Where did it die?

#53
#53
VolsSportsFan said:
Yep; I've long thought in hindsight halftime of the SEC Championship is the last time were in that elite conversation. It didn't totally start falling out until 2005 and yeah we had SEC East wins in 2004 and 2007 but 2007 espeically felt still not quite right considering we still got destroyed by UF and Alabama. And after that is been a cliff dive.
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. We had good teams in 2004 and 2007 in fact we could’ve and probably should’ve won the SEC title game both of those years but we were elite status in 2001 maybe Fulmer’s most talented team full of future NFL guys and we choked it all away against LSU. That loss was def IMO one of the top five worst losses in UT football history.
 
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#55
#55
You can look at our program like a 20 year stock market line chart in a down turn.

2001 the peak turned downward steadily. Call it the great slide.
2009- a slight turn back up. Could the needle be moving back up?
2010- the line dropped like a ton of bricks straight down. Call it the crash of 2010, if you will.
2011-2021(present) the great depression.

It started, truly, in 2001 after an underdog in LSU embarrassed TN in the SEC CG, pushing us out of another potential natty.
I will never forget Clausen coming off the bus with a rose in his mouth prior to the game thinking it was all locked up.

Simply put, the program's decline started 20 years ago after that game in 2001. I watched that game and it was one of the worst things to watch.

Kiffen leaving was the dagger that killed it. Not Dooley or Jones. Pruitt just stopped by to pee on what was left.

If we're being truly honest with ourselves, we haven't been great/elite in 20 years.
Hi Nebraska and Michigan.
 
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#56
#56
For me, it started when Eric Ainge threw a pick 6 against LSU to lose the SEC Championship. Then it was a steady, but small step back every year. That led to having to fire Fulmer, but we made a series of bad hires after that. That furthered the slow decline and we keep making bad decisions that take us one step further back with each bad decision.

Here’s the Good News: If we can finally make the right hire, we can finally start turning this around. Alabama getting Saban is a great example. It won’t happen overnight now with the NCAA issues. But one right coaching hire can begin to change everything!
 
#58
#58
JonGrudensAgent said:
Its been going down in fits and starts for nearly 20 years now.

Fulmer

2001 killed his momentum
2005 showed he was losing his edge
2007 made it to SEC Champ game ranked #12 if thats a coach without his edge bet u would take that now
2008 final nail in the coffin

Fixed it for u
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#61
#61
Not kneeling at halftime with AIinge against Notre Dame. Instead Ainge gets hurt, gets hooked on oxy, never as good from then on.
 
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#62
#62
mikepotts said:
I will probably get roasted for this... but in all honesty, it changed for me when the whole Majors/Fulmer debacle took place. I felt like Johnny was done wrong and it just took some time for it to all come home. My $0.02
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Majors did it to himself. Wanted a raise. Was promised one but TN was short on cash, there were pay reductions in the department at the time. Instead of waiting he ran his mouth publicly. Called Dickey and boosters at night while drunk, jawing about his money. Majors placed Fulmer as interim HC when he had heart surgery. Fulmer did well. Writing was on the wall. Both Majors and Fulmer are on TN's HC Mt. Rushmore. What happened is just part of the business.
 
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#64
#64
SmokeyDog1973 said:
Losing the 2001 SEC title game against a 3 loss LSU team that we had already beaten once with a chance to play for our second national in four years.
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The head coach of the LSU team was Saban, one of those losses was UT. UT being the only east team to play bama each year has hurt. It’s hard winning the east starting off with an automatic sec loss edge given to UF and UGA. I say January 3, 2007, the day Bama hired Nick Saban. Of course we could be better, but to win the SEC, UT would have to beat Saban twice in one year. So it was probably out of our reach anyway. Something Fulmer couldn’t due with the better team in 2001. I thought when they had to put in their second string QB, the game was over.... but no.
 
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#65
#65
Roustabout said:
Fulmer, Plowman and Boyd are all so full of ****. I can’t believe you can get paid that kind of $$ to be incompetent.
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Exactly. And there is no one left that I would trust to hire the coach. Boyd was scared to death, and obviously never should not be president of my University. Plowman looked better but could have, at the very least, not conceded which levels of violations occurred. Andy Holt is turning over in his grave.
 
#66
#66
KarnsTownVol said:
If I'm honest I don't think I can even pin point where the kill shot to the program was. I know use to if we lost a game I was miserable to even be around for a week.
But if im being honest I can't even remember when it was I stopped caring. I've went from being extremely invested to it just is what it is. If I have anything to do I won't go out of my way to watch a game anymore. I scheduled my wedding around UT football now I wouldn't even cancel a dentist appointment. The culture is dead and I don't think UT football will be back anytime soon. The only thing I have faith in is the administration is gonna drop the ball on this hire. Sad times on the hill.
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It started dying in the second half in Atlanta in 2001, if we want to be real about it.
 
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#71
#71
In 2001, the Vols went into the swamp ranked #4 in the nation and 17point underdogs. After coming out with the remarkable 34-32 win, a parade was held on campus to celebrate. 5 days later the team was scheduled to play a little warm-up in ATL before heading to the Rose Bowl and NC game.

That parade severed the Vols eternally from the cfb pinnacle. We shall never return from this course.
 
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#72
#72
98 we were lucky a few times then beat a team for the NC without their best QB. Fans went absolutely nuts and expectations have been NC or Fire everyone ever since. Fan base has went ape s#it.
 
#75
#75
2001 SEC Championship Game if we are being honest as a starting point. Slow bleed after that. Nick Saban and LSU arrived, Georgia started keeping players in-state under Richt, it was getting harder to pull the Carolina kids, pipelines in CA and Texas were closing up. Our brand of recruiting nationally got cut off while we still had limited amount of in-state players to sustain the success.
 
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