Tennessee football: we’re back, baby!

Ordinarily, I wouldn’t comment on observations like this one –

It’ll be a couple of years yet before we know if the Lane Kiffin experiment at Tennessee is a success or a failure. I’d caution against reading much from the game against Florida, or out of this season in general. But I am more optimistic about the future now than I was when he was hired. And I’m hoping it works out, because if Georgia football bloggers’ foreheads burst like they have been while the guy is losing, they’ll be beyond apoplectic when he’s winning. That will be fun to watch.

for all the usual reasons: to each his own, eye of the beholder, yada, yada, yada.  Except in this case it’s such a lovely distillation of the mindset of the Vol Nation I can’t resist.

I mean, this is what it boils down to now for them.  The team sports a losing record, like last year.  It’s lost to UCLA and Florida, like last year.  It’s defense is good, like last year.  Jonathan Crompton is the quarterback, like last year.  The offense is feeble at best, like last year.  And yet, Tennessee football is back for these folks, simply because its coach is very capable at drawing attention to himself.  (And he’s actually expressed it in more skeptical terms than most of his fellow travelers in orange.)

Really, what else is there?  As David Hale noted,

But think about this for a second: A two-score loss to a top-10 team in which your offense struggles to fewer than 250 yards total, the QB looks bad, but the defense is surprisingly effective.

When Tennessee does it, it means every pundit in the country loves them and Lane Kiffin is the next big thing.

When Georgia did it three weeks ago, it was the death knell of the Mark Richt era in Athens and perhaps the end of the world as we know it.

Amazing. And the Vols fans can only wish Crompton was suffering from the flu.

Look, I expect UT to get better, although given the quarterback situation and the likelihood that Eric Berry will turn pro after this season, it probably won’t happen as quickly as Vol fans might hope.  But all the chest beating over the attention paid to Junior’s antics as a sign the program is already relevant again is, well, unconvincing.  Especially when you contrast Tennessee’s 2009 record with that of Auburn’s, a school that essentially followed the same off season path, albeit with much less bombast.

Those two schools meet October 3rd.  It’ll be interesting to take stock of everyone’s position about the Tennessee program after that game.

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UPDATE: Brian Cook elaborates further.

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UPDATE #2: A little mockery at Capstone Report.