Turning Shit Into Gold: Three Tennessee Football Case Studies

In the wake of Tennessee's nauseating loss to UCLA and after hours of reasoning to myself how this could possibly have happened, I left myself with a single thought: "It is amazing to me how playing Tennessee makes unheard of players, or even bad players, look great."

It's a thought I've had before.

You know the script. Tennessee faces a mediocre football team and is predicted by virtually everyone to win handily. Tennessee then finds an unexpectedly difficult challenge and struggles to stay in the game. Eventually, Tennessee gets a break and manages to eek out a win. Sometimes though, things go even worse and those supposed "easy" games turn into ugly, embarrassing, gut-wrenching losses for the Vols. At the same time, the opposition is led by a "Cinderella story" no-name player that just happens to pull the game of his life out of a hat just for Tennessee.

These types of games and players leave an indelible image in my mind. Here are three of the more profound examples:

1. Tennessee vs. LSU, 2001 SEC Championship Game

Tennessee was No.2 in the country and coming off an emotional and hard-fought victory in the Swamp. A win over the LSU Tigers (a team they had beaten earlier in the season) would put Tennessee in the National Championship game. Things looked pretty good from the outset, Tennessee was moving the ball and scoring against a tenacious LSU defense. Yet LSU continued to be in the game. And then BAM!, LSU star QB Rohan Davey was injured and could not play. Tennessee had the game, Davey had lit up the Vol defense the last 2 times they had played. This guy was their offense, surely Tennessee could just close this thing out.

Enter this man:












One Matt Mauck. No one knew who this guy was. He had played a little here and there, but had done nothing memorable. He was fairly unremarkable looking. He was small, scrawny... and white. Nothing about him outwardly screamed "this guy is going to be pesky, clutch, and in doing so will frustrate the Tennessee defense so much that LSU will win this game decisively!"

But Matt Mauck's appearance was very deceiving, and he led LSU to it's first SEC Championship in forever. He himself became an overnight household name and is still an LSU hero. LSU fans most often look to this game as the catalyst that sparked their dominance of late.

2. Tennessee vs. Alabama, 2007

Tennessee, after shaking off embarrassing losses to California and Florida, came into Bryant-Denny Stadium having shocked the highly ranked Georgia Bulldogs and winning against a tough and determined Mississippi State team. Alabama to this point had lost to Georgia and Florida State, and had close wins against lowly Ole Miss and Houston. Most prognosticators had Tennessee big in this one.

Nope.

From the outset, Tricky Nick Saban showed why he is college football's highest paid coach. The Tide defense was stifling and their O-line dominated the line of scrimmage.

Tennessee's much maligned secondary gave up so many completions and so many yards that the perpetually mediocre Alabama QB John Parker Wilson (seen right, throwing over clueless defender) was actually compared to former Bama great Joe Namath in postgame reports. It was Wilson's greatest game of the season, and probably of his career. He was returned to reality the following week against LSU though.

3. Tennessee vs. UCLA, 2008

UCLA was just too depleted to win, especially against such a talented team from the vaunted SEC. Even during the game, UCLA lost their best tailback and their best tight end. UCLA was down to 3rd string quarterback Kevin Craft. Early on, Craft played like a third string quarterback. 4 interceptions (one a pick-6) later, it was finally halftime for the hapless Bruins, yet they were only down by 7.

What happened next still amazes me. I can only surmise that Rick Neuheisel used one of his last remaining football lives to channel the spirit of some great QB and implanted that spirit into the sputtering Craft.

The night and day difference was readily apparent in Craft. He was poised in the pocket and made accurate passes to wide open receivers.

Long story short, the guy came from the dead and beat what was supposed to be a very good Tennessee team. He is now a favorite story of the college football world, but will likely fall back to into oblivion as he is victimized by team after team and replaced by one of the previously injured quarterbacks.

These three examples, all disastrous losses for Tennessee, provide us with a moral: take no opponent, no matter how bad, weak, or dilapidated they appear, lightly. Tennessee does this far too often. Why can't the Vols just line up knowing that they are going to beat the hell out of weak teams, and the actually go out and do it, like Florida, Georgia, or LSU? Its time to man up and go, or else get run over.

However, if there is a silver lining to these losses, it is that they automatically transform Tennessee into the underdog, and that is where we see them at their best. Back to work guys, this thing ain't over yet.