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By Paul Newberry
The Associated Press
Welcome back, Rocky Top. How long have you been away? Fifteen years! Has it really be that long?
In some ways, it seems like only yesterday Tennessee was a Southeastern Conference powerhouse -- the program of Johnny Majors and Phillip Fulmer, of Peyton Manning and Reggie White, of major bowls and national titles.
Then again, the glory days must feel like a lifetime ago to the orange-clad faithful.
Embarrassing losses, inept coaches and a decade-and-a-half-long banishment to the island of irrelevance in the the country's mightiest football conference can do that to a fan base, even one that turns out 100,000-strong on game day.
Turns out, all the Volunteers needed was the right guy in charge.
Josh Heupel, Oklahoma's national championship-winning quarterback from a generation ago, established himself as one of the nation's top offensive minds during his head coaching debut at Central Florida.
There were certainly doubts that Heupel's track meet of a scheme could work in the SEC, that it was a bit too gimmicky to succeed against defensive masterminds like Nick Saban and Kirby Smart.
But led by dynamic quarterback Hendon Hooker, the Vols hung 52 points on Saban and the mighty Alabama Crimson Tide in a stunning upset. The Vols lead the nation with just under 50 points a game overall.
Heupel's hyper-speed offense has been the calling card of Tennessee's return to greatness.
Heupel's first season at Tennessee produced a modest 7-6 record that included blowout losses to Alabama, Georgia and Florida. Yet averaging 40 points a game was a hint that the Vols weren't going to be hanging with the SEC's bottom-feeders much longer.
On Saturday, just three weeks removed from snapping a 16-year losing streak to Alabama, the cigar-chomping Vols (8-0) aim for a potentially more significant triumph.
In essence, this is the start of the College Football Playoff, matching Tennessee -- tied for second in The Associated Press poll and No. 1 in the CFP standings -- against the reigning national champions.
Smart's Georgia Bulldogs (8-0) are ranked No. 1 by the AP and third by the CFP. It's a program that knocked Alabama from its pedestal a year ago and has no intention of giving up the top rung on the ladder so quickly to another climber from the eastern side of the conference.
Even if the Vols lose this game, it's clear they aren't going back to where they were. Tennessee has broken free from the doubts and negativity that clung to Rocky Top like a thick fog.
Tennessee finished No. 1 in 1998 and has been trying to get back there ever since. It was a modest decline at first, interrupted by a run to the 2007 SEC championship game. LSU knocked off Tennessee 21-14 for the league title.
LSU went on to capture the national championship. At Tennessee, the wheels fell off.
Fulmer was forced out as coach after one more season, his 16 years at the helm ending with a 5-7 campaign. Then the coaching merry-go-round began spinning.
Good luck keeping up.
Lane Kiffin made it through a single season before bolting for USC. Derek Dooley proved he wasn't the spitting image of his father Vince, lasting just three overmatched years before his pink slip. Butch Jones survived five seasons, but an embarrassing 0-8 mark in the SEC -- and, yep, even a loss to lowly Vanderbilt -- sealed his fate in 2017.
If the Vols didn't think things could get any worse … wrong.
Enter Jeremy Pruitt, whose trainwreck of a tenure bottomed out with a 3-7 mark in 2020, fired for major NCAA violations. A stampede of players jostled for a spot in the transfer portal.
It's almost beyond belief how everything changed in roughly 21 months, largely because of one man's hiring.
Tennessee already has toppled five Top 25-ranked teams. Now, the Vols are attempting to pull off a feat that hasn't been done since 2004 -- defeat Florida, Alabama and Georgia in the same season.
Well done, Coach Heupel.
Rocky Top is, indeed, back.
Paul Newberry is the national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at pnewberry@ap.org