Tennessee Football: A plea for fans to be patient

With the Tennessee football program facing headwinds of investigation, and another new regime, Volunteer fans need to evidence patience.

When speaking to Tennessee football fans, even the causal kind, it won’t take long to figure out that they are a “passionate” bunch.

The Tennessee Football program has played games for 116 years now (1902) and has done a lot of winning in that time, with an overall record of (825-384-50).

Being a fervent fan base comes with that history. In fact, most will be quick to mention the “tradition, facilities, and fan-base” as to why their team’s now decades-long struggles are simply unacceptable. The college football landscape has changed dramatically, however, and a comparison to other traditional CFB powerhouses might shed some light, and give insight into what has happened, and what may be done to turn course.

This writer has had the pleasure of doing sports talk radio in beautiful Southeast Tennessee for the last decade. Specifically, I’ve hosted an SEC/Tennessee Vols college football show every Saturday in the Fall for the last five years. I can relay, with authority, that #VolNation is sick and tired of their football program being sick and broken.

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In that current state of frustration and fulmination, there is also a restless resistance from fans to hard questions and difficult answers and prescriptions for what might fix things in Knoxville. The “Tennessee recruits itself” and “Everything is cyclical” crowd ignores an obvious, though painful reality: College football isn’t the same as it was ten years ago, and will never go back.

I wrote here about how the rise of Clemson Tiger recruiting has affected teams, like Tennessee and Auburn, drastically. That still holds true. But, there is also a larger, longer historical context that is needed. Namely, the historical lack of success after replacing legendary coaches, and the stability that comes with them, and the seismic implications when you don’t manage that change effectively.

In other words, when your legend leaves, there is always regression.

To be sure, The Tennessee Vols had decades of dominance, and are one of the branded old school names in college football. When it’s rolling, it’s like a giant, continuous, Appalachian, big-orange rave all over East Tennessee. I’m not joking when I write these words.

But, that begs the question.

How could a football program that had Ric Flair-esque records in the 20th century turn into the Mulkey Brothers of the 21st Century? How does Stone Cold Steve Austin turn into Golddust right before our eyes? In short, they had to replace legendary coaches, and the 30 years of stability they brought, and failed to do so effectively.

Look at Nebraska. They had to replace Bob Devaney (1962-1972) and Tom Osborne (1973-1997) when Coach Osborne retired. The Cornhuskers had reasonable success afterward, with coaches Solich and Pellini, but nothing like (1970-1997) that included numerous national championships. They currently continue to struggle to live up to previous performance and traditional expectations.

Tennessee has had it worse since their last Hall of Fame Coach left. They had to replace Johnny Majors (1977-1992) and Phillip Fulmer (1992-2008). Since that time, from the beginning of the 2009 season, and including bowl games, the Tennessee Volunteer overall record in football is (73-75).

All college football programs struggle after a legendary coach exits the building. Notre Dame after Holtz. Bama after Bear Bryant (and probably Saban). Florida after Spurrier. Michigan after Schembechler. Georgia after Dooley. Oklahoma after Wilkinson and Switzer. The list goes on.

The difference between Tennessee and all of those others listed, however, is that the struggle for those above only lasted for one coach tenure, maybe two. The Vols are now on their 5th Head Coach since Fulmer’s departure in 2008.