what are the biggest what ifs in tennessee football history

#204
#204
What if a pug was our mascot lol or purple Lilly's grew on the hill instead. That would be crazy we would of been lsu before lsu.
 
#210
#210
GOATeric14berry said:
What if a pug was our mascot lol or purple Lilly's grew on the hill instead. That would be crazy we would of been lsu before lsu.
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The pug wouldn't be accepted given Tennessee's proud hunting tradition and the need for a dog rather than a crumbled cat. As for purple, that could've happened. You know what Tennessee's state flower is, right?
 
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#213
#213
1972 Grad said:
I think that with T Rob, we tied UCLA and lost to Florida that year. With Dickey, we were 6-0-1.
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Both of the ties can be blamed on Majors. In the UCLA game, the Vols had a 16 pt lead with 8 min left (26-10). UT started running clock on offense and played soft on defense and let the Bruins march easily down the field twice and convert both 2 pt conversions.

In the Ga Tech game, the plan was to play defense and field position and win w/o making any mistakes. Only problem, Pete Panuska fumbled the opening kick off inside the 20 and the Vols were down 3-0 about 2 min into the game.

That team should have been 11-1 and with the Sugar Bowl win should have been National Champs over Oklahoma (who lost to Miami earlier that year and ended up 11-1).
 
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#214
#214
I didn't read all 15 pages so I apologize if this one is already taken, but:

What if Bill Battle were still our coach. He'd barely be 70 years old (10 years younger than Bobby Bowden when he quit), and have about 320 - 350 wins to his name. He'd be considered one of the all time greats ever.
 
#215
#215
ZZ13 said:
I didn't read all 15 pages so I apologize if this one is already taken, but:

What if Bill Battle were still our coach. He'd barely be 70 years old (10 years younger than Bobby Bowden when he quit), and have about 320 - 350 wins to his name. He'd be considered one of the all time greats ever.
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You are going to catch holy h... from somebody.
 
#217
#217
Backwards K said:
Both of the ties can be blamed on Majors. In the UCLA game, the Vols had a 16 pt lead with 8 min left (26-10). UT started running clock on offense and played soft on defense and let the Bruins march easily down the field twice and convert both 2 pt conversions.

In the Ga Tech game, the plan was to play defense and field position and win w/o making any mistakes. Only problem, Pete Panuska fumbled the opening kick off inside the 20 and the Vols were down 3-0 about 2 min into the game.

That team should have been 11-1 and with the Sugar Bowl win should have been National Champs over Oklahoma (who lost to Miami earlier that year and ended up 11-1).
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Even though Carlos Reveiz kicked the 2 long field goals, he missed from 21 yards in that game.
 
#218
#218
This has been a great thread for the off-season. It is really enjoyable.

So many have brought up so many great "what ifs".

I'll say that the 1990 Alabama loss, for me, was worse than the later Memphis loss. When I saw that horror happen, my first thought was, "Well, that's Johnny done. Might not be now or next year, but he's done."

If I'm honest, I hated the way Dickey handled it, but no one can argue with his subsequent plan.

Unlike the horror show that was Hambone's master plan.
 
#219
#219
ZZ13 said:
I didn't read all 15 pages so I apologize if this one is already taken, but:

What if Bill Battle were still our coach. He'd barely be 70 years old (10 years younger than Bobby Bowden when he quit), and have about 320 - 350 wins to his name. He'd be considered one of the all time greats ever.
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Ahem no! Battle's teams got worse each year he was here. By the time CJM took over it was a trainwreck.
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#220
#220
1972 Grad, I will handle this one, hopefully with more tact than some of my Big Orange brethren would choose to exercise. ZZ13, I hope that your comment was made with tongue thoroughly planted in cheek. Bill Battle was one of the finest PEOPLE we have ever had to occupy the position of head coach at UT, and, yes, he amassed three 10+ win seasons during his first three years on the job, largely with players recruited by Doug Dickey and largely because of great defenses. The talent pool, however, went downhill rapidly because he was not a competent recruiter.

When Johnny came marching home again in 1977, he issued the famous “the cupboard is bare” comment in describing the quality of personnel that he inherited. Because of those three initial years, Battle actually had a significantly higher winning percentage than Johnny amassed at UT. It took eight years before Majors returned Tennessee to national prominence with the 1985 season, one that culminated with, perhaps, the single most inspired performance that I have ever seen from a Tennessee football team, a 35-7 annihilation of 2nd-ranked Miami. It took even longer before Tennessee was consistently a force to be reckoned with on the national landscape. That came with back-to-back SEC titles in 1989-90. In short, Battle oversaw the most precipitous decline in Tennessee football fortunes in the last 40 years, with the exception of the last five years. Johnny stated that, in all fairness, the situation that Dooley inherited was probably even worse that what Battle left for him to clean up.
 
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#223
#223
Eddie Vol Halen said:
This has been a great thread for the off-season. It is really enjoyable.

So many have brought up so many great "what ifs".

I'll say that the 1990 Alabama loss, for me, was worse than the later Memphis loss. When I saw that horror happen, my first thought was, "Well, that's Johnny done. Might not be now or next year, but he's done."

If I'm honest, I hated the way Dickey handled it, but no one can argue with his subsequent plan.

Unlike the horror show that was Hambone's master plan.
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What if the refs make the correct call and Memphis State's kick returner is called down?

Sorry if that was already brought up.
 
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