Toughest opening 4 games since 1959

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bobby dodds ghost

Damn Good Rat
Joined
Jun 5, 2002
Messages
1,492
Tech opens with BYU, Auburn, FSU, and Clemson. That is tough by anybody's standards. Check the media guide, and you will have to go all the way back to '59 to find a tougher schedule to start the season. That year, Tech and Bobby Dodd opened with Kentucky, but then played #6 SMU, then a new #6 Clemson, and followed that with a road trip to #8 Tennessee (They played #11 Auburn for the 5th game). That team finished 6-5 after being ranked as high as #3 during the season.
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BOO
 
It, indeed, is a tough first four, but it is also a tough schedule for the whole year.

This will be Vanderbilt's second year under their new coach, and I think they will be better. The only two that would be considered weak at this time is Duke and maybe North Carolina,

North Carolina has had some good recruiting years lately, so they could turn it around. Duke is still struggling, but made a little improvement last year.

If we have a good record this year, it will be well earned.

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This schedule could indeed make for one exciting season. I couldn't think of a better four starting match-ups.
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It does look tough but I like it better than opening with the crip teams. I know it's been argued before but I favor a tough schedule with hard earned wins vs. a schedule with "built in" wins. I'd think it'd be more challenging to not have any "breathers" in there. Greater challenge=tougher mentality=better team. Just thinking out loud.
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I believe that we also played Notre Dame on the road in 1959 (and beat them with Marvin Tibbits at QB, 14 - 10). During the late 50's and early 60's, there were no gimmes on the schedule; every game was a war. Each team we played was gunning for us because of our great success during the early and mid-50's. Of course, I was in school at the time, so everything about that era appears golden from almost 50 years later, but those great SEC battles are engrained in my mind as the most exciting and pressurized football games I ever saw. I've always believed that the reason Dodd pulled us out of the SEC and then retired was that he no longer had the competitive fire in his belly and the pressure became too much for him.

I would really be looking forward to this season's schedule if I had any confidence at all in our coaching staff. Unfortunately the catastrophe of November 30 convinced me that we have hired the wrong HC. However, I am still looking forward to football season as I always do and God willing will be at Grant Field to watch our beloved Yellow Britches battle it out for my 47th consecutive season.
 
Gnats, even though we beat a Navy by 70 points, it did little for the rest of the season. I agree with you, I had rather play a tough opponent each week.

However, I do admit, I don't want to play the top ten teams in the nation in consecutive order each week.

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