For '97 Vols, it was about talent, leadership and accountability
This weekend, Tennessee's 1997 SEC Championship team is in town to be honored on their 20th anniversary. For the Vols, it was a team that epitomized everything needed in a championship — talent, leadership and accountability.
I had the luxury of watching every practice of that championship season. To say practice was competitive is a gross understatement. A workout was a battle for supremacy. Oftentimes, a practice script was thrown out as David Cutcliffe and John Chavis went at in as if they were calling a game on Saturday. Peyton Manning was trying to destroy his teammates on defense, while Leonard Little, Al Wilson and company wanted to anger the future top pick of the NFL Draft.
“I believe that 97 team was more competitive with each other than the '98 team for sure simply because we had so many great players and everyone wanted to set a standard and set their mark,” offered Wilson, who went 45-5 in his Tennessee career.
“That 97 team was without a doubt our most talented team and from a competitive scale, it was a 10.5 or an 11. It was intense every day.
“Everyone wanted the same things. We wanted to win. We competed every day at practice. I always said that 97 season, practice was harder than the games for us because we were going against Peyton, Jamal, Marcus Nash and Peerless Price and those guys. When we got in the game things kind of slowed down for us.”
Deon Grant was a true freshman in 1997. The talented safety joined a highly decorated class that made major contributions from Grant to Jamal Lewis and others. The talented safety remembers the moment he knew he was going to be ok in the college game.
“When I picked Peyton off at practice, when I picked him off I knew I was going to be ok,” Grant said. “I ran back to the dorm and called home and bragged liked crazy over the phone. Jamal was in the room laughing at me. But I think our group, Jamal, Cosey and myself we came in with that mentality. We felt like wherever we went we were going to be able to make an impact.
I just remember it was a deep ball. I can recall him getting mad. You know how he is when he makes a mistake and it was worse in college. He came and congratulated me. It was that moment when I knew I was going to be able to have an impact.”
Senior captain Leonard Little played linebacker in 1997 and still recalls the moment that he knew freshman tailback Jamal Lewis was going to help his team.
“When we were in camp, I came free on a middle linebacker blitz and I hit him. He ran me over and kept going. I knew he was going to good after that,” Little said.
Added Fulmer, “Jamal, I can remember it like it was yesterday, the first time we had a 9 on 8 full speed drill and runs up in there and runs over some upperclassman and runs over him and into the endzone. But there was never any jealously with him. They were a close team. They are still close.”
It's that closeness forged great leadership on that team. That leadership was more than just all-everything Peyton Manning. Little, with tears in his eyes in the locker room at the half of the SEC Championship Game, demanded more from his team. Little had never won a championship at any level. It was last opportunity in college and simply told his team they wouldn't let him down. In that same locker room, Wilson delivered a speech his teammates still recall.
“It's a family show that we do here so we can't talk about exactly was said at the half at that time,” Wilson said.
"I will say this, my mother probably wouldn't be proud of me at that moment. I think we needed it as a team at the time.”
Added Little, “I think we hated losing more than we liked winning. Coach Fulmer brought those kinds of guys in. At the end of the day we all hung out with each other off the practice field. Coach Fulmer preached family and we really took that to heart.”
Grant credited the family atmosphere the team created because of how much they hung out together and how much time they spent together something he feels is much more challenging in today's game.
“We really were family,” Grant said. “We spent so much time together. We were such a close knit group. Everyone wanted to be in the room and be a part. When I come back now, it's something I talk to the guys now. The technology has taken over so much. Everyone want's to be on instagram and Twitter. You have to spent time talking to each other. On the field it carried over. There were times Fred White and I didn't get the defensive call and we just played off each other or Al would look at me and I knew why. It was because we spent so much time together off the field.”
As the team gathered Friday night for an evening of stories, laughs and memories, players credited Fulmer for the atmosphere he had developed in the program which allowed players from all over the country, from all walks of life, and from varying talent levels to blend together and truly become a team.
A concept that Fulmer sees as pretty simple to do.
“We were adults with them,” Fulmer said. “We held them accountable. We ended up their parent away from home. There was a respect that was established. A level of effort that was always expected. We didn't give in to whatever their music might have been.
"We were going to act like the adult in the room and they were going to respond to what we wanted to do. As we look forward, we need a great coach. We need a great leader. We need a great example for young people. That's how you do it here. I know it's how you do it here. That's how you do it at most places.”
Meanwhile, on a weekend where a 20-year championship team is honored, Tennessee's search for a new leader to try and win championships is on.