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Photos: Johnny Majors through the years
May 21 marks former Tennessee player and head coach Johnny Majors’ 85th birthday.
Majors played for the Vols from 1953-56. He served as head coach at UT from 1977-92. Before arriving at Tennessee as head coach, he served in the same capacity at Pittsburgh and won the 1976 national championship. Majors won the SEC championship at Tennessee in 1985, 1989 and 1990.
Below are photos of Majors through the years.
NEXT: Johnny Majors through the years
Sugar Bowl Hall of Fame: Johnny Majors
NEW ORLEANS — Throughout its proud history, the University of Tennessee football program has won six national championships and appeared in 54 postseason bowl games.
Many players, coaches and one broadcaster, Lindsey Nelson, have been inducted into bowl game Halls of Fame.
Johnny Majors is the lone Vol enshrined in the Sugar Bowl Hall of Fame.
Majors was inducted in the first class in 2017 for his performance as both a player and coach.
As a player, he rushed for 51 yards and a touchdown in Tennessee’s 13-7 loss to Baylor in 1957.
As a coach, he guided Tennessee to wins over Miami (1986) and Virginia (1991).
While coaching at Pittsburgh, he guided the Panthers to a 27-3 win over Georgia in 1977, en route to the 1976 national championship.
Legend of the Sun Bowl: Johnny Majors
EL PASO — Throughout its proud history, the University of Tennessee football program has won six national championships and appeared in 54 postseason bowl games.
Many players, coaches and one broadcaster, Lindsey Nelson, have been inducted into bowl game Halls of Fame.
The first segment in Vols Wire’s bowl series chronicled the accomplishments of Nelson, Andy Kozar and Hank Lauricella, who are in the Cotton Bowl Hall of Fame.
This installment focuses on the Sun Bowl and Tennessee great Johnny Majors.
In 1984, Majors led the Vols to the Sun Bowl to play Maryland.
The Terrapins edged Tennessee, 28-27.
Majors, a College Football Hall of Famer as a player at UT and a national championship head coach at Pittsburgh in 1976, coached three times in the Sun Bowl with the Vols, Iowa State and with the Panthers.
In 1971, Majors completed his lone winning season with the Cyclones with a 33-15 loss to LSU.
With Pittsburgh, his Panthers toppled Kansas, 33-19, in 1971.
At Tennessee, Majors and the Vols dropped a heartbreaker to the Terps.
Majors, the 1973 Walter Camp Coach of the Year and AFCA Coach of the Year in 1976, is also in the Sugar Bowl Hall of Fame and the Peach Bowl Hall of Fame.
He was a named a Legend of the Sun Bowl in 1995.
Robert Neyland Jr. discusses Jeremy Pruitt and UT football.
KNOXVILLE — Tennessee concluded the 2019 season with a six-game win streak and victorious in seven of its last eight contests.
Tennessee’s seven wins in the final eight contests of the season came after a 1-4 start and losing to Georgia State in Week 1.
Following the Vols’ 38-30 defeat to Georgia State, Jeremy Pruitt took part in his weekly appearance on The Vol Network’s “Vol Calls” radio show.
A caller told the second-year Tennessee head coach that Rome was not built in a day.
“It’s like I told the kids today, when things don’t go your way, what are you supposed to do,” Pruitt replied to the caller. “You’re supposed to put on more steam, right?”
Following the opening week loss to Georgia State is just one example of when Pruitt has embraced General Robert Neyland’s mantra of “if at first the game or the breaks go against you, don’t let up… put on more steam.”
This saying is listed as Neyland’s third Game Maxim that remains posted in Tennessee’s locker room.
Robert Neyland Jr. played on Tennessee’s 1951 national championship team and is the son of the legendary UT head coach.
“I am very pleased in the way they came back and I was very encouraged,” Neyland Jr. told Vols Wire of Tennessee’s 2019 season.
The Vols put on more steam during the final eight contests last season as players came together to find ways to win games.
“I think they thought they could walk out there on the field and beat Georgia State,” Neyland Jr. said. “I think along the way Coach Pruitt convinced them that they had the talent to win, but they just were not working hard enough.”
Neyland Jr. thinks “it is excellent” that Pruitt embraces his father’s Game Maxims, and especially making it a point to remind his team to put on more steam.
“He has really hung on to those (Game Maxims) and particularly that one,” Neyland Jr. said.”
As Tennessee is set to kickoff spring practices next month in preparation for the 2020 campaign, Pruitt’s message of his football team applying more steam is highlighted to season ticket holders.
“Everyone is energized about the way we finished last season,” Pruitt said in a Tennessee press release stating football season ticket prices will not increase in 2020. “When Neyland Stadium is rocking, it’s unlike anyplace else in the country. And it sure seems like our players block a little better and hit a lot harder when Vol Nation is revved up.
“We’ve got something special taking place here, and we’re putting on more steam every day to make sure the decade of the Vols starts strong. We need our fans to put on more steam, too.”
2020 AFCA Convention.
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NASHVILLE – The American Football Coaches Association’s annual convention took place Jan. 12-14 at Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center in Nashville, Tenn.
Many coaches from across the nation and the world were present. Vols Wire was in attendance and discussed a wide range of topics with various coaches from career achievements, what lies ahead and talking concepts that included the Air Raid mesh with Arizona head coach Kevin Sumlin.
The event kicked off with Minnesota head coach P.J. Fleck discussing his career and how he has risen from a junior wide receiver at Northern Illinois attending the AFCA Convention and knowing he wanted to coach. He has since climbed the coaching ranks, becoming a first-time head coach at Western Michigan (2013-15). There, his ability to build a program with its culture on display was at the forefront and he has since moved on to rebuild Minnesota’s program in the same capacity.
Fleck’s full speech can be listened to below.
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Current and former University of Tennessee coaches were present at the annual event. UT Director of Athletics Phillip Fulmer also made his presence.
The likes of former Tennessee assistant and current Duke head coach David Cutcliffe discussed his time at UT coaching under Johnny Majors and Phillip Fulmer.
“Coach Majors was the most organized practice guys,” Cutcliffe said.
The Duke head coach mentioned Majors made it a point for assistants to write down any mistakes they made and learn from it.
“The big thing with Phillip (Fulmer) was perseverance,” Cutcliffe continued regarding the pair of former UT head coaches. “He was the most consistent, perseverian person that I have ever been around.”
Cutlciffe also discussed with Vols Wire his openness to changing coaching tactics as the game does with rules, the transfer portal and other items such as offenses changing.
“I have learned more in the last five years than I have in the previous 15,” he said. “We all have to be prepared to do that in our line of work.”
Recently departed Tennessee running backs coach David Johnson was also present at the AFCA Convention representing his new school, Florida State. Johnson discussed the amount of hard work he gave to Tennessee over the last two years with Vols Wire, simply saying that he worked hard during his time on Rocky Top.
Other coaches present at the Convention discussed UT’s coaching staff vacancy with Vols Wire. The common theme was that Jeremy Pruitt will take his time to fill the opening Johnson has left behind, much like he did when hiring offensive coordinator Jim Chaney last offseason. Johnson left UT on Jan. 4.
Former Tennessee head coach Butch Jones also took part in the 2020 AFCA Convention on its second day. Jones, who finished his second season as an analyst at Alabama in 2019, mentioned to Vols Wire that he eventually plans on getting back into a head coaching position again and is enjoying his time under Nick Saban.
One coach told Vols Wire that Jones will enhance what went well during his Tennessee tenure and will fix what could have been better when he becomes a head coach again.
Former Tennessee defensive graduate assistant Jon Shalala arrived at UT during the summer of 2016 under Jones and defensive coordinator Bob Shoop. Shoop went to Mississippi State in the same capacity for the 2018-19 seasons.
Shalala remained at Tennessee throughout Pruitt’s first season as head coach in 2018. He then followed Shoop to Mississippi State and served as an assistant to inside linebackers throughout the 2019 season.
Mississippi State fired head coach Joe Moorhead following the Bulldogs’ bowl game and have since hired Mike Leach for his replacement. Shalala has experience handling transition when Tennessee went from Jones to Pruitt following the 2017 season. He remains currently within Mississippi State’s program under Leach and told Vols Wire that everything has been good so far during the transition.
Shalala filled in for linebackers coach Chris Marve during the Music City Bowl against Louisville. Marve left Mississippi State to join Mike Norvell’s Florida State coaching staff.
University of Tennessee at Martin running backs coach Sean Fisher was selected to the AFCA 2020 35 Under 35 Coaches Leadership Institute. Fisher previously discussed his coaching career on the show “Tennessee Two-A-Days” with newly hired USA Academy head coach Rush Propst. The interview can be listened to below.
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