re: Is Tennessee football still a blue blood?

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Michigan

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Michigan has 1 NC in 70 years and 2 conference titles
in the last 20. Not the most impressive resume going by recent history

We haven’t won anything in 20 years and we just hired a Saban assistant. Keep in mind we have to play Saban every year and Saban does not lose to his assistants.

No is the answer to OP question. Bluebloods can have some bad years but they rebound after a few years. Tennessee been bad for the entire milinium and they not getting any better. I am telling you that we are gonna be seeing a 30+ string of Bama arse whipings of Tennessee like Florida over Kentucky. Only difference will be that when it gets to 30 there will still not be no hope in sight for them.

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Bluebloods can have some bad years but they rebound after a few years

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Nebraska has been alright to awful since 2001 as well

What is all this UT is clearly still 2nd all time in the SEC bullshite?

UGA just tied UT for 2nd all time in SEC Championships.

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hat is all this UT is clearly still 2nd all time in the SEC bullshite?

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Win pct .677 > .651
National Championships 4 > 2
Wins 833 > 808
All Americans 39 > 31
Draft Picks 343 > 317
First Rounders 46 > 32
Weeks in AP poll 582 > 563

You could make a good argument they were for a very long time but I wouldn't say they are now. Army used to be a blue blood. Arkansas was for a couple of decades before Broyles ran Hatfield off and derailed us.

Miami used to be a super elite program, now they are an above average ACC team.

You can absolutely lose elite status. Nebraska is doing so as we speak.

The Vols can get back to elite status with the right coach and the right recruits. Whether they will manage to pull that off... who knows right now?

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Football is a dying sport due to all the safety concerns. My guess is we will finish up around 15-20th all time by the time they close up shop on the sport in a decade or so.

Pretty amazing we are still considered #2 in the SEC when we haven’t accomplished anything in 20 years and likely never will again.

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Interesting post, and I have a couple thoughts on this.

Tennessee has been a storied program, everyone knows that. But they've done it a couple different ways over the years.

A long time ago, Tennessee was one of the "whitest" states in the Southeast. Before integration I'd wager their pop base produced very good athletes to compete with the other SEC schools who were constrained to white players only. Integration changed this.

Then they had a formula where they recruited nationally, but in particular signed big time athletes from neighboring states, particularly Georgia. I might add there was a time when Tennessee sure seemed like they could sign any kid they wanted from North and South Carolina. Stanley Morgan, Heath Shuler, a lot more.

I think Richt actually did more to end this than anyone else. You can't sign every great kid in Georgia to UGA, but at one point Tennessee seemed to get any kid they wanted from Atlanta like Jamal Lewis.

Then the SEC started to see a trend where recruiting machines started to be hired all over the place, like Saban at LSU, and later a minor school, and even guys like Croom at Missippi State (we played them regularly, and he did have some excellent players he brought in). Anyway that Majors->Fulmer system got to be harder to pull off.

Now, for whatever reason, Middle Tennessee is putting out a load of talent. And the Vols will be the team to beat here, just like UGA in Atlanta. I don't think it ever gets to Georgia levels, but easily matching what Alabama or say South Carolina puts out in a given year. If it isn't equal to Alabama already, or past South Carolina.

So from that standpoint I think the Vol future is potentially bright. Not sure they will ever get back to casually poaching qb's from California like they did at one time (lot more schools recruiting nationally and recruiting maniacs everywhere), but they do recruit nationally better than all but a handful of schools.

But your other point isn't going to go away. Lot of people on this site don't seem to be able to say we have fact A + fact B -> conclusion C.

Wouldn't surprise me at all for college football to eventuallly vanish, or see a bunch of smsller/perennial also-ran schools drop it in a hurry in the not so distant futue.

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Is Tennessee football still a blue blood?

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Tennessee was considered a blue blood? They barely are in the big 6 of the SEC, not sure how they could be a blue blood of CFB

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Football is a dying sport due to all the safety concerns

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I disagree. There have always been safety concerns (people actually died in the old days) and it did not derail the sport. The players will be taught how to tackle, and the equipment will be made safer. Yes, some young men will opt out of the sport that might have played, but that will just make room for more to join(and you only have a limited number of players on each team)