by design | Aug 18, 2025 | Columnist, Mattingly
‘Get a quarterback’ By Tom Mattingly When Tennessee was building a new press box in 1962, Gen. Bob Neyland laid down a challenge to media covering the Vols. “We’re going to build the best press box in the country,” he said. “We hope it will improve the writing...
by design | Aug 11, 2025 | Columnist, Mattingly
The times they were a-changin’ in college football By Tom Mattingly It’s hard to believe that decisions made in the 1960s by coaches and players could have such far-reaching impacts. There had been a fallow period in Tennessee football from 1958 to 1963, when the...
by design | Aug 4, 2025 | Columnist, Mattingly
‘Why, Tell Me, Why?’ By Tom Mattingly Someone asked why Tennessee fans had always made such a big deal about the football team wearing white jerseys for road games. It was definitely a big deal in those uncertain times in 1971 when the whole white jersey...
by design | Jul 28, 2025 | Columnist, Mattingly
‘A Life-Changing Experience’ By Tom Mattingly Cooper Manning’s son, Arch, had his coming-out party as starting quarterback at Texas at SEC Media Days in mid-July. That elicited significant memories of an association with the Manning family, particularly...
by design | Jul 21, 2025 | Columnist, Mattingly
‘The Minister of Defense’ By Tom Mattingly You may not remember it, but there was once a 9-3 Tennessee team that was not ranked by the Associated Press (A. P.) during the entire season. It’s all right there in black agate type in the “Tennessee Volunteers...
by design | Jul 13, 2025 | Columnist, Mattingly, Stories In This Week's Focus:
‘It was tied when we started’ By Tom Mattingly The tie game is no longer with us, despite some memorable occurrences in games involving the University of Tenn-essee. You might not know that it’s been nearly 30 years since tie games on the gridiron went out...