We Cover New Strategies and Rules That Shaped the 1950s SEC

Come on, boys.

And only one game in the renewed series have been more lopsided.

Alabama's 55 to nothing win nine years earlier that afternoon decided everything at once.

Auburn won his first Southeastern Conference championship, and in the national title that year, an Alabama coach, J.B. whitworth, coached his last game, his contract expiring at midnight that night.

And three days later, Alabama hired Bear Bryant.

Now, how did eight different schools win the SEC in 10 years?

And why has the conference never done that again?

To answer it, we rewind 10 seasons to a league where the answer to who controls the SEC changed almost every fall.

Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia Tech, Alabama, ole Miss, Auburn, LSU and Georgia.

Seven different men.

1 AP SEC Coach of the Year at seven different schools.

41 National Championships while Kentucky and Ole Miss were named the champions by smaller selectors.

And one champion won it all while banned from playing even in any bowl games.

Now you can't explain that a decade without the man who spent most of the time in it.

The athletic director's office Robert Nealon coached Tennessee in three separate stretches, twice interrupted by the army they did during the war seasons.

He won 173 games and four national championships and went 125 and 2 against Alabama.

And it was the last full expression of his football.

The single wing, the kicking game, field position and a defense that treated a touchdown like a personal failure.

Neyland was coach of the year that year.

Hickman named them.

You know these players that went on to coach Bobby Dodd at Georgia Tech, Bowden Wyatt at Arkansas, Murray Wormath at Minnesota, Bob Woodruff at Florida.

And Harvey Robinson was still holding on to that Tennessee job.

Now the pedigree was exact.

And that was $5,000 more than the college president was making at that time.

So pretty outstanding number by any means there.

They outscored everybody 293 to 16 and had beaten Oklahoma 17 to nothing in Orange Bow in Tennessee's first bowl game and first bowl game win ever.

Now, Johnny Vaught had no Tennessee connections in him.

The next year 47, he was promoted and as head coach he went 92 and won the first SEC title in school history with a quarterback named Charlie Connerly.

Now Conroy had completed 133 passes for 18 touchdowns that season, both national records, and finished fourth in the Heisman race, running a modified Notre Dame box with Connerly at tailback.

The splits were widened to three feet.

The quarterback worked under center and read one unblocked defender.

Vought made the change because Ole Miss could not line up and overpower Tennessee or Georgia Tech, who had much bigger linemen than his team had.

The team was named the national champions by several selectors and was later honored as the SEC team of the Decade.

The Neyland quarterback who refused to coach like Neyland was waiting in Atlanta.

For 22 years he was a coach down there at Georgia Tech.

Now he kept the football defense first, willing to punt on third down for field position.

And he didn't keep not only keep these methods, he also instituted some things himself.

No hitting in practice.

It was short, organized workouts.

When the teams did get together to practice, he started games without players who were late coming from the laboratory or at an engineering school.

He Kept men on scholarship as long as they were moving towards a degree.

So the players responded to these methods.

They beat Ole Miss in a Sugar bowl and they were named the champions by the INS.

Although both major polls put Michigan State first, Tech won the SEC in 51 and 52.

Dodd was the coach of the year and six straight Bull wins came in the first half of the decade.

He finished 165 wins, 64 losses and eight ties.

The Atlanta writers called it Dodd's luck and Coach Bryant said he would rather face any other coach opposite him, but not Bobby Dodd.

Dodd also fought the league twice.

For years he refused to take Tech into Mississippi and he was fought the conference over scholarship rules that penalize him for keeping players for four years while others over signed and ran off upperclassmen.

He lost that fight.

Now while Dodd was held in Atlanta, Bear Bryant reached his peak where no one expected it.

And Alabama fell into the pit of its history.

He wanted to leave there because Kentucky was a basketball school and the head of their basketball team was a guy named Adolph Rupp.

You know, the Adolph Rupp who was not leaving anytime soon.

So Bryant decided to pack his bags and he went to Texas A and M. And he took more than 100 players with him to Junction, Texas and came back with a fraction.

And while he was gone, Alabama won the strangest title ever.

Yeah, you got it.

Four wins, zero tie losses and three ties.

No SEC loss.

So that's what gave them the nod for the Crown for the SEC title.

But then they lost 28 to 6 to Rice, almost embarrassed in the Cotton bowl that year.

Then came Coach Whitworth, an Alabama graduate.

His teams went 22, 271 and at Oklahoma and A and M. But he cut his seniors, including Bart Starr.

Then following that up, they had a 271 record two years in a row.

A total of four wins, 24 losses, two ties and a 14 game losing streak.

The worst three year record in Alabama history arrived in the middle of the most competitive stretch an SEC decade has ever had.

Now Neyland answered by bringing in his own captain home and then the title started moving every year.

He dismissed Harvey Robinson to coach Neyland after two seasons and brought back Wyatt.

Not too shabby.

His second though went 10 and 1, won the SEC and finished number two in the final AP poll.

Auburn started the preseason ranked 15th and they dropped out without playing as they opened up a Tennessee and beat number eight Wyatt club seven to nothing.

And then when all the rest of their games they went 100 with a defense that gave up just 28 points all season.

The 40 to nothing burial of Alabama on November 30th was Auburn's first SEC title and an AP National Championship team.

But there wasn't no bowl for the Auburn Tigers.

They were on probation was Auburn for improper payments to recruits.

The postseason ban was still in force at this time and Ohio State took the coaches poll.

Two national champions the writers pick sat home in January for paying players.

He had been there split his roster into a white team and a go team and the the Chinese Bandits defense.

Now he used the whole roster and it became the most discussed innovation in sport.

With Billy Cannon, LSU was 11 0, won the national championship 7 and nothing over Clemson in the Sugar Bowl.

And Dietzel was the coach of the year after 11 wins in three seasons.

Now three straight years, three different schools, two national titles, Tennessee, Auburn, LSU and none held a second year.

Now why is that?

Now defending champion LSU wrote a 19 game winning streak after Cannon's 89 yard punt return Beetle missed 7 to 3 and they were ranked number one.

Cannon headed to the Heisman Trophy podium and on November 7th in Knoxville, Wyatt's Tennessee team won 14 13, stopping Canna Cannon on a two point conversion that gave the Vols a win.

It ended the longest streak in LSU history on a goal line stand and Tennessee then lost its last three games to finish 5:4:1.

Cannon still won the Heisman, but LSU did not repeat because of that loss.

So 10 seasons, eight champions, seven coaches of the Year titles at Tennessee, Georgia Tech, Auburn and lsu.

And then Bryant came back home into the SEC in a balance of power to began to change now.

Thanks for joining us today.

Some there in our Gridiron Timeline series as well as our timelines by the day of the year.

So we thank you for joining us today.

Have a great Gridiron day.