The Greatest Series: Week 6 -- Tennessee's Best

Harrell was a damn good DT for 2 seasons (his freshman year he played sparingly and broke his ankle) and 2 games. I do believe playing against UF with the torn triceps or biceps adds to how fondly he's remembered too.

 

He was good. He was probably the best DL on the field for UT in only a couple of games.

 

He was the reason Mahelona didn't get double teamed and was able to make the plays he made in 2004 and 2005.

It's pissing me off when I think about the NFL talent that DL had back then. Harrell, Haralson, McBride and Mahelona all played together in 2004.

 

A couple of injuries and two blown calls were the story of that season. Vols played a lot of good football in 06.

 

The only bad game was Arkansas and you could see that coming when your TB gets suspended for fighting at a bar right before the game.

Jamarcus Russell fumbled and it was ruled he was down. That still angers me.

 

The Randy Sanders promotion cannot be overestimated as a major portion of Phil's downfall. Cutlcliffe's return proved that. As frustrating as Chavis's defenses could be at times, he was never the problem in Phil's tenure. I hate to say this, but if they had rehired him instead of Butch Jones and given him strict orders as to who to hire as assistants, the booster money to get those assistants would have poured in, and I would feel a lot better about the direction of the program than I do right now.

It's a sad day when you miss Fulmer. When I was for firing him I had no idea that Dooley and Butch Jones were in our future. Just sad.

 

More than the hit on Leak?

 

Tony McDaniel was also on the roster that year. He played a few years in the NFL.

 

There's a 12-step program for your condition.

 

Phil had a losing record to more than half the conference coaches when he was fired. He'd just tanked with a team loaded with seniors. All his OC targets did just as shitty in 2008 as Clawson. There really wasn't much justification for keeping him.

 

There was no justification for keeping him. Not sure where you got that from my post.

 

Yes, because as the rulebook is written, that hand grazing his facemask is technically roughing the passer. It's a shitty rule.

Russell dropped the damn ball and Rico (I believe it was Rico) came up with it. Plain as ****ing day, the ball came out.

 

Phil's not hiring elite assistants regardless of how much money he's offering. When Phil got a few good assistants, all they did was fight each other and leave.

 

The core group of Chavis, Fulmer, Cutcliffe, and Brooks were four of the best position coaches around. When those four guys worked together Tennessee was very good.

Outside of the core group there were various guys who came in and out, some better than others, some hung around too long, some hated each other. It was a mess.

 

Yeah, the four guys that came through the ranks stuck together (for the most part). Chavis not wanting to work at recruiting hurt him.

Trooper was the final nail in the coffin.

 

The triumvirate of Washington, Adkins and Roper pushed it further down the hill.

 

Adkins and Roper were terrible, terrible coaches.

 

Kind of wild how bad Pat Washington was, yet how successful his units were. We really were WRU for awhile. I also wonder if Cutcliffe didn't help out a lot with route-running.

 

Elite talent and play-calling that compliments that talent can mask many deficiencies in position coaching.

 

I'd Peyton Manning helped too.