The 1998 National Championship

Team of destiny? Lucky? Call them what you will. The 1998 Tennessee Volunteers did what elite programs do — find ways to win games. And they managed to find a way to win every single week. Because of that, for one cool night in the Arizona desert, the color orange shone the brightest, and any hater or doubter of the program could say nothing.

"The Doubters are silenced, finally," wrote Mike Strange of the Knoxville News Sentinel. "Tennessee came to the desert ... certain there would be a national championship for the taking ... They were right. It was no mirage. ... A few minutes after midnight back in Knoxville, four months to the day after they began their unlikely quest with an unlikely win at Syracuse — the No. 1 ranked Vols completed their perfect season of destiny."

Sometimes great things spring up from unexpected places. After all, stars Peyton Manning, Marcus Nash, and Leonard Little were gone from a team that had been manhandled months earlier by Nebraska 42–17 in the Orange Bowl. The Vols were predicted by the SEC media to finish second behind the Gators in the SEC East. Oh, and the Vols would be breaking in a new quarterback, always a concern for a team looking to make national waves.

But destiny was a hard word to escape for this football team, even from the start of the season. Against 17th-ranked Syracuse, the No. 10 Vols drove 72 yards and capitalized on a questionable fourth-down pass-interference penalty on Syracuse, with Jeff Hall booting through a 27-yard field goal as time expired for a 34–33 thriller in the Carrier Dome.

Two weeks later, the Vols hosted the Florida Gators in a Neyland Stadium night game, looking to snap a five-game losing streak to Steve Spurrier. Behind a swarming and opportunistic defense that forced five turnovers and an offense that garnered just enough production, Coach Fulmer shed the Florida monkey off his back in a 20–17 overtime victory, the first overtime game in UT history. A key goal-line stand and victory at Auburn masked the season-ending injury of star tailback Jamal Lewis. But the Vols rode the legs of Travis Henry and Travis Stephens to blowout wins against Georgia and Alabama.

When their times were called in Lewis' absence, Stephens and Henry rose to the challenge. Henry carried the Vols to victory in the waning moments against Arkansas after a fumble recovery. With formerly undefeated UCLA and Kansas State having lost in the season's final week, and the Vols against the ropes in the second half against Mississippi State, quarterback Tee Martin came to life in the fourth quarter, finding both Peerless Price and Cedrick Wilson for touchdowns within minutes to clinch a trip to Tempe and the Fiesta Bowl.

It had been a season of making plays: Billy Ratliff's fumble recovery against Arkansas, Deon Grant's leaping interception late versus Florida, and Shaun Ellis' rumbling interception for a touchdown against Auburn. The Lewis run that set up Hall's winning kick at Syracuse. Price's kickoff return for a touchdown to put away the Tide. Key contributions and impact plays came from everywhere.

"This team has consistently found ways to win," Coach Fulmer said. "It's not one or two guys. It's a whole football team believing they can get it done and working hard to get it done."

And in the Fiesta Bowl vs. Florida State, it was no different. After Shawn Bryson's catch in the corner of the end zone to open the scoring, Dwayne Goodrich picked off a Marcus Outzen pass and raced 54 yards for a 14–0 lead. The Noles fought back and drew within five, at 14–9. The Vols held Peter Warrick to one catch for seven yards, but his long punt return set up a Sebastian Janikowski field goal before the half. After an idling third quarter, the final paint stroke on the Big Orange masterpiece came from Price. He hauled in a 79-yard TD pass, a Fiesta Bowl record, for a 20–9 lead with just more than nine minutes remaining. A late desperation pass from Outzen was intercepted, and the Big Orange ran out the last 76 seconds on the clock for a historic 23–16 victory.

The stadium was mainly hued orange-and-white, and for those who attended, they got to see Tennessee history 47 years in the making.

"I want to say an unbelievable thank-you to the crowd of loyal Tennessee Volunteers," said Coach Fulmer, clutching the national championship trophy.

"It's been 47 years since Tennessee football has brought one of these home. We've got a special place for it."

General Robert R. Neyland

General Robert R. Neyland is the first name in coaching at the University of Tennessee and, with all due respect to the other coaches of his generation, one of the most influential and imitated coaches of his time. Behind Neyland's single-wing offenses, consistent and disciplined blocking schemes, fierce defenses, and efficient special teams, Coach Neyland was consistently on the winning side of the ledger, even in his early coaching years.

Neyland arrived in Knoxville in 1925 as an assistant defensive coach. He made his presence felt that first season when he filled in one game for head coach M.B. Banks, who was sick. Neyland led the Vols to a 12–7 home win over Georgia. Newspapers proclaimed it the biggest upset of the year in the South. Banks left that December for the head coaching job at Knoxville Central High School, and Neyland was promoted as his successor. In his first seven seasons, his teams lost only twice in 68 games. For his career, he only lost 31 times in 216 games.

One of his biggest accomplishments was emerging victorious against the University of Alabama, perhaps most notably in 1928. The Tide had not regularly been on the Vols' schedule (they hadn't played in 14 years), and Alabama coach Wallace Wade was willing to take on Neyland's boys. He most likely wished he hadn't that day. Gene McEver stunned the Tide with a 98-yard opening kickoff return for a score, and the Vols won 15–13 in Tuscaloosa. McEver later said, "Not that that was the greatest game, but that's the game that put Tennessee on the map."

Neyland quickly earned the respect of Wade that day. "First, [Neyland]'s a very brilliant man, and had a lot of character, and could influence young people," Wade said. "Inspire them. His teams were always well trained, well-conditioned, and played with spirit."

Wade continued, "One of the things I used to misjudge: I used to think he was lucky. I began to realize after time that luck turns sometimes, but it never did with him, because he trained his players to take advantage of opportunities."

In whatever endeavors Neyland took on, he seemed to find success. In 1912 Neyland attended the United States Military Academy, where he was a successful student and became the heavyweight boxing champion at the academy. After college, he was offered a baseball contract by the New York Giants, which he turned down to join World War I.

Neyland went on to a lengthy and decorated military career. He took his first military leave from coaching to serve a year in Panama in 1935. In 1941 Major Neyland returned to active duty as a soldier in the army, in the midst of World War II. In 1944 Neyland was promoted to brigadier general and sent to the Far East. He was then sent to Calcutta, India, where he helped to move supplies and war materials to British, American, and Chinese forces.

He returned to Knoxville in 1946 and immediately picked up where he left off. His team went 9–2, tied for first place in the SEC, and earned a trip to the Orange Bowl. However, the 1947 and 1948 seasons were a bit more troubling, and saw Tennessee go .500 in each. The temporary letdowns were enough to turn some of the fan base against the much-loved and revered Neyland.

Said former tackle Denver Crawford, "When [he wasn't] winning them all or going to a bowl game, then, they were saying, 'Get rid of General Neyland. He's too old, using the single-wing, outmoded, outdated.'"

But the offense, defense, and special teams employed by Neyland hadn't been passed by. In 1950 his team went 10–1 and beat the No. 5 Texas Longhorns 20–14 in the Cotton Bowl on a late touchdown that paved the way for a magical 1951 national championship season.

Neyland's coaching style was simple but effective: interior containment on defense, fundamental blocking on offense, and winning the net punting battle in the special teams game.

"The punting game was so vital," said former tailback Hank Lauricella. "He would add up the yardage in exchange of punts. To him, if you could gain 50 yards in a game in exchanging punts, it was as good as a guy breaking loose for 50 yards because that was net yardage."

Ben Jones, formerly of the Knoxville Journal, said about Neyland, "He said, 'The only reason I went to the single-wing with a balanced line is that it gave me a little quicker power between tackle and end,' which he felt was the most vulnerable place on a defensive football team." Jones added, "He said, 'I never worried about offense at all.' He said, 'I would have gone to the T if it had offered me anything that I didn't already have.' But he said defense was football as far as he was concerned, defense and the kicking game."

"Neyland always felt that no one was going to beat him at the end," said Tom Siler, formerly of the Knoxville News Sentinel. "You were not going to beat Tennessee running wide. And they didn't. Of course, that sounds so simple. Certainly, if you turn the plays in, a lot of people are going to get a shot at the runner. If he gets outside, and he's fast, then nobody may touch him."

General Neyland retired from coaching in 1952 after 21 seasons of coaching the Vols. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1956. His 1939 team was the last team in college football history to be unscored-upon in the regular season.

But all of Neyland's accomplishments did not come on the field. Among other highly notable contributions Neyland made to the University are the architectural plan for Neyland Stadium and the creation of the Vol Network.

How he came to be able to draw up building plans is an interesting story. By the age of 27 Neyland was one of the youngest regimental commanders in the US Army. But when the New York Times reported that fact, Neyland almost immediately was demoted to captain. Brigadier General Douglas MacArthur faced a similar situation but accepted the superintendency at West Point to avoid being demoted to major. When Neyland protested his demotion, his successor rewarded him with a below-satisfactory rating and had him shipped off to MIT for one year of postgraduate studies in civil engineering.

This led to the future of Neyland Stadium and its design. Neyland arrived in Knoxville when the UT football site, Shields-Watkins Field, seated only 3,200. By the time of his death in 1962, the stadium seated more than 52,000 and Neyland had developed architectural plans for its eventual growth to more than 100,000. Those dreams became reality in 1996, when the upper bowl was completed.

Neyland also was credited by Hall of Fame broadcaster Lindsey Nelson with the creation of UT's first radio network. Nelson thought it should be called the Volunteer Network and approached Neyland with his idea. Neyland had the ultimate veto power and said, "Let's call it the Vol Network." Nelson immediately replied, "Yes, sir. Let's call it the Vol Network."

Perhaps the greatest mark of the respect that Neyland had carved out among the college football coaching elite came from Bear Bryant. The College Football Hall of Famer never defeated a Neyland-coached team, and was said to have muttered at Neyland's retirement banquet, "Thank God the old guy finally quit."

The General's Seven Maxims of Football

Over the course of his splendid coaching career, General Neyland developed a set of principles for playing the game of football at the highest level. Neyland actually came up with 38 maxims, but he repeated his seven favorites to his team on each game day. To this day, before the team takes the field on game day, players read these seven maxims proffered by Neyland together in the locker room. And for the average fan slipping some Jack Daniel's into his plastic cup of Coke in Neyland Stadium, waiting for the kickoff after hours of tailgating, these maxims might not mean that much. But try saying them out loud minutes before the Vols take the field. Think about their importance, and imagine Neyland, Johnny Majors, Phil Fulmer, and now Butch Jones saying them with each of their teams before bolting from the locker room to do battle in South Bend against Notre Dame, at Legion Field against the Tide, or at home against Florida.

These football maxims have been handed down for decades, and have become words for Tennessee players, past and present, to live by and play by:

1. The team that makes the fewest mistakes will win.

2. Play for and make the breaks, and when one comes your way — SCORE.

3. If at first the game — or the breaks — go against you, don't let up.... put on more steam.

4. Protect our kickers, our QB, our lead, and our ballgame.

5. Ball, oskie, cover, block, cut and slice, pursue and gang tackle ... for this is the winning edge.

6. Press the kicking game. Here is where the breaks are made.

7. Carry the fight to our opponent, and keep it there for 60 minutes.

In looking at Neyland's career record over 21 seasons — 173 wins, 31 losses, and 12 ties — it's not hard to see that he believed in these values, and that his players bought in as well. Of his 173 wins, 106 were shutouts. From the opening kickoff to the final gun, Neyland's players fought for 60 minutes, whether the score was tight or the game was in hand. The 1951 come-from-behind 20–14 victory in the Cotton Bowl, which merits its own chapter in this book, is proof of the value of these maxims. The 1947 12–7 comeback victory against Vanderbilt behind the legendary three-man block by tackle Denver Crawford, which Neyland called the best he'd ever seen, is further evidence of his staunch belief in and reliance on blocking and fundamentals.

And these virtues, especially the will to keep the fight for 60 minutes and "put on more steam" when facing adversity, were evident in later Vols teams. They were evident both in victory — such as when the team came back from a 31–7 deficit in 1991's Miracle in South Bend, or the furious rally in 2006 in Athens to win going away — and in defeat, for example when a furious rally against Florida in 1996 came up short.

Next time you watch the Vols kick off, recite Neyland's seven maxims, and see if the boys in the orange-and-white carry the fight for 60 minutes like Neyland would want.

Neyland Stadium

Nestled along the Tennessee River separating UT's campus from the edge of downtown Knoxville, Neyland Stadium stands as one of the largest, loudest, and most scenic college football venues in the country. The school currently states maximum seating capacity at 102,455, making it the largest venue in the Southeastern Conference and the third-largest venue in the entire country. On game days, a filled Neyland Stadium equates size-wise to the fifth-largest city in the state of Tennessee.

The facility has seen its share of impressive streaks and successes. From 1928 until 1933, UT won 30 consecutive games at home. They also managed a 55-game unbeaten streak from 1925 to 1933. Both streaks ended with a 12–6 loss to Alabama. During UT's championship runs in the late 1990s, the Vols won 23 straight home games from 1996 until 2000, ended by a 27–23 loss to Florida on September 16.

Rome wasn't built in a day, and certainly neither was Neyland Stadium. Including the original construction of the field, the facility has undergone 18 renovations, growing from a capacity of 3,200 fans in the West Stands in 1921 to as high as 104,079 in 2000 after completion of the East Executive Suites opposite the main press box and West Suites. The total number dropped to 102,037 when some seats were taken out to put in a Club Level Section, then jumped to its current total with the addition of the Tennessee Terrace.