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Mirror Images: Tennessee and Michigan

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BUCKEYE3M's picture
September 2, 2016 at 11:25am
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Last night, on what was the 9th anniversary of their historic upset of Michigan, Appalachian State almost did it again.  The first time, they went into the largest stadium in America, by capacity, and sent over 107,000 blubbering fans home, defeating the #5 ranked Wolverines on their home turf – and they were still a Division 1-AA Football Championship Subdivision team. 

Last night, they went into the fifth largest stadium in America, again facing a Top 10 team, but this time a member of the Sunbelt Conference, and played toe-to-toe with a team that many picked as a dark horse to win the vaunted SEC and make the College Football Playoff.   Only this time, the Mountaineers came up short, dropping the contest in overtime, but exposing Tennessee for what they are – the Michigan of the SEC.

The two programs are steeped in college football tradition, with the famed winged helmets, checker box end zones, iconic fight songs, and two of the largest stadiums in America.  Yet, they’ve each been about as relevant to the college football landscape as BYU, Washington, Colorado, and Pittsburgh in the color television era. 

Sure, they’re always ranked.  Sure, they’re always in the discussion.  Sure, they are always on television.  But, don’t let the hype fool you, they are two of the most over-hyped programs of the last half century.  Fortunately for us, they did us the honor of winning national championships in back-to-back seasons, respectively, so we can start there.

The 1997 Michigan Wolverines won the AP National Championship with a record of 12-0, giving the Wolverines their 11th Natty, and first since 1948.

Conversely, the 1998 Tennessee won the inaugural BCS National Championship Game with a record of 13-0, giving the Volunteers their 5th Natty, and first since 1967.

Head Coaches Phillip Fulmer and Lloyd Carr would each survive exactly 10 more seasons of ultimately declining on-field production, before being shown the door.  And, since each man was given the heave ho, neither program has returned to glory, whatever that means.

Each team is on their third head coach since Carr & Fulmer (excluding a one game interim HC at UT), and each is praying the third time is a charm. In the 18 seasons since, Michigan is 149-77 (average record of 8-4), while Tennessee is 129-85 (8-5) over the 17 seasons since their last championship.  Michigan does hold an edge in bowl games going 7-8 to Tennessee’s 5-7 over their respective spans.

So, why is it that it seems like year in and year out, we have to hear about how Michigan and Tennessee are going to win?  What makes them so sexy to the prognosticators?  I seriously can’t figure out why people were so high on Tennessee, or Michigan for that matter.

Sure, they each laid waste to inferior, over-rated opponents in their bowl games last year, but what is it in their history on the field that says they’re about to turn a corner?  I even tried to Google it, but the best I could find was an article saying that one of the biggest mistakes in the preseason coaches poll was underrating Tennessee.  Seriously, someone who gets paid to write about college football thought so highly of Tennessee that he said they weren’t ranked high enough. Am I the only one who saw what ASU did to their offensive line with a defensive front that gave up 50 pounds per player on average?

It looks like Indiana is still the team to beat in the SEC East.

TL/DR:  When Michigan looks in the mirror, Tennessee is staring back at them.

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