Tennessee football: Vols last two 1-3 starts had opposite endings
This is Tennessee football’s third 1-3 start in the modern era. The last two times had very different endings for the Volunteers.
No matter how hard they fall as a program, Tennessee football is not supposed to be 1-3 to start off the season. That’s just not normal for the Vols, and it’s a good reason for panic in Jeremy Pruitt’s second year on the job.
They say it’s not how you start but how you finish. Well, for the Vols, 1-3 can mean two very different things. Another head coach in his second full season had a 1-3 start with UT, and he just happens to be the school’s athletic director.
We’re obviously talking about Phillip Fulmer. In 1994, after losing Heath Shuler to the NFL and starting quarterback Jerry Colquitt for the season to injury in the opener against the UCLA Bruins, he was in for a disastrous stretch. Tennessee football lost that game to UCLA.
One week later, they beat the Georgia Bulldogs of all teams on the road. But then they lost to the Florida Gators 31-0 (didn’t they just lose to Florida by 31?) before losing their backup quarterback, Todd Helton, to a season-ending injury the next week in a loss to the Mississippi State Bulldogs.
At that point, the Vols were 1-3 and down to two freshman quarterbacks, Branndon Stewart and a guy named Peyton Manning. In the next game, Manning got his first start, and he led the Vols to a 10-9 win in a defensive slugfest over the Washington State Cougars, who were ranked No. 1 at the time and had the top-ranked defense in the nation.
After beating the Arkansas Razorbacks to get to 3-3, UT lost a close one to the Alabama Crimson Tide. But as Manning settled in, the team went on a roll to win their final five games, including a Gator Bowl victory over the Virginia Tech Hokies, to finish 8-4.
That set the stage for the best run of Tennessee football’s modern era. They would enjoy five straight top 10 finishes and go on a 45-5 run over the next four years with two top five finishes, two SEC Championships and the national championship in 1998. It all came out of that 1994 team and that 1-3 start, which Fulmer has always shown affection for.
However, a decade after that 1998 national title that was the culmination of the 1-3 team setting the stage for the future in 1994, things turned out very different. The Vols were off to a 1-3 start again, this time with Jonathan Crompton at quarterback and new offensive coordinator Dave Clawson. Once again, it started with a road loss to UCLA.
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Two games after that loss, they would lose to Florida again, this time 30-6, and then they would lose to the Auburn Tigers on the road. It was very reminiscent of how they started 1-3 back in 1994, but there was very little hope for this team, as the offense was disastrous.
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Fulmer alternated between Crompton and Nick Stephens at quarterback, and things never worked out. After losses to the Georgia Bulldogs, Alabama Crimson Tide and South Carolina Gamecocks, the Vols were 3-6. Following that S.C. loss, Fulmer was fired the next week. In the midst of all the distractions, UT lost to the Wyoming Cowboys en route to finishing 5-7.
That 2008 team didn’t set the stage for anything but an upcoming decade of futility. In order to make a splash hire, Mike Hamilton brought in Lane Kiffin, who went 7-6 for a year. But then he bolted for the USC Trojans, and Derek Dooley took over in 2010.
The result has been easily the worst decade for Tennessee football since the first decade of the 1900s, and it may even be worse than that. They have only finished the year ranked twice in nine seasons and have only had three winning seasons and four bowl appearances.
Next. Vols could be five mistakes away from 4-0. dark
In this final year of the decade, they are off to another 1-3 start. But coming off a bye, they have a chance to make things right. Could they do what they did in 1994 and set the stage for another elite run under the leadership of a young head coach? Or will it look more like 2008 and send Tennessee football into another decade of dysfunction? That is the burning question.