The state of the Tennessee football program is eerily similar to where it was the last time the Vols beat the Northwestern Wildcats in a bowl game.
No, the seasons leading up to the victory were not the same.
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In 1997, when the Tennessee Vols had beaten the Northwestern Wildcats 48-28 in the Citrus Bowl to finish the 1996 season 10-2, it was their second straight Top 10 finish, third straight bowl victory, and seventh straight winning season.
However, given the state of the talent, the state of Tennessee football is now almost in the exact same spot as it was following that year.
The Volunteers were stacked with talent and depth thanks to great recruiting classes by Phillip Fulmer. They returned a plethora of starters for the next year.
And they had a junior quarterback in Peyton Manning who decided to come back for his senior season. Sound familiar?
Right now, once again coming off of a blowout victory over Northwestern in a New Year’s Day bowl game, the Vols are loaded with talent, return a plethora of starters, and have a junior quarterback in Joshua Dobbs who is definitely coming back for his senior season.
Following that ’96 season, the Vols reached the high point of the modern era under Phillip Fulmer, capturing back to back SEC Championships and a national championship.
It is a time period that everybody in Knoxville remembers very fondly. Could the same thing be happening here?
Believing the Vols to be a College Football Playoff contender going into next year is not that much of a leap. They were four plays away from being undefeated this year and played two of the four College Football Playoff teams.
They also just capped off the 2015 season by absolutely destroying a 10-2 team ranked No. 13 in the country.
And with Butch Jones’s recruiting, the Vols are in good shape past 2016. They have a stack of talent waiting in the wings to get their chance to start, while there will be a stacked roster with experience going into next year.
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The Vols were just as stacked and experienced in 1997. The blowout victory over Northwestern signifies that something special is about to happen.