re: Going into the 1971 game the Alabama-Tennessee series was tied 23-23-7

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Nobody and I mean NOBODY uses arbitrary timelines like board dullard BHMKyle

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BDSMKyle is easily one of the weirdest power bottoms on this entire platform

I think "power bottom" is a very flattering spin at this point.

Lol you are so bad at boarding

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It's true, I rarely ever charge people to stay in my home and bang my wife.

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Interesting

First he says...

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That's a farce and cherry picked time period.

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Then he says:

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Tennessee was bad/average from 1974-1985 when they went 71-52-5 (.577).

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So a 22-year time period is "cherry picked" but a 12-year time period smack-dab in the middle of it tells the whole story... do I have that right?

Tennessee football started its decline in 1973... that is pretty obvious. Just look at the overall winning percentage and AP Poll Stats during each time period beginning with the year Neyland came to Tennessee:

1926-1972:
Winning Percentage: 75.6% (1st nationally)
AP Poll Standing*: 5th

1973-1994:
Winning Percentage: 65.5% (19th nationally)
AP Poll Standing: 21st

1995-2004:
Winning Percentage: 80.2% (2nd nationally)
AP Poll Standing: 3rd

2005-2017:
Winning Percentage: 52.8% (63rd nationally)
AP Poll Standing: 47th

If you can't tell from those numbers that the slide actually started in 1973, I can't help you. The truth is that for nearly half of a century, Tennessee was a Top 5 program in all of college football. Then this happened:

1973: 8-4
1974: 7-3-2
1975: 7-5
1976: 6-5
1977: 4-7
1978: 5-5-1
1979: 7-5

Does that not look like a decline to you?

I could keep going because there are more bad/mediocre years that followed well into the 1980s.

The truth is that from 1973-1994, Tennessee had exactly THREE Top 10 finishes in a period of 22 seasons. That'a a Top 10 finish in just 13.6% of those years. Compare that to UT football from 1936-1972 when it had 14 Top 10 finishes in 37 years (37.8%)

As I said, Payton Manning's decision to avoid Ole Miss and head to Knoxville instead gave Tennessee a decade of relief in which they were finally nationally relevant for the first time in decades. The decline of UT football began in '73. It's obvious to anyone know opens their eyes to facts.

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Payton Manning

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Lol look at this weirdo posting a wall of text no one cares to read and is too dumb to spell Peyton correctly

See what you did Auburn?

Smh

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Its not like any of you guys are kicking Alabama’s arse either.

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who said LSU is? You don't think its the least bit interesting that in the 47 games since 1971 Alabama leads the series 32-15 and the 1971 score was 32-15?

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well, in that 13 year time period, Tennessee won 5 SEC titles and a national title.

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And the vast majority of that success was during the Manning era and the wake that followed... which I noted was the band-aid that allowed Tennessee to be nationally relevant again from 1995-2004.

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I don't think you understand what the simple definition of "decline" is.

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I understand it just fine. And it is epitomized by Tennessee football 1973-present with the exception of the 10-year period from 1995-2004 which saw unsustainable success mainly due to having a once-in-a-generation QB sign and bring success that stayed for several years after he left.

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Tennessee was a very good football program from 1985-2004.

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You are trying to spread the success of the Manning era and the years that immediately followed back to 1985... but they aren't the same:

WINNING PERCENTAGE:
1985-1994: 74.0% (11th nationally)
1995-2004: 80.2% (2nd nationally)

% WEEKS RANKED IN AP TOP 10:
1985-1994: 33.3% (12th nationally)
1995-2004: 60.6% (4th nationally)

% WEEKS RANKED IN AP TOP 5:
1985-1994: 6.1% (19th nationally)
1995-2004: 30.4% (7th nationally)

That last stat is the most telling... revealing that Tennessee was rarely relevant, nationally speaking, from 1985 up until Peyton Manning came to school. There were 18 other programs that spent more time in the AP Top 5 than Tennessee.

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You said they have been declining since the 70s, but show a 10 year time period AFTER the 70s where they were second nationally in winning percentage

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Yes. Which was my entire point. The decline started in 1973 and had a brief 10-year respite of returned success due to Peyton Manning. I said that in my very first post on the subject and now you try to act like I never stated it.

Tennessee football began dying in 1973. Peyton Manning did his part to try to save it and he brought renewed hope and some tangible success which lasted a decade. But the hard truth is that UT football had already begun dying compared to the Glory Days of Neyland and the success the program enjoyed for 50 years or so up through 1972.