Not many people in sports have done what Johnny Majors has.
The former Tennessee halfback and head coach has been voted All-American as a player, played on an SEC championship team, coached an SEC champion and a national champion. He also coached a Heisman winner, Tony Dorsett at Pittsburgh.
The highly accomplished college football legend starred at Tennessee as a tailback from 1954-1956 and finished second in the Heisman balloting to Paul Hornung of Notre Dame. That year, Majors’ Vols were 10-0 before the Heisman was awarded while Hornung’s Irish finished 2-8.
Majors then got into coaching, eventually getting the head job at Iowa State, then Pittsburgh. It was at Pitt where Majors won his national championship in 1976.
The year after, Tennessee brought him home to Knoxville where he would coach the Vols from 1977-1992.
And he still loves college football.
“I watch college football all the time,” Majors said in an exclusive interview with Score Atlanta after a meeting at the Touchdown Club of Atlanta. “I think it’s the greatest game of all.”
Majors spoke last Monday about several college football-related topics. Like Bobby Bowden, who spoke last week, Majors touched on modern pressure on coaches, but came up with a different outlook than did Bowden. While the former FSU coach said pressure is much heavier now, Majors seemed to think it was similar to when he first started roaming the sidelines in the early 60’s.
“No, I don’t think it’s changed that much since I started coaching,” said Majors when asked about the pressure on coaches. “There’s always been close coverage of coaches in college football and there’s always been critical alumni and so-called fans. They’ll be with you, as the old saying goes, win or tie.”
However, Majors did say there is more people involved in criticizing coaches these days.
“There’s a lot more resources (now) for people to second-guess and a lot more people commenting on it,” said Majors. “I’d say that with the internet, more commentators on television, more cable television networks and more televised games.”
MAJORS ON GEORGIA …
The Lynchburg, Tenn. native ─ where he said “there’s still only one stoplight and I remember when they put it in.” ─ had some good things to say about the amount of football talent there is in the state of Georgia.
“I think the state of Georgia is one of the best football states in America, as far as the best chance to win,” said Majors. “I think that Texas, Southern Cal and Ohio State are three of the best jobs in America because of the talent they have locally. Georgia is close behind that, along with Alabama and Louisiana.”
Majors also said something that may hit close to home for Georgia fans, who have gone through two coaches since Vince Dooley retired and are getting hot under the collar about the current coach.
“You’ve gotta be a bad coach to mess up Georgia’s situation,” said Majors. “They have had some good coaches and they both have had some not-so-good coaches. But it is one of the best jobs in the country.”
Like Bowden, who explained as much in an interview last week with Gil Tyree of Georgia Public Broadcasting, Majors knows a lot about the type of talent produced in Georgia has he tried to recruit in the state for many years as both an assistant and head coach at Tennessee. Throughout the modern history of Vol football, the coaches have had to recruit outside the state to get the type of talent needed to compete at a high level in the SEC. And Georgia, with the border being less than two hours from Knoxville, has always been a targeting area for Tennessee recruiters.
“Georgia talent is very important to Tennessee’s program,” said Majors. “Willie Gault (from Griffin) is a great example. He was one of the greatest athletes I’ve ever coached. We had a lot of good players from Georgia. Tennessee’s had to go out of state, going back to General (former Tennessee head coach Bob) Neyland’s time. We’ve had to recruit out of state. More so than (the universities of) Georgia or Alabama or Florida.”
UNPLEASANT OUTSTER …
Despite having some success at Tennessee in winning 116 games, three SEC titles and 11 bowl bids, majors was forced to resign during the 1992 season after being sent to the hospital for heart surgery. Majors missed the first three games of the season, which were victories over SW Louisiana, Georgia and Florida, and then came back for the final eight regular season games of the year, in which the Vols went 5-3.
“I was out the first three games,” explained Majors. “I had been promised a new seven-year contract the day before I went to the hospital. Tennessee won the first three games, my assistant coach took the job as interim coach, but the administration I worked for wasn’t the most trustworthy or reliable because they gave those three victories to the assistant coach.”
Majors is still a bit peeved about how his ouster was played out.
“I was more than misled, I was deceived about the contract.”
Majors also feels like his administration at the time, including athletics director Doug Dickey and University president Joe Johnson. Despite obvious pressure from UT boosters and interim head coach Phil Fulmer, Majors blames his employers at the time.
“Boosters don’t fire coaches,” said Majors. “It’s according to how much guts the administrators have. They hire and fire coaches. I didn’t have reliable or trustworthy (bosses).
But Majors has since made up with UT and been back to campus. All’s well that ends well, as they say, and Majors will hopefully be remembered by Tennessee legend as a hero rather than a bitter former coach.
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