McGee Tops The List At Wide Receiver U

The University of Tennessee football program has a proud history, a history that can boast of many of college football’s greats. The current face of the Tennessee football program, one could argue, is either Coach Josh Heupel or Peyton Manning, who seemingly will never go away. He is all over the television screen during football season in America and is certainly a household name. Coach Heupel seems to have resurrected a dead program, and for the time being, has Tennessee in the national spotlight. 

As a lifelong follower of Tennessee athletics, I am very interested in not only the future of the program but also, its proud legacy. Tennessee was once known as Wide Receiver U with the likes of Stanley Morgan, Larry Sievers, Carl Pickens, Alvin Harper, Anthony Morgan, Thomas Woods, Donte Stallworth, Jayson Swain, Anthony Hancock, Joey Kent, Willie Gault and many others torching defenses with their blazing speed and carving up defenses with their skill and talent. Lately, some would say that the talent pool has dried up somewhat and Clemson now holds the distinction of Wide Receiver U. That’s not to say the Vols haven’t had some terrific receivers lately. Velus Jones, Juan Jennings and Cedric Tillman have done their part to restore the Wide Receiver University reputation.

Ask 10 people who the top 10 receivers in Tennessee football history are and you might get 10 totally different lists. You could argue that as many as 10 players could be regarded as the best. For me the best is Tim McGee. He may not have gaudy numbers like Donte Stallworth or Robert Meachem have but, in an era when Tennessee was a running team, Tim still caught 50 passes his senior year, which was good for third in the conference, and he led the SEC in receiving yards and that was good enough to land him on that year’s All-American team. Great accomplishments for a receiver who had a coach that wanted to run the ball every down. In fact, McGee told me that Fulmer and Majors both wanted to run the ball every play.

The numbers however don’t tell the entire story. If you sat in the stands and watched him like I did you saw that he seemed to always be open. No matter what defenses did to take him away, Tim always seemed to find a way to get open. 

McGee says preparation was the difference and he gives the credit to Coaches Kippy Brown and Walt Harris, receivers coach and offensive coordinator respectively. “We had an advantage with Kippy Brown when it came to preparation. Whether we faced man-to-man or double coverage our coaching staff always had plays they could call to get me open. With Kippy film work was very important, and it was important to him that we never got complacent. He also taught us to have confidence in our quarterbacks.”

McGee was very complimentary of his counterparts at wide receiver as well. “I always thought my personal success came because of Eric Swanson and Joey Clinkscales. Our opponents game plan was always to take me away so that created opportunities for the other guys on the outside. If you’ll look at those games, when teams doubled me, they got burned. It’s always about your unsung heroes. Both of those guys played in the NFL, many people don’t even know that.”

McGee still has fond memories of Coach Brown; they remain good friends still to this day, but it was different with Coach Majors. “Coach Majors wasn’t the most personable person I’ve ever been around but later he and I became friends. He thought I had all the tools to be the best receiver at Tennessee. Coach Brown was a prankster, you never knew what he was going to do next.”

Who are the greatest ever at Wide Receiver University is a debate that has been going on for decades. I was curious as to who Tim thought were the best. “Larry Seivers, I watched a lot of his films although they were in black and white. I was really impressed with Joey Kent, I was super impressed with the athleticism of Carl Pickens. Anthony Miller, I thought had the biggest upside of any receiver when it comes to playing in the NFL. Anthony Hancock would be in my top five. Donte Stallworth was obviously super talented and then there are the other guys like Stanley Morgan who is top three on my list.  Daryl Wilson, Joey Clinkcales, and Marcus Nash, those guys, had it not been for so many other greats getting the spotlight, would have gotten their fair share of recognition. I may be missing some.” 

His most overrated and underrated list might just surprise some long time Vol fans. “My most overrated receiver in Tennessee history is Willie Gault, he was a phenomenal talent, but he wouldn’t be in my top . I love Willie Gault, I love Willie but he was not a wide receiver, he was a punt and kick returner. However, you want to talk dynamic athletic, I might put him number one, he’s right up there with Carl Pickens who was the athletic player to ever come out of the University of Tennessee. He could run, he could jump, heck, Pickens could have been on the rowing team, he could have been on the basketball team and the baseball team. He was a competitor. If I had to rate the top athletes in all sports at Tennessee, I’d say it was Carl Pickens. The most underrated receiver was Peerless Price. That year, Peerless got no publicity prior to the Fiesta Bowl. He got his notoriety off one game. At Tennessee, we have to share a hundred and fifty balls among five players.” 

The Vols didn’t not throw the ball as much as Tim would have liked during his time on Rocky Top, in fact, he says that his  catches in 1985 was a miracle because the Vols had so many receivers vying for playing time. The sheer number of close games dictated that Tim play more and get more balls thrown his way. “If we don’t’ tie UCLA and if we don’t lose to Florida and play Auburn on national TV, I don’t play all those plays. If we are playing the Vandy’s of the world and teams like Ole Miss who wasn’t very good at the time, I would have only played a half. I catch two touchdowns in the first half and in the second half, I don’t even get to play. Unselfishness is something you must have if you are going to play the wide receiver position at the University of Tennessee."

Tim became a household name in Tennessee in 1984 when he caught 54 passes. Although Tennessee had the conferences leading rusher in Johnny Jones, Tony Robinson was fifth in the conference in pass attempts with 253, which certainly pleased McGee and the Vol receiving core. In 1985 McGee was a legitimate All-American and finished the season with 50 catches for 947 yards which was good enough to lead the SEC. Tim was now a star, not only in Tennessee but nationally. At season’s end, he made an appearance on the annual Bob Hope Christmas special which produced a segment on college football All-American class. 

That 1985 team is regarded by many long time Tennessee fans as their favorite team of all time, and that includes me. The national championship season back in 1998 was special but this 1985 team had a season none of us will ever forget. The memorable wins over number one Auburn on ABC, the legendary game against Alabama at Legion field and no one will ever forget the 1986 Sugar Bowl victory over number Miami. Tim remembers the weeks leading up to that game well.

"Following the win over Vanderbilt it was a sigh of relief for the players, we made a statement to the college football world that Tennessee has arrived. Most people thought this would be the height of the season, Miami’s gonna kick our butts. We are going to lose to a more talented Miami team and I heard it all month. I got the impression from many of the media representatives that they didn’t think we even belonged on the field with Miami. I had not seen Miami on film and I thought maybe they are that good but when I did see them on film, I saw a very undisciplined team that was winning on sheer talent alone. When I saw our defensive game plan for the game I knew we had a chance.”

Everyone who follows Tennessee football knows what happened that night in the Superdome and it is a day that Tim, who now lives in Ohio, will never forget and he still enjoys talking about it. “I’ll never get tired of talking about the Sugar Bowl against Miami, what I get tired of is hearing about Ohio State.” 

When I look back on all the greats I saw play at Tennessee, I’ve got Tim McGee topping the list of Wide Receiver University. My top 10 would include McGee, Joey Kent, Stanley Morgan, Larry Seivers, Johnny Mills, Anthony Hancock, Anthony Miller, Donte Stallworth, Peerless Price and Robert Meachem. Honorable mention list would include Jayson Swain, Cedrick Wilson, Richmond Flowers and Marcus Nash. 

McGee looks back on his time on Rocky Top fondly and cherishes the relationships he made with people like Kippy Brown, Coach Majors, Joey Clinkscales, Eric Swanson, and many others. 
Tennessee fans love to look back and reminisce about the great games, coaches and players that have made their mark at Tennessee and Tim is no exception. Tennessee fans love to debate who the best of the best have been, and you can certainly debate who the best receiver was, but for me Tim McGee has topped the list since 1985 and no one I’ve seen that has come through Knoxville has been better at the position than him. Maybe one day Tennessee will recruit a receiver that is better than Tim was, but I doubt it. We love to talk legends here in Tennessee and to me there is no bigger legend than Tim McGee. When you talk classic games, no one shined more or played in more of them than Tim did and he will always be remembered as one of the greats and to me, he is the greatest of all time.