What is your overall opinion of Majors?

#126
#126
DeerPark12 said:
I guess I just don't understand how you could feel negatively about a coach that had just won a National Championship for your team. What more could you want?
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That was exactly the kind of thing Johnny himself alluded to when he called Tennessee fans "the legions of the miserable". :no:
 
#128
#128
I liked Johnny but had never been so frustrated in my life with watching what could, and did, happen with some of his teams. It was so bad I finally gave my season tickets up. Section I, row 36, seats 11,12 and 13.

Time after time, game after game after game of absolutely shutting down the foe with an attacking defense and moving the ball at will marching up and down the field he would go into a prevent defense and have his offense run up the middle to keep the clock running. You know what happened and I did too but poor ole' Johnny NEVER could learn why this resulted in loss after loss after loss. The last straw for me was going into shutdown mode after going up three touchdowns against Alabama only to have them storm back and beat us. This is the very foundation where Third and Chavis learned how to give game after game away to our opponent. Poor ole' Chavis never could learn, either, that a prevent defense only should be used when our foe has the ball inside their own ten yard line with only ten seconds on the clock and us ahead by three touchdowns or more. It is good, though, to have the man back that was stabbed in the back by Foolmer. What an underhanded way to slide into the head coach's seat.
 
#129
#129
SGMVols said:
Then explain how 2 of his last 3 recruiting classes weren't ranked in the top 20.
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You can blame that on many things. One, you could blame it on the coaching, and the lack of player development. We were getting good classes but nothing great out of them. Plus you had Saban and Meyer come in and lure away some of the talent that we were getting. Not to mention Richt had Georgia locked up. We used to be able to go to South Carolina and recruit, Haynesworth, Heffney, etc. There were a lot of reasons for the downfall and players not wanting to come play for Tennessee. The offense was stale and no playmakers or athletes wanted to come here.
 
#130
#130
CheckerboardEndZone said:
I liked Johnny but had never been so frustrated in my life with watching what could, and did, happen with some of his teams. It was so bad I finally gave my season tickets up. Section I, row 36, seats 11,12 and 13.

Time after time, game after game after game of absolutely shutting down the foe with an attacking defense and moving the ball at will marching up and down the field he would go into a prevent defense and have his offense run up the middle to keep the clock running. You know what happened and I did too but poor ole' Johnny NEVER could learn why this resulted in loss after loss after loss. The last straw for me was going into shutdown mode after going up three touchdowns against Alabama only to have them storm back and beat us. This is the very foundation where Third and Chavis learned how to give game after game away to our opponent. Poor ole' Chavis never could learn, either, that a prevent defense only should be used when our foe has the ball inside their own ten yard line with only ten seconds on the clock and us ahead by three touchdowns or more. It is good, though, to have the man back that was stabbed in the back by Foolmer. What an underhanded way to slide into the head coach's seat.
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Fulmer also learned that strategy very well and couldn not unlearn it.
 
#131
#131
jed said:
Up by a touchdown in the 3rd and going into prevent, dropping two deep. Bama always coming back on a soft defense and pulling it out in the end. Maybe a bit of an exaggeration but you get my point. I do appreciate him and Fulmer for what they did at UT. You know, despite all the differences, they seemed to have similar (conservative) philosophies actually. I take nothing away from either of them but I'm glad we have Lane. He seems a little more liberal to me (football that is) :).
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What I like about Kiffin is that he seems genuinely old school in substance but with updated tactics.
 
#132
#132
utvolpj said:
Battle?? Please tell me you're kidding
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I said "COACH" not recruiting or the ability to hire assistants.

Battle did not want to coach again after UT. Remember the bumper sticker..."Bring back Battle, we made a Major mistake"??????

Battle was a very good coach.
 
#133
#133
peaygolf89 said:
I said "COACH" not recruiting or the ability to hire assistants.

Battle did not want to coach again after UT. Remember the bumper sticker..."Bring back Battle, we made a Major mistake"??????

Battle was a very good coach.
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Battle turned an SEC champ into a 6-5 team in a few short years. Yeah, he was wonderful.
 
#134
#134
CJM was on Finebaum yesterday. Caught the tail end of the interview. Majors was pure class (on a no-class show)

Said he likes the things Kiffin is doing at UT. Team getting better every week. Will build team back into a winner.
 
#136
#136
DeerPark12 said:
I guess I just don't understand how you could feel negatively about a coach that had just won a National Championship for your team. What more could you want?
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I hazard to guess it would be an unslovenly hick.

I tend to agree with hat's assessment posted earlier, and would add if Majors would have approached Alabama as just another game, his tenure might have been longer.
 
#137
#137
rbroyles said:
I hazard to guess it would be an unslovenly hick.

I tend to agree with hat's assessment posted earlier, and would add if Majors would have approached Alabama as just another game, his tenure might have been longer.
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"an unslovenly hick" - a neat hick?
 
#138
#138
zjcvols said:
I'm a young guy, I wasn't even born yet when Majors was fired. So I was curious on what you guys think about him. Was his tenure at UT sucessful, failure? Just curious

I'll sit back and watch :hi:
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This is my first here so I want to say that I appreciate the Tennessee fans and the admin here allowing us to participate in your forum.

As for Coach Majors: I met him a few years ago at a cracker barrell. I recognized him and he smiled and we started talking about football. He talked to me for a long time about college football and of course we talked about Coach Bryant.

Overall it was a pleasure to meet him and he was a class act. I am 42 and I remember the Alabama/Tennessee rivalry growing up with Coach Majors and Bryant.

It was a good day!

For all of you traveling to Alabama for the game this weekend, be careful and I will pray for a good game, the safety of our players and the safety of your families during their travels.

Roll Tide!!
 
#139
#139
Bamascoop said:
This is my first here so I want to say that I appreciate the Tennessee fans and the admin here allowing us to participate in your forum.

As for Coach Majors: I met him a few years ago at a cracker barrell. I recognized him and he smiled and we started talking about football. He talked to me for a long time about college football and of course we talked about Coach Bryant.

Overall it was a pleasure to meet him and he was a class act. I am 42 and I remember the Alabama/Tennessee rivalry growing up with Coach Majors and Bryant.

It was a good day!

For all of you traveling to Alabama for the game this weekend, be careful and I will pray for a good game, the safety of our players and the safety of your families during their travels.

Roll Tide!!
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Must be a Bammer transplant, much too articulate and gracious to be home grown.

Did you go to Vandy?
 
#140
#140
utvolpj said:
Battle turned an SEC champ into a 6-5 team in a few short years. Yeah, he was wonderful.
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Battle was a Bammer that played and coached under the Bear.My Conspiracy Theory is Battle was sent by bammers to destroy their arch rival. Thats just my opinion. :question:
 
#141
#141
the anticipation, excitement, and expectations surrounding the hire of CJM was unprecedented. imagine if last fall there had been one candidate that everyone wanted, and wanted badly, and then that candidate took the job. pete carroll or bob stoops could have been hired instead of CLK and there would not have been the same frenzy as there was over CJM.

but it took johnny 9 years to win an SECC. had he not been a majors, and finally broken bama's 11 game winning streak, he would have been fired long before year 9.

i always have liked CJM but it was very frustrating to have him as a coach.

and as far as having talent but not producing, take a look at the roster of CJM's 1990 team. that should have been johnny's NC at UT.
 
#143
#143
GmanTN said:
Majors took a program that had a talent level with 0 talent and had to build it from the ground up. Once he got us on the right track he got into the sauce heavily and had a few health scares. That is when Fulmer swooped in and got in Dickey's back pocket and Dickey promoted Fulmer to head coach right out from under Majors. When Fulmer got the team it was stacked with some talent and the ground work was laid down by Majors. You young guys have only known Fulmer, I go back to the 60's and I can say with a clear conscience that what Fulmer and Dickey did to Majors was wrong and till this day I have always disliked Fulmer.
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Maybe I'm not up on all the behind the scenes activities, but I remember that year we started 5-0 without Majors, and beating Florida and Georgia. As soon as Majors came back, we had 3 consecutive losses. We were underdogs in those wins, and the whole season went up in flames against SC, Ark and Alabama. That's when I felt the fans wanted a change and Fulmer bringing hope to making Tennessee prominant again.
 
#144
#144
tm3 said:
the anticipation, excitement, and expectations surrounding the hire of CJM was unprecedented. imagine if last fall there had been one candidate that everyone wanted, and wanted badly, and then that candidate took the job. pete carroll or bob stoops could have been hired instead of CLK and there would not have been the same frenzy as there was over CJM.

but it took johnny 9 years to win an SECC. had he not been a majors, and finally broken bama's 11 game winning streak, he would have been fired long before year 9.

i always have liked CJM but it was very frustrating to have him as a coach.

and as far as having talent but not producing, take a look at the roster of CJM's 1990 team. that should have been johnny's NC at UT.
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Man, what a team it was.
 
#145
#145
Two criticisms of Majors I don't agree with:

1. "He took criticized the university after he was gone."

No, he took shots at those who stabbed him in the back, namely Fulmer. Fulmer owes much if not most of his success to the program Majors left him. He's too arrogant to ever admit that though. Majors always maintained that he loved UT, just not those that betrayed him. Those shots were justified and should not offend those of us who are UT fans.

2. "His time had passed him by when he was fired."

Wrong. Majors won 81% of his games in his last 3 full seasons and 2 SEC titles. He had finally gotten the program on a consistently elite status and felt he would have a shot to win a NC soon. He was actually at his peak when he was let go.

Valid criticisms of Majors:

1. "He couldn't beat Bama"

He was 4-12 against them. In the early years, he was at a talent disadvantage, but post-1985, he lost some he shouldn't have (87 and 90 come to mind).

2. "He lost to teams he shouldn't while beating some he shouldn't."

This was true until the end of his tenure. The Army 86 game is the quintessence of this, but he had a bunch of these type games in the early 80's.


Overall, Majors was a great asset to this program. He rebuilt us to where we belong and made Fulmer's success possible. Fulmer would not have been able to build the program on his own, as he wasn't even able to sustain the success he had when it was handed to him. If Johnny had been the choice in '69 when Dickey left, there would have never been a need to rebuild.
 
#146
#146
tm3 said:
the anticipation, excitement, and expectations surrounding the hire of CJM was unprecedented. imagine if last fall there had been one candidate that everyone wanted, and wanted badly, and then that candidate took the job. pete carroll or bob stoops could have been hired instead of CLK and there would not have been the same frenzy as there was over CJM.

but it took johnny 9 years to win an SECC. had he not been a majors, and finally broken bama's 11 game winning streak, he would have been fired long before year 9.

i always have liked CJM but it was very frustrating to have him as a coach.

and as far as having talent but not producing, take a look at the roster of CJM's 1990 team. that should have been johnny's NC at UT.
Click to expand...

NCs require 2 elements (beisdes the obvious...talent):
1. Schedule
2. Luck

Schedule was certainly not in our favor. Colorado, Notre Dame, Auburn, and Florida were all great teams that year. Alabama was not great, but they had our number.
As far as luck goes...we tied Auburn and lost to Bama because our kicker couldn't hit a clutch FG. This was an All SEC kicker too. We tied Colorado when Webb ran out of bounds in FG range with a second left, but the clock keeper ran it off. We lost to ND on a Kelly INT at the end in the end zone. If that team had 98-type luck and schedule, it may win the NC. Same for the 89 team which only lost to Bama after Cobb was kicked off the team.
 
#148
#148
Johhny Majors was the embodiment of Tennessee football as a player and a coach. That's all anybody needs to know.
 
#149
#149
^^^ bingo!!!


johnjohn.jpg
 
#150
#150
GregAmsler said:
Two criticisms of Majors I don't agree with:

1. "He took criticized the university after he was gone."

No, he took shots at those who stabbed him in the back, namely Fulmer. Fulmer owes much if not most of his success to the program Majors left him. He's too arrogant to ever admit that though. Majors always maintained that he loved UT, just not those that betrayed him. Those shots were justified and should not offend those of us who are UT fans.

2. "His time had passed him by when he was fired."

Wrong. Majors won 81% of his games in his last 3 full seasons and 2 SEC titles. He had finally gotten the program on a consistently elite status and felt he would have a shot to win a NC soon. He was actually at his peak when he was let go.

Valid criticisms of Majors:

1. "He couldn't beat Bama"

He was 4-12 against them. In the early years, he was at a talent disadvantage, but post-1985, he lost some he shouldn't have (87 and 90 come to mind).

2. "He lost to teams he shouldn't while beating some he shouldn't."

This was true until the end of his tenure. The Army 86 game is the quintessence of this, but he had a bunch of these type games in the early 80's.


Overall, Majors was a great asset to this program. He rebuilt us to where we belong and made Fulmer's success possible. Fulmer would not have been able to build the program on his own, as he wasn't even able to sustain the success he had when it was handed to him. If Johnny had been the choice in '69 when Dickey left, there would have never been a need to rebuild.
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Both those criticisms came together in 1992 to finally do him in. If he didn't lose to South Carolina and Arkansas, both of which were in their first SEC seasons, he never would have gotten the axe. Yeah, we lost to Bama, but it's not like it was unexpected. Add that with the Fulmer factor, and the rest is history.
 
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