Tennessee football: Vols top 30 players since 1998 national championship
Sometimes individual seasons can be enough to put somebody very high up on this list. Robert Meachem is one person who had such an individual season for Tennessee football. It was arguably the best solo season by any Vol on this list.
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We’re obviously talking about 2006. Everybody talks about Erik Ainge and how David Cutcliffe’s return as offensive coordinator completely turned him around. Given Ainge’s efficiency in 2006 and 2007, there is plenty of truth to that. But Meachem’s play in 2006 stood out on its own.
Cutcliffe clearly wanted to depart from what Randy Sanders had done the four years prior. He focused on shortening the receiver rotation as much as possible. By the start of the season, Meachem was the go-to receiver, Jayson Swain was the No. 2 wideout and Bret Smith was the slot receiver.
The move worked, as those three receivers combined to account for 2,439 of the team’s 3,388 receiving yards and 22 of the team’s 24 receiving touchdowns. But make no mistake about it, Meachem was the star.
He made his presence known the first game of that season, a 35-18 thrashing of the California Golden Bears, who were a top-10 team at the time. Against single-coverage all game, Meachem had five receptions for 182 yards and took two short hitch routes to the house for touchdowns after breaking one tackle each time.
The guy never let up all season after that. Even when Ainge got hurt, Meachem caught two deep balls from Jonathan Crompton en route to 121 receiving yards and two touchdowns in their close loss to the LSU Tigers.
For the year, Meachem broke the school record for single-season receiving yards. He had an amazing 1,298 yards on 71 receptions and scored 11 touchdowns in the process. That also included five 100-yard games and then a 98-yard game in their huge 51-33 win over the Georgia Bulldogs. Everywhere you looked, Meachem was there to make a big play.
That was enough for him to move onto the NFL after his third year. He was sorely missed by Ainge in 2007. Nonetheless, he finished his career with over 2,100 receiving yards and a total of 17 touchdowns. There hasn’t been a better receiver since.