(Photo by Joe Murphy/Getty Images)
After this weekend’s 23-13 loss to the Florida Gators, the Blazer Chronicles is set to let everyone know just where Tennessee football is at: Tennessee football is back.
It’s not often that a team can lose by double digits on the road to its rival and proclaim to be “back”, but the Tennessee Volunteers are set to do just that.
To better understand just how this proclamation can be made, one must first understand where the Vols football program was at, when it got there, and what moment in Saturdays loss to Tim Tebow and Urban Meyer’s Florida Gators that the program took that first step back.
This article is here to give you that story.
Our story begins on November 6, 2004 inside Neyland Stadium. Tennessee was playing the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. The Vols led 10-7 just before the half. They were 7-1 and ranked ninth in the country. Tennessee had the ball, and freshman quarterback Erik Ainge was at the helm of the offense.
It was just before halftime and offensive coordinator Randy Sanders made the call to attempt to move the Vols into field goal range instead of taking the lead to the locker room. Ainge took the snap, which was loose on the ground, tried to make a play and was tackled by the Irish’s Brandon Hoyte. What initially resulted was a separated shoulder for the freshman phenom.
What happened long term was much worse for the Volunteer football program.
Brandon Hoyte would say after the game; “You don’t just hit people to tackle them. You tackle them so they won’t get back up. I say that respectfully.”
Erik Ainge didn’t get back up in 2004 and respectfully speaking, Phil Fulmer never got back up. Sure, the Vols went to the SEC Championship that season, and again in 2007, but both were losses.
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