2 Decades of mediocrity

[VFLCodyGBO]

Washed away in 8 beautiful games. You don’t realize how great the light is until you’ve been in darkness. Soak it in fellow vols!

 

[TnVol!]

Beat Georgia!!

 

[VolPack22]

 

[txvol19]

As someone who has been in the stadium for 30 point losses to Alabama, UF, UGA, LSU, etc. it feels really, really good.

 

[CascadeVolunteer]

I know it hasn’t been long but what a year makes. Seems like the horrible 15 year bad streak was so long ago.

 

[mscc1998]

It's about time we get our place in the sun, and it feels good.

 

[VFL-82-JP]

Not two decades, OP. 13 years does not = two decades.

If you have to boil it down to the nearest 10 years, say "a decade." If that's not angst-y enough for you, say 13 years. But give up this 'two decades' falsehood.

 

[EZE]

Not two decades, OP. 13 years does not = two decades.

If you have to boil it down to the nearest 10 years, say "a decade." If that's not angst-y enough for you, say 13 years. But give up this 'two decades' falsehood.

I don’t know….

Vols last played for the SEC Championship in 2007 (the last 10-win season). Haven’t won an SEC Title since 1998.

Haven’t played in a Major Bowl since 1999.

Fulmer had losing seasons in 2005 and 2008. Then the program finished 7-6 or worse in 10 out of the next 13 years…with SEVEN more losing seasons.

Even worse, since 2005, the program finished above .500 in SEC play only FOUR times. And that includes Fulmer in 2006 and 07.

I think it is safe to say that the program has largely sucked for 15-20 years.

 

[CAVol]

There is nothing that can happen that will make this season a disappointment for me.

 

[MAD]

This year trumps 1998. Our championship year was part of one of the best decades in Tennessee football history. 2022 #3 8-0 start with the Hooker leading the Heisman race came out of nowhere.

 

[VFL-82-JP]

I don’t know….

Vols last played for the SEC Championship in 2007 (the last 10-win season).

I think it is safe to say that the program has largely sucked for 15-20 years.

No, friend. That's not "safe" to say. It is not correct.

Your first line was the right line: we last played for the SEC Championship in 2007. That was also a 10-win season. We also went 6-2 in SEC play that year.

We were relevant then, though Fulmer detractors try to pretend we weren't.

So you measure from 2008.

And the misery ends with the arrival of Dan White and Josh Heupel in 2021.

13 years.

 

[VFL-82-JP]

This year trumps 1998. Our championship year was part of one of the best decades in Tennessee football history. 2022 #3 8-0 start with the Hooker leading the Heisman race came out of nowhere.

We play for championships.

This year will not trump 1998 until/unless we win championships.

Not taking anything away from the lads, they are awesome and doing a fabulous job. We all appreciate them hugely. But championships are the goal of this program. And that's how we'll measure ourselves, first and foremost.

 

[Palmetto_Exiled]

Like escaping from Shawshank prison. Dooley was being wrongly convicted, Jones was being imprisoned for years while still holding onto glimmers of hope, Pruitt was 500 yards of ****-smelling foulness.

 

[EZE]

No, friend. That's not "safe" to say. It is not correct.

Your first line was the right line: we last played for the SEC Championship in 2007. That was also a 10-win season. We also went 6-2 in SEC play that year.

We were relevant then, though Fulmer detractors try to pretend we weren't.

So you measure from 2008.

And the misery ends with the arrival of Dan White and Josh Heupel in 2021.

13 years.

We have different standards.

You can’t cherry pick 2007 without acknowledging that the losing season in 2005 is when the warning signs appeared that the wheels were about to fall off. The return of Cut gave us a short reprieve, but to me, it has been a largely mediocre stretch since at least 2005, and maybe even back to that 2001 SECCG loss to LSU.

In any event, I think we can agree that whether it is 13, 15 or 20 years, it has been a woefully long time. And it is nice to see high-level football again.

 

[kcvols1]

No, friend. That's not "safe" to say. It is not correct.

Your first line was the right line: we last played for the SEC Championship in 2007. That was also a 10-win season. We also went 6-2 in SEC play that year.

We were relevant then, though Fulmer detractors try to pretend we weren't.

So you measure from 2008.

And the misery ends with the arrival of Dan White and Josh Heupel in 2021.

13 years.

I think a substantial portion of the fan base disagrees here. All respect given to Erik Ainge, Eric Berry, et al from the 2004 - 2008 teams and the blood, sweat, & tears they shed on our behalf. Those were great teams (and losing seasons in there), but they tripped up tragically against Florida, LSU under Miles, and Auburn under Senator Tuberville (God help us).

There’s an argument the program painfully and significantly underachieved since choking away a national championship appearance in 2001. Given our talent level then compared to this present team makes that underachievement more glaring in retrospect.

 

[VFL-82-JP]

I think a substantial portion of the fan base disagrees here. All respect given to Erik Ainge, Eric Berry, et al from the 2004 and 2006 - 2008 teams and the blood, sweat, & tears they shed on our behalf. Those were great teams, but they tripped up tragically against Florida, LSU under Miles, and Auburn under Senator Tuberville (God help us).

There’s an argument the program painfully and significantly underachieved since choking away a national championship appearance in 2001. Given our talent level then compared to this present team makes that underachievement more glaring in retrospect.

At the end of the day, this discussion always boils down to the Phillip vs Johnny argument. The only people who can't give Fulmer credit for good years like 2004, 2006 and 2007 are those who have a bee in their bonnet about the man.

We've beaten that horse to death about 50 times over. One-third of the fan base is on the Johnny side, one-third is on the Phillip side, and one-third (I count myself here) tries to stand in the middle, appreciating both.

I have no illusions that I'm ever going to convince those who are rabidly at one extreme or the other on this spectrum.

They're still wrong, heh.

Go Vols!

 

[NighthawkVol]

Not two decades, OP. 13 years does not = two decades.

If you have to boil it down to the nearest 10 years, say "a decade." If that's not angst-y enough for you, say 13 years. But give up this 'two decades' falsehood.

Yep. Won the East in 2007 and were a pick 6 in ATL from winning the SEC and upsetting the eventual NC. That’s not mediocre. The mediocrity began in 2008.