Decade by Decade rankings

[rwemyss]

The 3 decades you mention were the hayday of Logan Young's pocket-book-Bama teams.

When a rich businessman is raiding your own state of its best players it is very difficult to field a competitive team, yet we were competitive anyway.

With Young buying the best players from Tennessee, it forced our staffs during that period to go out of the state and reach to the farthest corners of the nation, and at times, abroad to field a good team.

When we consider some of the very close losses we suffered to Bama during those years, consider what might have been had we had some of the following players during those games:

E. J. Junior from Nashville
Steve Sloan from Cleveland
Antonio London From Tullahoma
Clay Whitehurst from Nashville

Just to name a few. If you check their all-time lettermen you'll see a bunch from Memphis. Hmm, I wonder why?

The elder statesman of Alabama sports reporting, Bill Lumpkin, covered the entire period of Bear Bryant's tenure there. He said when he first began covering them he thought Logan Young was a member of the Bear's staff. That's how close he was and how much access he had.

It's a shame Alabama resorted to these tactics. It will forever leave a cloud over their accomplishments for the 40 plus years Logan Young was a buyer of players.

OldVol, wouldn't you say being forced to go all over the country for talent in the 60s and 70s helped the Vols in the long run, preparing them to run around and get the talent for the teams fielded in the 90s?

 

[OldVol]

Yes it did.

As it turned out, for whatever reason and there are many opinons, Tennessee has never ben a hotbed of Division I talent. We've had our share of stars, but when it comes to a large number of kids to fill out the rosters of 3 or 4 Division I schools, we've just not had the numbers to do that.

Alabama on the other hand has always had more Division I players.

Tennessee has about 1.5 million more citizens but our youth football programs have been inferior for decades. In the last 10 years that chasm has narrowed some, but we've still got a long way to go.

The simple truth (my opinion on the matter) is that for decades Alabama has been far behind Tennessee in a wide number of areas: Academics, Industry, Entertainment, and the last, entertainment, is the primary reason Alabama HS football has outpaced Tennessee. While HS Football is big in Tennessee, it is religion in Alabama. For that reason more emphasis has always been put on HS football there. The results are a larger player pool.

But, when you are buying players and are able to cherry pick the best from your neighbors, that makes for a very uneven playing field.