Tennessee football found path to greatness 30 years ago; can it again?

Another Tennessee spring football practice has concluded with the usual twin takeaways: optimism and inconclusiveness.

Fans want so badly to see signs of promise. Yet they wonder how the small sample they witness for a couple of hours on an April evening can possibly translate to October when a hostile opponent won’t be second-stringers and walk-ons.

Spring practice usually no harbinger    

I subscribe to the theory that not too much should be drawn from spring practice. At least not by us mortals who don’t attend every practice, staff meeting and video session. I’m sure Jeremy Pruitt has a better idea about the Vols’ prospects for 2019, but I don’t.

A decade ago, Lane Kiffin was finishing his only spring at Tennessee. The hope was that 2008’s failure would be corrected and the Vols would again compete for championships. It hasn’t turned out that way.

But let’s go back three decades to a spring practice that did prove to be a turning point.

By spring 1989, Vol football was on a roller coaster. A sublime 1985 season was followed by retreat in 1986. The ’87 Vols rebounded to 9-2-1 only to fall off a cliff and open 1988 with an 0-6 start.

Coach Johnny Majors stopped the carnage midseason, finished with five wins to take a 5-6 record into spring practice.

Oh, my, there was work to do.

Quarterback Jeff Francis, a three-year starter, was gone. So were three starters on the offensive line, albeit a line that had struggled.

Offensive coordinator Walt Harris got a head coaching job. Majors promoted offensive line coach Phillip Fulmer to replace Harris.

The defense, a sieve the first half of 1988, was more problematic. All-America linebacker Keith DeLong departed. Doug Mathews, the erstwhile running backs coach who took charge of the defense midway in ’88, was starting his first full season as coordinator.

The real-time reviews of that 1989 spring have faded from memory. Surely Francis’ successor was a hot topic. (Sterling Henton, then Andy Kelly, it turned out). And projections were no doubt made about two touted redshirt freshmen, Chuck Webb and Carl Pickens.

What a year ... and what a decade ahead for Tennessee football    

But an exit poll at the 1989 Orange and White Game – even allowing for typical spring optimism – could not have predicted the heights the program was about to hit and sustain.

The 1989 Vols went 11-1, losing only to Alabama, shared an SEC title, won the Cotton Bowl and finished tied for fifth in the final Associated Press poll.

More important, the good times stayed good. No more roller coaster.

Over the 13-year span from 1989 to 2001, the Vols:

Went 128-29-3 (82 percent) in all games and 81-21-2 (78 percent) in SEC play (counting championship games).

Won SEC titles in ’89, ’90, ’97 and ’98, with a national title 13-0 season in ’98.

Finished in the AP top five four times, the top 10 eight times and top 15 11 times. All 13 seasons finished in the top 25.

Produced a pair of Heisman runner-ups, Heath Shuler and Peyton Manning.

Produced 15 first-team All Americans and 17 first-round NFL draft picks (plus 16 second-rounders).

I arbitrarily ended this run in 2002, when an 8-5 season left the Vols unranked, even though a couple more 10-win seasons came before the bottom fell out.

This 13-year run is the standard to which Tennessee fans still aspire, realistic or not.

I’m not predicting 2019 is the year the Vols rocket back to the top and begin a new era of national prominence. It’s just that now, as was the case 30 years ago, coming out of spring practice you never know what’s about to go down when fall rolls around.

Mike Strange is a former writer for the News Sentinel. He currently write a weekly sports column for Shopper News.