How Bill Battle's decision helped turn the 1974 season

Bill Battle didn’t hesitate.

Seconds after Stanley Morgan dove into the corner of the south end zone at Neyland Stadium, the Tennessee head coach lifted two fingers into the air.

Battle wanted to go for the win.

The Vols had been here before. More than a month earlier, Condredge Holloway, Tennessee’s dazzling quarterback who after making a dramatic return from the hospital midway through its game against UCLA, led the Vols to a game-tying drive that ended with him being up-ended into the end zone.

It was the kind of sacrifice that anyone who had watched Holloway make over the last three years had grown accustomed to.

An injured shoulder on the same play convinced Battle to settle for the tie. Injuries plagued Holloway the rest of that 1974 season.

But with little time left and a one-point deficit against Clemson on Oct. 26, Battle was going to give Holloway a chance to win it.

It was Tennessee’s go-to two-point play. It had run it earlier in the game with positive results, but this one looked like it was going to be blown up from the start.

Then Holloway magic happened, the kind that turned the Vols’ season around. He rolled to his right, reversed his field as a couple of Tigers defenders closed in. Then with one of them draped around his waist, he lofted a pass to Larry Seivers.

The reliable Seivers hauled it in before being rushed by cheerleaders, a suit-case toting Gus Manning and eventually teammates.

Tennessee, which needed a win in the worst way, got it with a 28-27 triumph.

“Nobody said it,” Battle told reporters after the game. “But this was a game we needed to win.”

The Vols entered that day winners in just two of their previous six games. There was the tie with UCLA, which was followed by a win over Kansas.

Tennessee was blanked by Auburn on the road, 21-0 in week 3 and responded by beating Tulsa at home.

But defeats to LSU and Alabama—the Vols’ fourth-straight loss to the Crimson Tide—had put them at a crossroads heading into a non-conference clash with Clemson.

The result was a thrilling finish that virtually began Tennessee’s season anew.

Inside the Vols’ locker room, moments before the game that would determine the success or failure of their season, though, Battle went off script.

“I wanted somehow to loosen them up,” Battle said. “So I told them a joke. The situation was grim.”

Other than Battle’s postgame regaling, the following day’s sports pages didn’t elaborate on what the joke was that he told his team, other than it seemed to work.

“It was funny,” senior tackle Bob Pulliam recalled to the scribes. “I think it helped us be a little looser.”

In a game that had the back-and-forth of a prize fight up until the final seconds, being loose counted for a lot.

Tennessee needed to be after the Tigers marched 80 yards to take a 14-13 lead just before halftime. Or when Ricky Townsend missed a go-ahead field goal and had another blocked in the third quarter.

Clemson capped a 73-yard drive with another touchdown to put the Vols on the ropes early in the fourth, putting them behind, 21-13.

It took about 90 seconds for Tennessee to respond, and when it needed to most.

Stanley Morgan, who had earlier been on the receiving end of a 65-yard scoring toss from Holloway, scored again on a 33-yard run to bring the Vols within one.

The two-point play followed, with Holloway rolling to his right and finding enough room to score and draw even at 21-21.

But just as Tennessee had found new life, the Tigers came back to take it out of them.

This time it was a long touchdown run from Don Testerman, whose off-tackle burst gave Clemson a 28-21 advantage.

Seven minutes and 83 yards stood between the Vols and their season. Their response was nearly flawless.

In a final charge led by Holloway, Tennessee didn’t lose a single yard. All 16 plays went for positive yardage. Two of them included scrambles for Holloway that combined for 10 yards.

The two biggest runs of the drive, however, came from Morgan. The South Carolina native took one pitchout that put the Vols inside the 10.

He took another on the next play, ran wide before cutting inside and beat the outstretched arms of three Clemson defenders for his third touchdown.

Tennessee still had to go for two, and the Tigers defense couldn’t have played it better. But “The Artful Dodger” was in vintage form, and Clemson had no defense against him.

“Condredge Holloway looked like the guy I used to know,” Vols’ co-captain Jim Watts said. “He was great.”

Tennessee didn’t lose again. The Vols thumped Memphis State the following week, then Ole Miss and Kentucky before tying Vanderbilt in its regular season finale.

They finished off a seven-win season with a 7-3 victory over Maryland in the Liberty Bowl in a most fitting way: a late touchdown pass from Randy Wallace to Seivers. 

“It sure was our turn,” Seivers said. “This is the first good thing to happen to our team in a long time. I believe it is the start of something good.”