University of Tennessee Athletics
UNDERDOG VOLS FIND MOTIVATION AGAINST FALCONS IN 1971 SUGAR BOWL
September 08, 2006 | Football
Sept. 8, 2006
By Austin Ward, UT Sports Information
It's buried in a storied bowl history.
It might be listed first alphabetically, but the pairing is barely a blip on the series history radar at Tennessee.
They're lost in the shuffle of one-time opponents - along with the Asheville Athletes, the UC-Santa Barbaras and Indianas of the UT annals - at least until the second Saturday of this season, anyway.
Air Force has hooked up with the Vols just once upon a time, a contest that was largely fairytale for UT and much more nightmare for the Falcons.
Both teams have filled plenty of pages since the Sugar Bowl brought them together for the first time in 1971, and much has changed since that afternoon in New Orleans.
And while a second chapter will offer some company for the first meeting in the record book - dropping it from the ranks of the most casual of acquaintances - it will do little to dim the importance of the original marquee match-up.
Things change.
All the attention, all the swagger and attitude came from the Falcons in the build up to New Year's Day in New Orleans.
It was fuel for the fire for a Vols' team desperate to end a three-game bowl losing streak and ready to step back onto college football's center stage.
"In the lead-up to the ballgame when we came to New Orleans, there was really kind of a big deal about Air Force being there and not much about Tennessee being there," said UT safety Tim Priest, who serves today as the color analyst for the Vol Network. "Air Force started 8-0 ... and they seemed to get most of the attention.
"Every time we had a joint banquet or something like that, it seemed like all the attention was paid to Air Force and our guys kind of used that as motivation leading up to the ballgame."
UT quarterback Bobby Scott said the Falcons swagger bordered on cockiness - as if the Vols, a team that finished the regular season 10-1 after an early loss on the road against Auburn, were somehow beneath the Falcons.
"Air Force was pretty stout at that time," Scott said. "(Air Force quarterback) Bob Parker had a great year and wide receiver Ernie Jennings was a first-class receiver, but they seemed kind of cocky and like they were kind of disappointed to have to play us. "We resigned ourselves to the fact that we weren't going to go out there and lay an egg or anything."
Things changed.
In New Orleans, they changed quickly - and decisively.
It took just one quarter for the Vols to erase any self-assuredness the Falcons had brought with them from the Academy, and the final three quarters were little more than validation that UT belonged among the nation's best.
The Vols jumped out to a 24-0 lead in the first 15 minutes, marching up and down the field on offense and locking down the vaunted Air Force passing game on defense.
Scott and running back Don McLaren - two first quarter TDs - provided the scoring, while David Allen set the tone defensively with a vicious hit on Brian Bream that nobody at Sugar Bowl Stadium can forget.
"That lick was as tough of a hit as I've seen anybody pass over there at the University of Tennessee," Scott said. "He didn't even come close to catching a ball for the rest of the day. I mean, he cut him in half."
The UT defense then cut off the rest of the Air Force offense for the rest of the day, holding the Falcons to minus-12 yards rushing and largely grounding their aerial attack.
"We were beaten by a better football team on this particular day," Air Force coach Ben Martin said after the game. "They were the best pass defenders we've ever played against."
That defense was talented to be sure - the Vols picked off a school record 36 passes in 1970 and added four more in the Sugar Bowl - but they were also highly motivated, driven by a desire to shut down the Falcons dynamic duo.
"Air Force had an All-American wide receiver in Ernie Jennings and a great quarterback in Parker, and they really liked to throw it around a lot," Priest said. "They really did have a sophisticated passing attack for that day in time. But we had a lot of success all season defending the pass, a really good pass rush and active linebackers in pass coverage, and, secondary-wise, we had a good scheme.
"It seemed to work a little better against Air Force."
Some things never change.
The high-flying Falcons are long gone, replaced by a team that might better be known as Ground Force.
But the offense is still sophisticated - the Falcons' triple-option rushing attack has been among the most effective, little-used schemes in the nation - and it is still as difficult today as it was in 1971 to prepare to play the Academy.
Since that Sugar Bowl, too, lackadaisical, vacation-like approaches to bowl games have been scrapped by UT.
The Vols made it three bowl wins in-a-row starting with the Sugar Bowl - adding a Liberty Bowl title and a Bluebonnet Bowl championship - and UT hasn't endured a three-game bowl losing streak since the '70 team snapped the school's last skid.
"There was a real emphasis by coach Bill Battle and his staff on not just making the bowl game a reward for a good season, but really an emphasis on practicing hard and preparing well and winning the ballgame," Priest said. "I do think it was important to the program to win a big bowl game.
"It was one of the four major bowl games at that time, and they turned around and won the next couple."
And while most all of the faces have changed since the first meeting with the Falcons, one name remains at Rocky Top to tie the first episode to the sequel.
Then junior Phillip Fulmer split time on the offensive line in the win over Air Force, and the current UT head coach will now try to add a second victory to his - and his school's - résumé.
"They're very hard to prepare for, like they were then, for the uniqueness of the offense they run," Fulmer said. "I have great respect and admiration for all of the service academies. Those kids are the best and brightest in our country, and it's a heck of a challenge to face them."
Especially when it happens so rarely.
