Ranking all Tennesse football QBs to start for Johnny Majors
15-15-1. Jimmy Streater. 4. player. 839. Scouting Report. Pick Analysis. 1976-1979
A decade before Jeff Francis, Jimmy Streater was the first quarterback trying to bring Tennessee football back into a national spotlight. He was a bright spot amidst a slew of bad talent when Johnny Majors arrived. Streater was the guy to start over Pat Ryan to open the 1977 season, and he was also the guy to take Ryan’s job back from him.
Starting the season 1-2 is why Majors went to Ryan. When Streater came back in, the Vols were 2-4. Despite finishing 4-7 overall behind Streater, he was a better fit for Majors’ veer/I-formation hybrid offense.
As a result, Majors stuck it out with him in 1978, when UT went 5-5-1. In 1979, Streater helped the Vols to its first bowl game in five years, going 7-5, and he led them to a dominant 40-18 win over the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, one of the great wins of Majors’ early tenure on Rocky Top. That team should have finished 9-3.
However, Streater himself, who passed away at age 47 in 2004, deserves credit for bringing UT back. He breathed life into the program, reminding fans of Condredge Holloway, and set the standard and helped lay a foundation for a program that Majors would build in the 1980s.
For his career, he only completed 51.6 of his passes for 3,433 yards, 17 touchdowns and 30 interceptions. However, the guy added 1,374 rushing yards and 25 rushing touchdowns. So he had an incredible 42 total touchdowns, a very rare state for quarterbacks at that time.