OneManGang
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Tennessee vs The Maxims vs Iowa vs the 2024 Citrus Bowl
DATE: 1 January 2024
PLACE: Camping World Stadium, Orlando, Florida
ATTENDANCE: 43,861
FINAL SCORE: Tennessee 35 Iowa 0
Vanderbilt finally served a useful purpose for we Vol fans. They enabled us to get the sour taste of the Mizzou and Georgia games out of out mouths and to end the regular season on a high note.
A palate cleanser if there ever was one. And, boy, was it needed!
After that game, HeadVol Josh Heupel engaged in a nifty bit of mis-direction in the lead-up to the Citrus Bowl tilt against #17 Iowa.
Iowa was reputed to have an excellent defense which led them to an appearance in the B1G championship game where they lost to Michigan. Their offense was known to be at best spotty but good enough to secure a 10-3 season record. Nobody thought it would be easy. A source of real concern for the Vols was the fact that four of the Vol defensive backs had entered the portal.
Joe Milton had put on a clinic against Vandy. He was 22 of 33 passing for 383 yards and FOUR touchdowns with no interceptions. He also ran for two more! Other than Charles Campbell's 12 points, Milton was responsible for ALL of the Vols' points! The Bazooka Joe we all loved from last year and the opener this year against Virginia FINALLY got his mojo back.
Coach Heupel then declared that Milton was Tennessee's starting quarterback and everyone expected that Bazooka Joe would be at the controls against Iowa. This was then extended to having Joe work out with the team in Orlando, albeit splitting time with Nico Iamaleava whom everyone also expected to see playing time.
Then, in all the uproar and confusion surrounding Christmas, UT quietly announced that Bazooka Joe had opted out of the bowl game and St. Nico of Long Beach would be the starter, giving the Hawkeyes less than a week's worth of practices to get ready for him.
Heh.
Nico did not disappoint.
Let's get to the football action.
The first quarter was pretty much a punting duel with the exception of Iowa's second possession when the Hawkeyes got their running game going and made their way down to the UT 4. Iowa quarterback Deacon Hill then tried a pass into the end zone that found UT defender Andre Turrentine who gleefully accepted the gift. Your Humble Scribe was watching the game with Elder Son&Heir. I turned to him and said,“Hell, these guys are already better than the ones that left!”
The quarter ended with Tennessee on the Iowa 19.
A troubling trend, though was the ball ended up on the 19 because Iamaleava was sacked for the second time in the quarter. Fortunately, it was only a 1-yard loss.
End of 1st Quarter
Score: Tennessee 0 Iowa 0
On the first play of the 2nd quarter, Iamaleava rolled out, couldn't find anybody but did find a hole and after dodging a couple of Hawkeye defenders, found the end zone.
After another Iowa punt, the Vols were in business on their own 32.
Riding the legs of Dylan Sampson and Cam Seldon for 65 of the needed distance, Nico capped the drive with a three-yard plunge.
The teams exchanged punts for the rest of the quarter.
Nico got sacked twice more.
End of 2nd Quarter
Score: Tennessee 14 Iowa 0
The punting duel resumed. At one point one of the TV announcers said, “If you're a fan of punting,this is the game for you!”
The last Vol punt of the stanza was downed on the Hawkeye 4.
Iowa quarterback Hill faded back into the end zone when James Pearce swept in. Hill staggered out the two whereupon Pearce forced a fumble recovered by an orange-clad Dominic Bailey.
Nico scored from the two on a close call at the goal line but the ball was clearly over. This was his third rushing TD.
Iamaleava was sacked twice more. (bangs head)
End of 3rd Quarter
Score: Tennessee 21 Iowa 0
The fourth canto opened with a disaster for Iowa.
The Hawkeyes had made it out to their own 44 when Hill tried a pass toward the sideline. #27 stepped in front of it and showing some speed afoot ran unmolested into the end zone. Young Mr. Pearce is a force to be reckoned with. He's one of those, “I'm glad he's on our side,” type of players.
Iowa tried a new quarterback but turned the ball over on downs at the UT 22.
Iamaleava then led a balanced attack down the field finally finding McCallan Castles for an 18-yard scoring strike.
Iowa went four-and-out and UT sent in Gaston Moore to bat clean up.
The game ended with the Vols in scoring position and the announcers whining about “running up the score.”
Ya know what? The hell with them.
Final Score
Tennessee35 Hawkeyes 0
*******
Pete
The Admiral looked more like a kindly Abbot of a remote monastery than a fleet commander. Small of stature, with a bald head and weather-lined face he seldom spoke above a whisper. His flyers knew better. They idolized him. The legendary reporter Ernie Pyle also saw through the façade and, after meeting him, declared Vice-Admiral Marc A. Mitscher to be, “one of my gods!” Nicknamed “Pete” during his days at Annapolis, Mitscher was no newcomer to naval aviation. He completed his flight training in 1916 and his certificate showed him to be Naval Aviator #33. After World War I he had been pilot of the NC-1, one of four Navy planes which made the first airborne crossing of the Atlantic. Only the NC-4 actually made the whole trip. NC-1 crashed at sea, but Mitscher and his crew survived with the help of a hunting knife he still carried.
Captain Marc Mitscher had commanded the USS Hornet (CV-8) at the Battle of Midway. Hornet’s air group had suffered serious losses (Hornet’s torpedo squadron, VT-8, was annihilated – only one man survived) without contributing much to the American victory. Dark rumors had swirled regarding then-Captain Mitscher’s handling of the ship and her aircraft. Victory quickly obscures most sins though, and Mitscher’s at Midway were primarily those of inexperience and poor staff work. Mitscher quickly rose above the back-biting to establish himself as the finest carrier commander of World War II, bar none, in any fleet.
Now “BALD EAGLE” – his call sign -sat in his custom-made leather swivel chair on the flag bridge of USS Lexington (CV-16). From this perch he could see just how far the fleet had come since Midway. His Fast Carrier Task Force,formally known as Task Force 58, contained a total of seven Fleet carriers and seven light carriers.
Vice Admiral Marc A. Mitscher on the bridge of USS Lexington, 1944. (US Navy)
To give some idea of just how strong Task Force 58 was, just one of its four carrier task groups, TG 58.1,was stronger than BOTH U.S. Navy task forces (TF-16 and TF-17) at Midway. In 1942, TF 17 consisted of USS Yorktown, with Hornet and Enterprise comprising TF-16. The two task forces were screened by eight cruisers and fifteen destroyers. The three carrier air groups totaled 232 planes: 79 fighters and the rest dive- and torpedo bombers.
Two years later, Task Group 58.1 sailed toward Saipan with the following four carriers: USS Hornet (CV-12), USS Yorktown( CV-10); and the light carriers USS Belleau Wood (CVL-24) and USS Bataan (CVL-29). The task group was screened by two battleships, five cruisers and fourteen destroyers. The combined air groups mustered 134 fighters, 78 dive bombers and 53 torpedo bombers for a grand total of 265 aircraft.
And there were three other carrier task groups (CTG) in TF-58.
TF-58 was the main strike force of the 5th Fleet, the largest collection of naval power the world had ever seen. 5th Fleet was tasked with providing support for Operation FORAGER, the invasion of the Marianas Islands. The Marianas were needed to provide bases for the new B-29 heavy bombers which had the range and payload to bring the war directly to the Japanese home islands. The islands of Guam, Saipan and Tinian had been identified as the best for this purpose.
Before the war the Marianas had been split. The island of Guam was a United States territory. The rest of the Marianas had long since been incorporated into Japan. Japan had taken Guam in the early days of the war. In fact, the island of Saipan was considered part of metropolitan Japan. In other words as much a part of Japan as Honshu or Kyushu. As such it would be defended and defended to the death.
The Gargoyle
Another large carrier force was also gathering in the Pacific.
The main strike power of the Imperial Japanese Navy was known as the Main Body. Here were the carriers and battleships with which the IJN would stop the USN. Throughout the war, Japanese naval strategy revolved around the notion of the “decisive battle” which would route the Americans and win the war. The problem was Japan kept losing these “decisive battles.”
The Main Body would fall under the command of Admiral Jizaburo Ozawa. Ozawa was a carrier man through and through. In 1944 he was the best Japan could offer. He was a product of Etajima, the Japanese naval academy renowned for the iron discipline it inculcated into the officers it produced. Ozawa was not a handsome man and his appearance earned him the nickname “the Gargoyle” during his sojourn at Etajima. His formidable strategic and command gifts made this totally irrelevant. Ozawa knew he was facing long odds, but in war, long odds are often the only ones available.
It was Ozawa who had proposed that all the IJN’s fleet carriers be grouped together for maximum strike power. The First Air Fleet first saw action in the Pearl Harbor strike. Ever after, as the Americans kept sending single carriers here and there on various missions, the First Air Fleet won its spurs blasting Allied warships all over the Pacific Basin. At the time of Pearl Harbor, Ozawa was commanding the Southern Force, based in Saigon and tasked with operations in the Dutch East Indies and Malaya.
One does have to wonder what the outcome might have been had the decisive, aggressive, air-minded Ozawa commanded at Pearl Harbor and Midway rather than the indecisive, cautious, battleship man Chuichi Nagumo.
Ozawa was brought in after the Midway disaster to rebuild Japan’s First Air Fleet and prepare for the next “decisive battle.” His opportunity was not long in coming.
Vice Admiral Jizaburo Ozawa, Imperial Japanese Navy. (US Navy)
Now Ozawa would lead Japan's greatest and most powerful fleet to keep the Yankee Navy away from the Marianas. To do this he had nine carriers organized into three divisions with over 400 aircraft embarked. Those carriers were escorted by battleships, cruisers and destroyers. In addition, over 300 fighters and strike planes had been flown to airfields on Guam and Saipan with orders to join Ozawa's sea eagles attacking the 5th Fleet. The Japanese dubbed it Operation A-GO.
Two powerful fleets were sailing on a collision course. Two sets of battle-tested admirals prepared their plans and deployed their forces.
Unfortunately for Ozawa and his command, they were doomed from the outset. Over the intervening months since the nadir of American carrier strength near the end of the Guadalcanal campaign when the Enterprise, herself damaged, was the sole carrier available massive changes had come to the Pacific Fleet.
By mid-1944, the Americans had superior carriers in large numbers. In addition the American planes were better. The F6F Hellcat fighter was superior to the Japanese Zero in virtually every aspect. Worse, America was turning out better-trained pilots for those planes in the thousands. Unlike the Japanese who left their pilots in combat until they were killed or wounded, the Americans rotated their veteran pilots back to train the new pilots. For example, Marine ace John Smith was sent home to training command. When he asked when he could return he was told, “Not until you have trained a hundred John Smiths.”
Now, all those “John Smiths” and their magnificent mounts awaited Ozawa.
The invasion of Saipan was already well underway when Ozawa's fleet sortied out on 13 June 1944. It was almost immediately spotted by an American submarine which got off a contact report and then monitored the fleet's movements.
Mitscher moved west of Saipan to intercept. The battle was joined on 18 June.
The end result was one of the most lopsided victories in American naval history. Mitscher's fighters had been sweeping the skies over Guam, decimating the land-based forces Ozawa was relying on. When radar picked up the incoming Japanese carrier planes at 150 miles out, Mitscher recalled his fighters by sending out the old carnival cry,“Hey Rube!”
Ozawa chose to send out multiple strikes planning on the now defunct planes from Guam to re-enforce them.
His planes ran into a wall of Hellcats that tore into the Japanese formations like harvesters through a wheat field. One of Mitscher's boys exulted on his return, “It's just like one of them old-fashioned turkey shoots back home!” Thus the battle earned its nickname in naval lore as The Great Marianas Turkey Shoot.
The adventure of one of Bald Eagle's boys demonstrated the difference in skill levels. Lt. (j.g.) Alex Vraciu, an ace in Fighting 16, was unhappy. Shortly after takeoff the engine of his Hellcat began acting up. He was ordered to orbit out of range and stay out of the way. A radio call broke him out of his funk. Seven Japanese dive-bombers had broken through and were closing on the task force. Vraciu spotted them and, squeezing every ounce of performance out of his plane he could manage, swept in. One after another, six of the bombers went down under Vraciu's guns. Running low on fuel, he landed back onboard Lexington. He leapt from the cockpit and, noticing Mitscher looking down from the flag bridge, he grinned and held up six fingers. A photographer captured the moment and it became the iconic scene from the battle. A subsequent check of his guns showed that he had expended a total of just 360 rounds.
In all, Vraciu and his compatriots knocked down over 300 of Ozawa's planes that day for a loss of about 30 American planes, some of which had been knocked down by anti-aircraft fire over Guam.
Mitscher was anxious to go after Ozawa but his boss, 5th Fleet commander Adm. Raymond Spruance was waiting to make sure there was no further threat. Finally just after 1500 hours (3 pm) he signaled his agreement. Mitscher turned to his Chief of Staff, Captain Arleigh Burke, and said softly, “Launch 'em!”
The Japanese were over 200 miles away, this was extreme range for theAmerican planes.
By the time they got back it would be dark and few of the pilots were trained to land at night. Mitscher knew many of his planes probably wouldn't make it back but the opportunity was worth the gamble.
American subs had sunk two of The Gargoyle's carriers already that day. The carrier planes sank another and damaged three more in a wild fight over the Japanese fleet. Now came the long flight home.
It was well past dark when radar picked up the returning strike. Following standard procedure the fleet was in total blackout to keep any lurking subs or scout planes from spotting the them. Adm. Jocko Clark signaled that he wanted to turn on his lights to help guide the pilots home. Mitscher again turned to Burke and whispered, “Turn on the lights.”
It wasn't pretty, many planes either crashed on landing or had to ditch as they ran out of fuel, but Pete Mitscher's boys never forgot what he did that night.
Mitscher remained in command of The Fast Carriers until late in the war when ill health sent him home. After the War he ended up as Commander of the Atlantic Fleet. He was taken ill yet again and “slipped his chain” on 3 February 1947 due to a heart attack.
His long-time Chief of Staff, Aleigh Burke, penned this tribute: "He spoke in a low voice and used few words. Yet, so great was his concern for his people — for their training and welfare in peacetime and their rescue in combat — that he was able to obtain their final ounce of effort and loyalty, without which he could not have become the preeminent carrier force commander in the world. A bulldog of a fighter, a strategist blessed with an uncanny ability to foresee his enemy's next move, and a lifelong searcher after truth and trout streams, he was above all else — perhaps above all other— a Naval Aviator."
I'm not sure where we get such men, but I'm damned glad we do.
********
So, how did the Vols do against The Maxims?
The game showed we Vol fans a glimpse of what the future COULD be.
Nico Iamaleava played very well for a guy starting his first game particularly one against a ranked opponent. Three rushing TDs and another passing is an excellent debut in anyone's book. Dylan Sampson with his 133 yards rushing also bid fair to anchor the Vol running attack, Well done, young man!
Am I ready to follow the herd and proclaim him the Second Coming in Glory?
No. After all, we felt much the same after Bazooka Joe's performance against Clemson last season.
I do think the future is bright and maybe, just maybe, our Beloved Vols can find their way back to being an elite program.
With all the vagaries of NIL, the portal, and all the assorted off season folderol we don't even really know with certainty what the personnel will look like come the 31st of August.
Lord willing, though, I'll be right there with you to find out.
Take us home, Genrul Neyland!
1. The team that makes the fewest mistakes will win.
2. Play for and make the breaks. When one comes your way … SCORE!
3. If at first the game – or the breaks – go against you, don't let up… PUT ON MORE STEAM!
4. Protect our kickers, our quarterback, our lead and our ballgame.
5. Ball! Oskie! Cover, block, cut and slice, pursue and gang tackle … THIS IS THE WINNING EDGE.
6. Press the kicking game. Here is where the breaks are made.
7. Carry the fight to the opponent and keep it therefor sixty minutes,
As I have oft said before, when the Vols bother to actually FOLLOW Neyland's Maxims they are damned near unbeatable.
Suggested Reading
Clark G. Reynolds, The Fast Carriers: The Forging of an Air Navy. McGraw-Hill, 1968.
TheodoreTaylor, The Magnifcent Mitscher. Naval Institute Press, 1991.
T.E. Taylor, (ed.), Carrier War in the Pacific: An Oral History Collection. Smithsonian Institution Press: 1993.
Lieutenant Junior Grade Alexander Vraciu, USNR, Fighting Squadron 16 "ace", holds up six fingers to signify his "kills" during the "Great Marianas Turkey Shoot" on 19 June 1944. Taken on the flight deck of the USS Lexington (CV-16) (80-G-236841).
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