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  • November 17, 2007 12:17 PM ET

The Tennessee Volunteers are the luckiest college football national champions ever in 1998.

Chris Brown (13-20-2) vs DJTG_2010 (85-27-3)
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Let's look a each game.

1st game: 34-33 over Syracuse, played crappy all game, refs blew a pass interferance call in 3rd down that would of saved the game for Cuse, win on last second FG

2nd game: 20-17 win FL overtime
Offense played horrible, this was a defensive game. FL missed a chip shot FG to tie

we kill houston

4th game: 17-9 win AUB
QB played terrible, Jamal Lewis gets injured and is out for season, defense saved the game again. Scored all 17 points in 1st quarter.

then we kill georgia, alabama, south carolina, and UAB in 4 straight

9th game: 28-24 win over ARK

luckiest game ever. Arkansas has the game in they're hands with 2 minutes left...until the center makes a bad snap, qb fumbles, tennessee recovers, and travis henry makes 5 straight runs to get a TD

Then we kill Kentucky and Vanderbilt

SEC Championship Game: 24-14 win over Miss. State

Tennessee was winning only 10-7 going into the 4th, and Miss state scored a TD to go up 14-10, but Tennessee kind of took over then with 2 bomb td passes to Peerless Price and Cedrick Wilson each.

NAt. Champ: 23-16 win over FSU
14-9 TENN going into the 4th, but a 80 yard bomb to Peerless Price won


I would have to go with the 2002 Ohio State Buckeyes and their 31-24 overtime victory over Miami.

The game was over in the first overtime after Chris Gamble dropped a fourth down pass with the Buckeyes down 24-17. However, after about a five second delay (an eternity) with numerous Hurricanes fans storming the field, field judge Terry Porter threw a flag indicating pass interference.

That is some luck right there. Getting a delayed penalty call that eventually wins you the national championship.

Ohio State did have their set of scares during the season with a 4-point win over Cincinnati, a 5-point win against Wisconsin, a 6-point win against Penn State, a 4-point win against Purdue, a 7-point win against Illinois, and a 5-point win against Michigan.

They won their set of close games and then got A LOT of help from Mr. Porter in the Fiesta Bowl against Miami.


Ohio State ACTUALLY DESERVED to be in the national championship game though, half of Tennessee's games could of went either way.
OSU close games:
23-19 over cincinatti.....cincy was unranked, cincy played horrible in the 4th

19-14 over Wisconsin..ill admit they were lucky this game, wisconsin should of won

13-7 over penn state...after the 1st, OSU dominated

Illinois had a few lucky touchdowns

Michigan game was close


Tennessee wasn't favored in games against Syracuse, Florida, Georgia, Auburn, and FSU, and they probably should of lost to Arkansas and Missisippi State. The only game OSU should of lost was to Wisconsin, and they had a relativley easy schedule.


I don't want this to turn into one of those "The SEC is a tougher conference" blah blah blah arguments, but anyway, we aren't arguing about whether or not Ohio State deserved to be there, it's whether or not they were lucky in winning the National Championship, which they were. Anytime you get a late penalty five seconds after the game ends, that is lucky.

I also haven't mentioned that the Hurricanes were riding a 35-game winning streak coming into the game and were 11.5 point favorites over the Buckeyes. The Volunteers were coming off of a 10-2 season before their championship while the Buckeyes were coming off of a 7-5 season.

In order to beat Cincinnati, Will Allen had to intercept Cincinnati in the endzone with 32 seconds left. Luck?

The Buckeyes were luckier to win the National Championship than the Volunteers were.

Comments (13) Add A Comment

November 17, 2007  12:43 PM ET
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Yeah good call DJ, even before I read your argument I knew who I would have said.

Ohio State was squeeking by everyone.

November 17, 2007  12:49 PM ET
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I Can't Remember The Year Herschel Walker and the Georgia Bulldogs With One Loss. that One Sure sticks out in My Mind.

November 17, 2007  12:51 PM ET
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thats not luck, that game was outright stolen, but vote to DJ

November 17, 2007  12:52 PM ET
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Even though I won a lot of money on that Ohio St vs Miami game. It was thanks to the refs!

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November 17, 2007  01:21 PM ET
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vote to dj. THAT WAS NOT A PASS INTERFERENCE.

November 17, 2007  01:23 PM ET
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So basically they had the refs on their side.

November 17, 2007  01:47 PM ET
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I'd say the 1995 Nebraska Cornhuskers. They had so many close calls that year, and then in the national championship, there's no doubt the refs cost Florida that game.

November 17, 2007  03:27 PM ET
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The 95 Huskers blew everyone out.

The 97 Michigan Wolverines. In the Rose Bowl, they played a weak Washington State team led by Ryan Leaf. Ryan Leaf had a chance to win the game and beat Michigan outright at the end of the game, except the refs called the game with time still left on the clock.

If that isn't a fix, I don't know what is.

November 17, 2007  03:41 PM ET
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I was being sarcastic. I know how dominant the Huskers were.

November 17, 2007  05:00 PM ET
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Despite DJs whining about the refs (I could pull out the video and probably spot at least 1/2 a dozen questionable or missed calls which could have either team winning in regulation, as you could with almost every game) OSU did have a LOT of close games, including some he missed, any of which could have gone the other way.

That year the pollsters responded the way they should have - OSU only made it into the top 2 when there was only two 1 loss teams remaining in the major conferences. Before that, they got credit for the wins (were ranked above 1 loss teams), but were demoted for all the close games (behind the other no loss teams). I think the pollsters could learn from them this year.

Listing the fact Tenn was beating higher ranked teams? The voting polls would be a joke if it wasn't for the fact we don't have a better option at hand. FSU was moved up to #2 - nuff said about the great analysis of the voters. Still not convinced - i remember an interview where they asked a coach who he voted for in the top 5 - he replied he didn't know, he has his daughter fill out the ballot and just glances over it before submitting.

The only other team that i can thnk of coming close is Colorado, who got 5 down in a mess up to score the winning TD against Missouri. When you need everyone to miss the fact they forgot to flip the downs on the flags, that's closer than anything Chris noted about Tenn.

November 17, 2007  05:05 PM ET
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Chris you seem to hype the luckiest ever...
How about Colorado and their 5 downs the year the split the title
How about Nebraska with the player kicking it up in the air to another player for a td.

And just because a game is close does not translate to lucky. UT was a solid team in 98 and was deserving. Why is someone from Colorado starting all these I hate tennessee tds.

 
December 5, 2007  03:59 PM ET
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