Oh Me of Little Faith

We own Georgia.

There, I said it. I feel better now. Half a hundred one year. Twenty-eight-to-zip lead at halftime this year on our way to a 35-14 Tennessee waltz. Mark Richt is 0-6 in his last six SEC East games. Phillip Fulmer is 5-1 in his.

Oh yeah, and we still own Alabama until we don’t anymore, which I don’t see happening this year.

Call me confident, whatever. I realize it’s College Football 2007. Anything can happen. Don’t take what I’m saying wrong.

And I’m too stupid to have realized this already. You can think I’m being a prick. You can think I’m talking smack. You can think I’m crazy, but we own Georgia and Alabama recently like Florida owns us.

And yes, I’m still sick about giving up 59 points to Florida. Absolutely sick about it. But you know what? The Gators are dead to me. “Dead like your dead mother,” as Jon Voight says in the comedy classic “Zoolander: International Male Model.” They have two losses. They have a slew of disciplinary issues and a coach who refuses to be a disciplinarian. They’re better than Tennessee, but you know what? Screw ‘em. They’re no longer controlling UT. We’ll enjoy that while we can, thank you very much.

After Mark Richt owned Tennessee in his first few years, he’s simply gotten out-schemed and the Georgia players have been out-classed by the Vols the past two years. I don’t understand this, either. I’m just stating fact. But Saturday, UT controlled the line of scrimmage, we ran at will, we played defense, we (gasp!) looked fantastic on special teams.

We witnessed Tennessee football, and we saw just how ridiculously nasty David Cutcliffe’s offense can be when staked to a lead. It frustrates defenses, and it controls the clock. It demoralizes. (Remember the good ol’ days? We at least visited there again.) And I never, ever saw it coming. I don’t think I was alone.

Call me crazy, but UT still has a chance for 11-2 and the SEC Championship game (though that record is laughable considering once/if we got there, we’d have to play LSU, that’s a real football team). Seriously, the two biggest hurdles remaining are South Carolina (physical and can beat you in any facet of the game) and Arkansas (just a horrible, horrible matchup). If you think I’m predicting the Vols will win out, you’re crazy. I realize a schedule with MSU, Bama, South Carolina, Arkansas, Kentucky and Vanderbilt probably has a bump or two in it. I know that. But just the prospects of controlling our own destiny is unbelievable to me less than a month after allowing nearly 60 to the Gators.

Everybody who watched that UF game knows that the game was much closer than the final score indicated. But UT just let it spiral out of control. Now, I look at the two Vols losses and see Cal as the No. 2 team in the country with a legitimate chance to run the table, and a Florida team that you almost have to check off as a Vols loss every year. It makes me feel a little better about the very, very young but confident team in orange right now.

For Bama, the two teams its fans ridiculed during its 3-0 start are looking pretty darn good right now. Don’t think a win over Georgia in such a huge situation can start a river of momentum for a young team? Look at Auburn’s win at Florida last week and what ensued this week. (I know it was Vanderbilt, but goodness, the Tigers looked salty.) These are 18-22-year-old kids. It happens.

Am I back on the Fulmer bandwagon? Heck no. Not yet. I’m dragging behind the wagon with a hand on and a hand off. There’s unfinished business. And UT is always fantastic coming off bye weeks. But I know one thing: Neyland Stadium regained a little bit of mystique yesterday while a young (and looking good for the future) Georgia team searched for answers and while Alabama was biting its fingernails against a Houston team not nicknamed the Texans.

We’ll know a little more about the Vols in two weeks, and I’m not naive enough to think that will be easy. It never is. But I’m not gonna lie. I’m cautiously optimistic about the rest of the season. Defensively, the Vols were world-beaters against UGA, and with Britton Colquitt kicking off and punting, it virtually ensures that we won’t give up many huge gains on special teams.

I said I wouldn’t pick the Vols until they showed me something. Well, consider me shown. I’m impressed. Now, can they build off it? IF so, Phillip Fulmer should completely quiet us critics. The Vols proved they could do it Saturday.

The rest of the season awaits.

Ghost of Neyland