Ah yes, the vaunted 5-4-5 defense. Admittedly it was really tough to get yards against.
Hard to believe we're in the same conference and that 2010 game was the last time UT came to Tiger Stadium. I could've sworn our return game in 2011 was our last trip to Knoxville, but the interwebz tells me we played there in 2017. I must be getting old, because all games through about 2014 are seared into my memory, never to be forgotten, but I can't remember half the games from last year. I have zero recollection of playing Tennessee in 2017. That would've been when Danny Etling was our QB.....who was theirs? Says we won by 20 and we sucked....how bad was UT in 2017, and why wasn't that game interesting enough to remember?
We haven't played much over the years, but UT is 20-10-3 against us all-time. I doubt that gets any prettier for us this weekend.
Nevertheless, I think a realistic approach to this season is looking for the correct signs of progression, not so much the wins. It can't be overstated how bad of shape O left the roster. Kelly turned over the entire staff--direct and peripheral--and had to get a lot of kids from the portal to fill out the team. New staff, new kids, young kids....I think you just want to see that they're developing at this point. They seem to be. It's not gonna be much comfort when they run the gauntlet, tho.