I watched the 2001 TN vs FL game last night. It's funny how over time your memory of how things play out changes. In my mind we beat them soundly. We didn't. A few things stood out....
We got screwed by the refs in that game as usual. On two separate occasions we got to Rex Grossman where we caused him to turn over the ball. The first was when he threw the ball backwards and they called it a forward pass. It wasn't even close. The second was an obvious fumble and they called him down. There wasn't replay then but judging by the last game I'm not sure it would have made a difference. There was bias in officiating then and there's bias in officiating now.
Fulmer almost cost us that game. He made a bone headed decision to go for 2 early when there was no need to. That gave them a chance to tie by going for 2 at the end of the game.
Travis Stevens was a man possessed. He was a hard man to tackle. Showed speed, quickness, shiftyness, and power. One all-time great performance.
Casey Clausen had probably the best mental makeup of any qb I've seen wear the orange. He earned that nickname, "the Iceman". Calm cool, and collected. Hendon Hooker would be a close second.
Rex Grossman was one tough dude. I couldn't stand him at the time but we continually knocked him down, beat the ever living dog snot out of him and he continued to make clutch throws, many times as he was falling down. By the way, our dbs couldn't cover granny clampet back then either
.
