The great Gen. Robert R. Neyland passed away. A nice article over at utsports covers some of his legacy. University of Tennessee Athletics: Football
Not to take anything away from Neyland but a lot of those shutouts came against teams we had no business playing. I own the Andy Kozar book of Neyland and read it religiously but we had no business playing Mercer, Maryville, and UTC past 1930.
Neyland preached readiness, maintaining that, "Almost all close games are lost by the losers, not won by the winners."
His highest salary as head coach was believed to be $20,000, or approximately $204,182 in 2012 dollars. Doesn't Dooley make around ten times the inflation adjustment? Ugh.
'58 was indirectly Neyland's fault. Had he hired the coach whose record was 23-0-1 the in 51-52 instead of that sorry ass Harvey Robinson, we'd had road into the 60's in fine form. My comrades and I talk about this point in our history ad nauseam.