New coach? New quarterback? No problem, right?
Just ask the 2010 national champion Auburn team, or last year’s Texas A&M squad that marched into Tuscaloosa and took down the eventual national champion.
Both are examples of teams that flourished in the situation Tennessee currently finds itself in. Add that Texas A&M was playing in a new conference and it’s even more impressive what the Aggies were able to do under conditions that most consider conducive to rebuilding.
But let’s take a shot in the dark and assume that the 2013 Tennessee quarterback — whoever he may be — won’t hoist the Heisman Trophy in December like Cam Newton and Johnny Manziel did for their respective teams above. Making assumptions is bad journalism. But that’s a safe one.
Where, then, does that leave the Vols in comparison with their SEC brethren that have recently been in the same situation?
Well, it’s not as bad as you might presume.
Ole Miss improved from 2-10 in 2011 to 7-6 last year with first year coach Hugh Freeze, and a previously unknown gunslinger from Giles County named Bo Wallace under center.
Likewise, Vanderbilt rebounded from a 2-10 campaign to go 6-7 in 2012 – seventh loss in a bowl game – in head coach James Franklin’s second season while a green Jordan Rodgers adjusted to life as a QB in the SEC.
Those teams weren’t nearly the success stories that Auburn and Texas A&M were, but they’re examples of instant improvement in the nation’s toughest league.
So, perhaps immediate success isn’t impossible for Butch Jones and Justin Worley (or Nathan
Peterman, Joshua Dobbs and Riley Ferguson).
It just requires that the beholder exercise a gauge of success that Tennessee traditionalists loathe.
On Dec. 1, 2007, Tennessee was a score away from winning the SEC championship game. Ten months later, then-athletic director Mike Hamilton decided that playing for the conference title every three years wasn’t good enough and fired Phillip Fulmer.
Three years later, Vol fans were ecstatic to make the Music City Bowl.
Since that moment in 2010, Tennessee football has, quite frankly, been a complete joke on the field.
Now, the program is coming off three losing seasons for the first time in over 100 years. Jones is entering. The team’s only offensive playmakers are exiting for the NFL. And the worst defense since the 1893 team that gave up 56 points to Kentucky is returning eight of its starters.
All of that historical context shows you where the program used to be, but also just how quickly it nosedived.
A bowl appearance for Vanderbilt is cause for celebration. At Ole Miss it’s not as special; but it’s usually a respected feat.
At Tennessee bowl berths are a given. Or at least they should be. They are for anyone who followed the program before Dooley took over. So there’s two ways to measure success. One way is to base it on program pride and history, and the other is to swallow some pride and use the yard sticks of your foes that have tread the water before you.
Tennessee fans must do the latter during the 2013 season, just like they did during Derek Dooley’s first year when the team rallied late to make the Music City Bowl.
If Jones can pull off what Freeze and Franklin did in their first years and take the Vols to a 6-6 record in 2013, he might deserve to be SEC Coach of the Year.
A .500 record would likely keep the marvelous recruiting class of 2014 that Jones is assembling happy.
But it’s going to require the emergence of veterans like Rajion Neal as leaders in what should be a vastly improved running game behind a rock solid offensive line.
It’s going to require an epiphany on the part of a secondary, which successfully made Troy look like the New England Patriots.
It’s going to require that someone be able to kick a field goal longer than 35 yards.
It’s going to require students actually attending games, imploring UT to wins over teams like Western Kentucky and Vanderbilt. Talk about swallowing your pride.
So the answer to the question is, wrong. There’s a new coach and a new quarterback, but UT faces its fair share of problems heading into the season. Don’t let unreasonable fan expectation be another one.
Acknowledge that if the Vols can follow in the footsteps of the recent Vanderbilt and Ole Miss teams and become bowl eligible in a transition year, then Jones will have accomplished an incredible feat.
David Cobb is a junior in journalism and electronic media. He can be followed on Twitter @DavidWCobb.
