Why haven't UT Vols won SEC in 20 years? It's more than coaching.

John Adams | Knoxville

The 20-year anniversary of Tennessee’s last national championship in football provides fans many great memories and hope.

But it also revives a not-so-fond memory: Tennessee hasn’t won an SEC championship since 1998.

That’s hard to fathom for a couple of reasons: UT’s strong tradition in the sport as well as all the talent it returned from the national championship team. Most Tennessee fans probably thought they would have to wait only a year for another conference title.

However, despite its abundance of talent, UT’s 1999 team didn’t repeat as champion. It came close, losing a two-point game to Florida and suffering a four-point loss to Arkansas. Before the Arkansas loss, the Vols had climbed to No. 3 nationally after an early season defeat in Gainesville, Fla.

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Since 1998, the Vols have played in only three conference title games. Their best shot at a championship was in 2001 when they blew a second-half lead to an underdog LSU team that was depleted by injuries.

Tennessee’s lack of success is magnified by what has happened elsewhere in the conference.

Other than Tennessee, five other SEC programs have won a conference championship since the league went to divisional play in 1992. All five have won at least three titles since UT won its last SEC championship.

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Alabama leads with six, followed by LSU with four. Auburn, Florida and Georgia have three championships apiece.

An obvious reason for UT’s troubles is coaching. First-year coach Jeremy Pruitt is its fourth coach since Phillip Fulmer was fired near the end of the 2008 season. But Fulmer didn’t win a championship in his last 10 seasons and won only two in 16 years.

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Another easy explanation for UT’s long run without a title: players. Although UT has recruited well for most of the past 20 years, it hasn’t matched its recruiting during the 1990s. It also has come up short at quarterback too often.

Tee Martin helped lead UT to the 1998 national championship and made first-team All-SEC in 1999. Since then, Tennessee hasn’t had a quarterback make first-team all-conference.

It’s not that the Vols always have been burdened by inept quarterbacking during that stretch. Casey Clausen, who started four seasons, was a good SEC quarterback and is second only to Peyton Manning in career passing yardage at Tennessee. Erik Ainge set a single-season school record in completions with 325 in 2007. Dual-threat quarterback Joshua Dobbs was the catalyst for UT’s offense in 2015 and 2016.

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But UT’s quarterbacks haven’t measured up to the league’s premier players at that position. Auburn’s Cam Newton, Florida’s Tim Tebow and Texas A&M’s Johnny Manziel all won Heisman Trophies.

From 2000 through 2017, the quarterbacks for SEC championship teams made either first- or second-team all-conference eight times. Joshua Dobbs is the only UT quarterback to make so much as second team during that stretch.

If Tennessee hopes to end its championship drought in the SEC, signing and developing better quarterbacks would be a step in the right direction.

John Adams is a senior columnist. He may be reached at 865-342-6284 or john.adams@knoxnews.com. Follow him at: Twitter.com/johnadamskns.