyland has never been the same since....the closest was our last win over UF.
 
#42
#42
TN24 said:
And from my own experiences, from family and friends who attend all the games...Neyland has never been the same since....the closest was our last win over UF.
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Then neither you or your friends must have been at the '06 Cal game, that was the last old school Neyland game. By '06 Neyland was definitely not the same as it was back in the 90's, but I've never been to a game in which the crowd managed to sustain it's energy and volume for the entire game like that day. It seemed as if everybody, the team included, was just taking their frustrations from '05 out on Cal. But since then, Neyland has never been back to that level.
 
#45
#45
That's true. If not for that terrible roughing the passer call, we would have won that game. Still, we didn't really deserve a win that day anyway. Any time you rush for -24 yards for a full game, you deserved to lose.
 
#46
#46
bleedorange0037 said:
Then neither you or your friends must have been at the '06 Cal game, that was the last old school Neyland game. By '06 Neyland was definitely not the same as it was back in the 90's, but I've never been to a game in which the crowd managed to sustain it's energy and volume for the entire game like that day. It seemed as if everybody, the team included, was just taking their frustrations from '05 out on Cal. But since then, Neyland has never been back to that level.
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Was at the Cal game...good crowd, fun crowd but that type crowd was kinda the norm back in the day. Oh it was good but I've been going to games for nearly 40 years so...I'm just sayin...
 
#48
#48
Yeah, that's pretty much what I meant. The Cal and UF crowds in '06 were really the last two "old school" crowds we've had.
 
#50
#50
Actually, the '82 Bama victory was the wildest game I've ever been too...next would be probably the Arkansas game in '98. Never seen anything like 106,000 people go from one extreme to the other...and I've never felt Neyland truly shake like it did that night. Obviously the UF game that year...amazing.

But so was watching Mose Phillips in the rain (92) that year giving the salute sign after taking it to the house...great crowd.

But there's been so many great crowds at Neyland...what's sad is that what was normal is just not there anymore. Even during the Majors years of medicocrity the crowds were still fun and exciting.

Now there's just too many other things to do with your life...and that's why the next coach has to be a big time hire. Hamilton is right about one thing...fan apathy is a program killer.
 
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