Coach Duggs Is a National Champion and the Tennessee Brand Has Never Been Hotter

For the first time since 1998, the Tennessee Volunteers are national champions thanks to Coach Gus Duggerton and his two seasons of work on Rocky Top. What a moment it was for Coach Duggs and the Vols when the final pass was intercepted and the confetti fell on the orange-and-white-clad champs.

It just feels good to get a little taste of what it's going to feel like when Big Jeremy Pruitt and the gang win one of those things for real here in a couple years. And if you're one of the people screaming from the rooftops about how it's just a video game, you're either a square like Norm Wood or absolutely terrified of how hot the Tennessee brand is right now. There were more people watching Coach Duggs win a national title with the Vols than attended Tennessee's 2016 clash with Virginia Tech at Bristol Motor Speedway, which was the highest-attended college football game of all-time.

Tennessee currently has the No. 2 recruiting class in the country for the 2021 class and those recruits just watched — alongside more than 150,000 others — the Vols win a national title in conjunction with the hottest brand in sports media. That, by the way, is in addition to finishing the season with six straight wins, the second-longest active winning streak in the Power Five behind only fellow national champion LSU. Who's got it better than us?

I just want to thank Coach Duggs for bringing a title back to Rocky Top. I didn't know if I'd ever see one in my lifetime, but here we are. And if this is indeed the end of the road for him in Knoxville, it's been one hell of a ride. That flag will fly forever.