There’s one big drawback to competing for championships. Losing.
Unlike the reports of Alabama fans shooting a family member, no one has ever committed a felony over a Vanderbilt loss. That’s because no one cares.
People care much more when there’s much more at stake. That’s what makes Tennessee’s loss to Notre Dame in baseball so hard to accept.
The Vols were supposed to be packing for the College World Series that begins on Thursday. Instead, Tennessee’s players are packing up to train for the MLB Draft, vacation or be anywhere but Omaha. For a team that drove excitement sky high, the Vols plummeted back to earth like a big orange meteor.
This isn’t the first time that Tennessee has had its heart ripped out as it vied for a championship. It’s a compliment to say that the Vols have been in enough championship situations that they can have lost some big ones. After all, a team can’t win a championship if it isn’t in contention.
It’s hard to find a loss this deflating since the Vols lost to Florida in football in 1997. The game was in Gainesville, but Peyton Manning was the quarterback. The Vols were one of the most talented team in the nation. Surefire win, right? Nope, the Vols lost 33-20.
There were some coincidences between the two teams. Both were incredibly hyped. Tennessee was pushing for as much publicity as possible for Manning to win The Heisman Trophy, which shamefully didn’t happen. The 2022 baseball Vols made the postseason as hyped as any team in recent memory thanks to their play and their antics during games. Tennessee’s run was cut short prematurely on Sunday just like the 1997 football team. The two sports just have different ways of weeding out contenders.
The 1997 Tennessee football team lost in September and were unlikely to climb up the polls high enough to compete for a national championship. The 2022 baseball team got knocked out of contention before they were even invited to Omaha.
There’s another moment in football that has to be mentioned when addressing tough losses. Tennessee lost the SEC Championship Game in 2001 in woeful fashion. The Vols were coming off of a huge upset win against Florida in Gainesville and were expected to handle LSU easily, especially after LSU lost quarterback Rohan Davey and running back LaBrandon Toefield to injury before halftime.
Someone must have told the Vols they had already won when it was announced that Davey and Toefield wouldn’t return at halftime. Tennessee couldn’t stop a draw play that LSU painstakingly repeated, turned the ball over too many times and couldn’t stop Davey’s replacement, Matt Mauck from leading the Tigers to a victory after being down by 13 points. That one stung.
The loss to LSU in 2001 was one of the most costly defeats in Tennessee history. Had the Vols won, they would have played Miami for a national championship in the Rose Bowl. Tennessee would have been an underdog against that stacked Hurricane team, but they would have had a shot and it would have been the second national championship berth for the Vols in four years. Former Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer would have further cemented his program’s foundation and things may have been different for him and the Vols later in the decade.
Sticking to the most prominent sports – football, mens’ basketball, Lady Vols’ basketball and baseball – there are a couple of others that stand out.
Let’s go back and talk some hoops. Tennessee has had some very talented basketball teams. Jerry Green had a few of those. However, his teams always seemed to lack discipline and didn’t seem like a true threat to win a championship. However, things were much different afterwards.
In 2010, coach Bruce Pearl led the Vols all the way to the Elite Eight. Things looked good early as the Vols surged ahead. However, Michigan State hung around and ended up winning the game and preventing Tennessee from making it to the Final Four for the first time in school history.
The most brutal loss among the most prominent sports may have been way back in 1990 when the Lady Vols lost in overtime to Virginia who was led by star forward Dawn Staley. The Final Four was set to be held in Knoxville and, of course, the Lady Vols were supposed to be there. That didn’t happen.
After the Lady Vols lost, coach Pat Summitt had an unusual response. She made her players act as locker room hostesses to the teams who advanced to the Final Four in Thompson-Boling Arena and watch the entire ending of the tournament.
That was brutal.
It worked. The Lady Vols won the national championship the following season.
Tennessee baseball team had a fantastic season that ended prematurely. At least they don’t have to go to Omaha and mind the dugout.
