1980:

The Dawgs show nothing on offense and face a 15-2 deficit until Herschel is unleashed. Georgia struggles to a 16-15 win in Knoxville against a Tennessee team that would finish 5-6. It took a fumble (caused by Nate Taylor) on the goalline to prevent a Tennessee win. Georgia bumbled to four fumbles (two were lost) and ten penalties in a sloppy opener.

1998:

Tennessee travels to Syracuse in a tougher-than-usual opener, but Cuse was no national power…they’d finish win an OK 8-4 record that year. New QB Tee Martin showed he was no Peyton, going 9-of-26 on the day. Syracuse took the lead with a few minutes left, and the Vols needed to orchestrate a last-minute drive to set up a game-winning FG. The Vols defense was shredded by McNabb and the Orangemen for 445 total yards.

I saw a lot of predictions for a long season for the Noles based on last night’s opener. Fans of those two undefeated national champions profiled above probably also didn’t make Jan. 1 reservations after those openers.

Make no mistake, the Noles have a lot of concerns…the lack of a pass rush down the stretch from the DL left their zone defense wide open. They say the most improvement comes between the first and second games. I’d wait a little while to write off the Noles yet.