In Tennessee History...

#1
Chief

Chief

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#1
To learn from the past and build on the future what do you think were the best coached games in Tennessee football history and yes, the worst coached games in Tennessee football history.

I’ll start with the bad first; Vanderbilt vs. Tennessee 2005.
With a great deal more talent on the field than the opposition Phillip Fulmer couldn’t get his team prepared for the game, couldn’t react to what was happening on the field from a coaching standpoint, couldn’t motivate his players or coaching staff and thus lost the game to a team we should have beaten handily. A terrible game to top off a terrible season.

The best coached game; Tennessee vs. Michigan Citrus Bowl 2002
PF having come off a tough loss to LSU in the SEC championship game Philip had his team motivated and prepared to play a fairly good Michigan team (8-3 and ranked 15th). The game was a blow out (as all Tennessee games should be) from the beginning snap. The offence played outstanding for 4 quarters with great, talented players hustling on every play and the defensive was virtually unstoppable.

Those are my picks for the best and worst coached games, hopefully Phil and the staff can look back on these and learn from them.
What are your picks for the best and worst coached games?

I’ll hang up and listen…
 
#2
#2
Originally posted by Knoxvegas@Dec 7, 2005 1:11 PM
To learn from the past and build on the future what do you think were the best coached games in Tennessee football history and yes, the worst coached games in Tennessee football history. 

I’ll start with the bad first; Vanderbilt vs. Tennessee 2005.
With a great deal more talent on the field than the opposition Phillip Fulmer couldn’t get his team prepared for the game, couldn’t react to what was happening on the field from a coaching standpoint, couldn’t motivate his players or coaching staff and thus lost the game to a team we should have beaten handily.  A terrible game to top off a terrible season.

The best coached game; Tennessee vs. Michigan Citrus Bowl 2002
PF having come off a tough loss to LSU in the SEC championship game Philip had his team motivated and prepared to play a fairly good Michigan team (8-3 and ranked 15th). The game was a blow out (as all Tennessee games should be) from the beginning snap.  The offence played outstanding for 4 quarters with great, talented players hustling on every play and the defensive was virtually unstoppable.

Those are my picks for the best and worst coached games, hopefully Phil and the staff can look back on these and learn from them.
What are your picks for the best and worst coached games? 

I’ll hang up and listen…
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Worst

1996 Memphis game.


Best


2004 Georgia Game
 
#3
#3
Best: Florida 2001 - the gators thought we were merely a speed bump on the way to the national championships; we came out swinging and won the shootout. Sent spurrier out of Gainesville with a red rear end.

Worst: Alabama 1990 - we were unbeaten and #3, 'bama was 2-3 maybe...? We played close to the vest Johnny ball and lost 9-6. We had Alvin Harper, Carl Pickens, Dale Carter, Chuck Smith, Chris Mims, JJ McKlesky, etc etc all kinds of NFL talent and lost a aggregiously overmatched Alabama team. Truly pathetic.

 
#4
#4
there are three bad ones that stick out...the two peach bowls and the cotton bowl against KSU....woefully pathetic from a game prep and motivation standpoint....

best...yeah, the 2001 UF game and 2004 UGA were up there, can't really argue with either one.
 
#6
#6
Of course, I can't really disagree with any of the other games mentioned here, either.

That 1990 Bama game...yuck.
 
#8
#8
In my location the worst game was the Clemson v. UT Peach Bowl....i spent a year hearing how the ACC was better than the SEC.
 
#9
#9
Originally posted by DAWGNATION@Dec 7, 2005 2:15 PM
In my location the worst game was the Clemson v. UT Peach Bowl....i spent a year hearing how the ACC was better than the SEC.
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Funny. I started college in Macon, GA in 1990 and heard a whole lot of that following the GaTech split decision NC but I never once had any trouble with UGA fans. I think most of the UT fans who complaing about UGA people are just hyper sensitive because the balance of power shifted in the series and now they are more likely to care what a UGA fan says to them. BTW I have a pair of unused UGA v. UT tickets from 1992 with the 100 year holograms and everything. A friend's parents mailed the tickets to me and they did not show up until the week after the game so I spent that weekend in Destin instead.
 
#10
#10
Worst Coached Game: loss to North Texas in 75. Poor Battle was so inept.

Best Coached Game: The 1986 Sugar Bowl. The 85 team was really prepared. They shouldn't have had a shot. Miami had so many pro players on their team. We smacked 'em down 35-7.

Single worst call ever made in a game.

The fake punt against Georgia in the 73 game.

We're up 31/28, there's about 3 minutes to go, Battle calls for a fake punt near mid-field. We don't make it and Georgia drives for the winning score. Final GA 35 Vols 31.

It wasn't until after the NT loss though that the moving vans were sent to Battle's house.
 
#11
#11
My memory doesn't back far enough but...

Worst: 1990 BAMA

Best: 1985 MIAMI

The Jesse Mahelona Honorable Mention Award:

Worst
1991 BAMA
1996 MEMPHIS; FLORIDA
1997 FLORIDA
1999 FLORIDA

Best
1998 GEORGIA
2001 FLORIDA
2004 GEORGIA

Probably some others out there.
 
#12
#12
Best: '86 Sugar Bowl against Miami and 2003 at Miami. We had absolutely no business winning either game.

Worst: 2003 Peach Bowl - We came out flat and proceeded to make Clemson look a lot better than they really were.
 
#13
#13
Originally posted by Vol 4 Life@Dec 7, 2005 1:33 PM
Best:  Florida 2001 - the gators thought we were merely a speed bump on the way to the national championships; we came out swinging and won the shootout.  Sent spurrier out of Gainesville with a red rear end.

Worst:  Alabama 1990 - we were unbeaten and #3, 'bama was 2-3 maybe...?  We played close to the vest Johnny ball and lost 9-6.  We had Alvin Harper, Carl Pickens, Dale Carter, Chuck Smith, Chris Mims, JJ McKlesky, etc etc all kinds of NFL talent and lost a aggregiously overmatched Alabama team.  Truly pathetic.
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How could that be? I mean is Coach Majors not the best coach ever?
 
#14
#14
uhhh, uhhhhh ill say the bama game for the worst... ill hang up and listen now....
 
#18
#18
For best, I'm voting for the and the '95 Bama game. Vols break a 9 game losing streak to the Tide with a route beginning with an 80 yard TD on the game's first play. We were better prepared, better equipped, and better motivated, and went on to finish 11-1 with a Citrus Bowl win over Ohio St. (a game which probably deserves an honorable mention.)

'96 Memphis has to be the worst.
 
#19
#19
Originally posted by GAVol@Dec 7, 2005 4:38 PM
Best: '86 Sugar Bowl against Miami and 2003 at Miami.  We had absolutely no business winning either game.

Worst:  2003 Peach Bowl - We came out flat and proceeded to make Clemson look a lot better than they really were.
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i agree with both of those ga.

another bad one is anytime fulmer plays spurrier besides 2001


:devilsmoke:
 
#20
#20
I think the best was 2002 or 03 miami game? I cant remember but to go in and end there home winning streak was pretty impressive.
 
#21
#21
1973 UT vs.Georgia at Neyland. We were leading late in the fourth quarter. Haskel Stanback, our first great Africian-American RB, was having a hugh game, when normally conservative Bill Battle went for it on fourth and about 2 or 3 from our own 35 yard line. Stanback was stopped short. Georgia scored and won the game which was also homecoming. I think that game was th beginning of the end for BB.

I have to say the 86 Sugar Bowl was the best coached game. We had a group of walk ons and third teamers (Jeff Powell, Daryl Dickey etc) that not only beat Miami but dominated them. That was a victory that re-established UT as a college power.

Honorable mention worse coached games were the firsr few games when Jamal Lewis was a freshman and Fulmer had Mark Levine starting. He said he "couldn't block". Once-in-lifetime backs like JL you hand them the ball and let OTHERS block for him!!
 
#22
#22
I think winning in 2002 against Arkansas and Kentucky was poor coaching. If we lost one of those, Fulmer could have had an excuse to fire some of these losers we just let go.
 
#23
#23
Originally posted by rockydoc@Dec 7, 2005 7:35 PM
1973 UT vs.Georgia at Neyland. We were leading late in the fourth quarter. Haskel Stanback, our first great Africian-American RB, was having a hugh game, when normally conservative Bill Battle went for it on fourth and about 2 or 3 from our own 35 yard line. Stanback was stopped short. Georgia scored and won the game which was also homecoming. I think that game was th beginning of the end for BB.

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I consider that the single worst play call in UT history. It was stupid. All we had to do was hold them for 2 minutes. We could have easily kicked them inside the 10 with a pooch. I was sitting on the East side, lower section on the 40 yard line. Needless to say there were some very unhappy alumns sitting around. The place grew deathly silent. I guess it was a spector of what was to come for Bill.

I still think the coaching that led to the North Texas loss was his all-time worst game as a whole though.

The poor guy had enough talent to make a run at the NC when he took over and he just kept getting worse and worse. He couldn't identify a SEC caliber player if his life had depended on it. His recruits were some of the worst years we ever had.
 
#24
#24
I still can't believe he got the job in the first place. That was a few years before my time, but the very idea that we turned over a top 10 football program to a 28 year old is just outrageous?!?
 
#25
#25
No mention of the Fiesta Bowl??? I thought we beat a very talented FSU team with a bunch of guys who continued to outplay themselves week in and week out. That season, you saw the opposite of what happenned to us this season. We played ABOVE our ability, played as a TEAM, and got all the breaks. In a nutshell, those are the three things we did NOT do this year.

Otherwise, I'll take the Miami beating at the Orange Bowl from a few years back - again, winning with an underqualified team, the 85 Sugar, and the 95 Bama games.

WORST: Vanderbilt, '05. 'Nuff said.
 
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