Team 121 unity mirrors unity following Manning's UT departure
When Peyton Manning played at Tennessee it was mostly all about him.
That’s not to be taken in a negative way, but he was the focal point for his Tennessee teams, especially from a media standpoint.
Phillip Fulmer was given quarterback Heath Shuler as a holdover from the end of the Johnny Majors’ era on Rocky Top. Shuler was Fulmer’s signal-caller in his first full season as head coach in 1993.
Then Shuler left for the NFL a year early, selected third overall by Washington in 1994.
Fulmer needed Manning to jump start his program, and that he did as a 3 1/2-year starter. After Manning took over at quarterback, the Vols won seven of eight games to close the 1994 season. Over the next three seasons, UT went 32-5, beating Alabama each year, and won the SEC championship in 1997 as Manning closed out his college career.
Again, without being negative, the attention was centered on Manning from a media standpoint and deflected away, for the most part, from the rest of the team.
So 1994-1997 was much like 2013-2016 for Tennessee football.
Butch Jones needed to build the program from the ground up following Lane Kiffin and Derek Dooley’s lack of leadership guiding the program in a four-year period.
Jones needed a core group of players to help bring attention back to the program.
Thus, the spotlight shone on Joshua Dobbs, Jalen Hurd, Derek Barnett, Alvin Kamara, Cam Sutton, Jalen Reeves-Maybin and Josh Malone. Their importance in building the program back up resulted in UT having permanent captains for the first time in five years.
Jones named Dobbs, Kamara, Sutton and Reeves-Maybin captains at halftime of the Orange and White spring game in 2016.
All seven players were great individuals on and off the field.
Now Team 121, on the field, will deal with life after the core seven, and it is already apparent that it is a closer-knit squad and not a star player-led team like Team 120.
Players such as Trey Smith and Quay Picou have been ring leaders from a vocal standpoint since this spring.
Jones has referenced Team 121 as “new energy,” and said there’s “a lot of excitement and fresh perspectives from the five new coaches.”
A lot of times watching Tennessee last year, players did not seem to be on the same page and appeared to have a disconnect from certain other players.
The disconnect was apparent from game one against Appalachian State, which took a Dobbs-to-Malone deep touchdown pass to keep the Vols alive and later a Hurd fumble recovery in the end zone to secure an overtime win.
The continuous downward spiral of what appeared to be a lack of unity and accountability carried over into another close-call victory over Ohio, and then bad starts against Virginia Tech, Florida, Georgia and Texas A&M.
Losses to Alabama and South Carolina were the tipping point to an unusual season that did not show signs of accountability for all players’ actions and even resulted in prized recruits Hurd and wide receiver Preston Williams leaving the team.
A lack of accountability in the strength program also showed as injuries mounted as the season went on. The lack of accountability resulted in a change to Rock Gullickson coming in from the NFL to oversee the strength program.
Jones is ready for a total team effort and accountability in 2017 following a season of dysfunction and all eyes on the core seven.
“We have challenged our players in three areas: details, accountability and toughness,” Jones said. “It is really about zeroing in on the details and turning it up a notch.
“Turning it up in terms of details with everything that we do from a fundamental standpoint, from a communication standpoint … accountability to each other, accountability in terms of the way we communicate … accountability off the field with going to class and accountability to what it means to play at The University of Tennessee. And overall toughness, not just from a physical standpoint, but from a mental standpoint, too.”
The unity of Team 121 can be a gateway to lead the program in taking the next step in winning the SEC East, much like unity helped the 1998 Volunteers win the national championship following Manning’s departure.
Champions of lifeBrick by Brick,Team number whatever….It has to be brutal for this guy to be your Coach….
Brutal is repeatedly believing during the game there is no way Tennessee will beat you.
Embarrassing is attempting to troll a team whose coach is undefeated against you.
not really…how has USC done with UGA in that time frame? You gotta give it to Butch at least he hasnt quit on his team midstream.
@Curtis Lowe i get it I guess Smart and Jones are alike, Vanderbilt, lol.
I would take Butch over Muschamp any day of the week. Muschamp seems to have the IQ of a bag of rocks. Tennessee by at least 2 touchdowns this year. We let USCe have their one win every 5-6 years. It took freakin Steve Spurrier to somewhat (not really though) reverse that trend.
@Volmaster, you really want to compare intelligence between the coaches. What happened to Mr. 5 Star Heart and his Champions of life and their East title last year? You say TN will win by 14 points this year why not wager on it, TN fails to win by 14 you leave like keno98 last year, TN wins by 14 then I will gladly leave the site.
Ah. You must be the USCe equivalent of SevenT. I guess every team needs there supreme troll. As much as I’m sure everyone would love to see you leave the site, I would rather spend my time here commenting on articles instead of wagering meaningless and pointless bets against internet tough guys. Good to see actual USCe fans though. Didn’t think there were any until Spurrier got there.
Lol internet tough guy, you are the one talking sh*t you can’t back up, classic troll. Good to see actual Vol fans, you guys start dropping off after the season starts, offseason hype champs.
Thanks for proving my point. And SevenT showed up to further cement yalls supreme troll status. The fact that SevenT is so cordial when conversing with you, also shows the extent of the Troll collusion. Never thought I would see the day when people talk trash on behalf on USCe or UK football. And nice post. Next time why don’t just copy and paste my exact text and save yourself some time.
@volmaster you made an outlandish statement, and failed to back it up, you are the epitome of an internet troll. Your comments have no truth or substance, yet you call others a troll. Pot meet kettle, because if that double wide you inherited has a mirror in it, please take a look and a troll you will see.
Lets see. I’m on the Tennessee page making a prediction about the UT game. You are on a Tennessee article throwing insults and trying to make meaningless internet wagers, while trying to flash some sort of ill-conceived internet bravado. Looking back at your history I can see you have been bothering people for a long time, and then validating it by calling them a troll and insulting them. I feel stupid for even responding to the likes of you. I will leave you and your sad little life alone.
@Volmaster, I am on the TN page calling out a troll by the name Esec with facts, then you decided to run your c*ckholster and was too chicken sh*t to back it up. You just like your Vols are all hype. Now run along and quit while you are behind kid.
@Vol
I showed up because you called me out by name
That is what pathetic trolls like you do
Now go take a shower and toss off to your Peyton Manning poster you still have hanging up in your mothers basement
Your first sentence is an indictment of what you really are. No body said anything to you, but you took it upon yourself to comment on another teams page and then start trying to bother people. Which is the literal definition of an internet troll. Between posters like you and the articles on freakin drink cocktails its getting pretty much impossible to take this site seriously.
@volmaster again you should’ve minded your own business, the fact that you call me a troll shows your ignorance in the matter. You decided to look back on my comments but you failed to mention Esecs history, I replied to him because he is the epitome of a troll. He is a vol fan who is constantly on sc sites posing as an sc fan. Then you chime in with an outlandish stantement and I called your bluff. I apologize if your fragile feelings got hurt because of my factual statement. I’m sorry your attempt to troll failed, perhaps in the future try sticking to facts instead of bold predictions that you know aren’t true.
And yet here you are on another team’s page bothering people, but I’m the troll. Ok.
Yes you are a troll and a terrible one at that. I came in here to educate a troll (Esec) with truth, then you made an outlandish statement that you know is untrue and I called you out on it and now you have nothing, you are just too slow to realize it.
Bill
You will need to excuse VolMaster…….VM is stuck in the 1990s when Tennessee was good.
Well you are stuck in Never Never Land where UK is actually good at football.
CBJ has made his fair share of mistakes, no question. But as in all things, there is a learning curve. If CBJ can just thicken his skin a little and engage the clutch on his mouth, all will be well. Has he peaked as a coach? I hope not, we don’t need another change. I am cautiously optimistic for this season. Yes, we lost a lot, but whatever else you can say about CBJ, poor recruiting is not one of them. A lot of subs/last year – starters this year got a fair amount of experience with all the injuries. I am SO ready for football to start.
It has been painful since the start of last season. I think this article nails it pretty good. Lack of control and discipline. How in the world a power 5 team like UT uses no real strength coach is beyond me. But beyond that coaching in general seemed to produce little visible improvement in the youth of the team. Dobbs was good but was he improved from the previous year?
Never a jones fan but always a TN fan. I want to see some coaching improvement or move on, personally. We have talent but they must be coached up.
IMO, this off-season and last, Jones did the most encouraging thing he has done since becoming UT’s head coach. He let some of his buddies walk and hired big name coaches to come in and take more control away from him. It will still be Butch’s offense and that is ok considering he has one of the top offenses in the conference every year, but he has added big/up-and-coming names such as Hoke, Shoop, and Warren to come and lead the large amount of talent he has accumulated.
And I don’t know what you are talking about as far as Tennessee not having a designated Strength and Conditioning Coach. Dave Lawson came with Butch from Cincinnati, and is another one of his buddies he has let go in the last two years to hire a more qualified coach. He promoted Michael Szerszen to S&C coach last year and let him go after one of the most injury plagued season’s I have seen from a Tennessee team. Butch has now upgraded in that department too, by hiring Gullickson, who has over a decade and a half of experience coaching S&C in the NFL.
Volmaster u made my point szerszen was not a S&C coach. He was a promoted nobody. What was his resume? When he left Vinci to cone to the sec he should have changed several coaches right then and there. He held on too long. Now he has one season to get it right or else. Also if u think joke is sticking around as a position coach I’ve mistaken. If the live plays much improved he will be a D.C. Or HC somewhere else. Quit drinking the jones kool-aid. He hasn’t proven much of anything yet and in fact blew his first opportunity in a big way last season. Defend last season, please, I can’t wait to hear.
I’m not excusing losing to USCe or Vandy, because that shouldn’t happen. Butch absolutely has to prove a lot of things this season. But he also has many qualities that are required to be a really good head coach. Every coach that comes to the SEC faces a learning curve and what was tough for Butch to change was hiring a quality staff to replace his buddy system. He has done that. The talent has always been there because of his recruiting ability so lets see if this new staff combines with a hopefully healthy and definitely talented roster to get some surprisingly good results.
Bet they get 10wins and the East. This team just has a feel to it. Sleeper.
Geeze I’m annoyed everytime a Vol homer posts an “article” here on SDS. Could you guys at least make some pretense of trying to look like you aren’t a homer? The Team (enter number here) is a dead give away.
I would agree and say it is brutal at times. But judging by the big “G” on your logo a have to say it also must be brutal for the coach making those comments to beat your team two years straight while making those comments.
LOL good point
Correct you are.That last one stung a great deal.I actually had you guys picked to win the East last year and make the Title game interesting (considering it hasnt been since the last time Georgia was in it) Looking forward to being in Knoxville this fall,and seeing if we can stop the streak at two,and beat the Wordsmith…..
Real question… why do the Tennessee faithful reference teams by their year, i.e. Team 121?
It’s part of Butch Jones mantra that each new year is a new team. That each new year represents another opportunity to be great. I can’t speak to how helpful it really is, but that’s CBJ’s mantra.
It’s not the vol faithful reference. It is jones. He brought it with him from cincinatt. Guess that where all those other inspirational sayings came from.
Vol
I have some advice…
Lay off the Meth
Get your GED