Keep it simple, and hey, I don’t think you’re stupid

This week during Big Orange Give, someone from the university gave me a Power T sticker for the letter T on my keyboard. It’s the simplest thing. And maybe these have been around for years and years and I’ve just been oblivious. But all week, it’s made me grin to look down and see it there between the R and the Y. It’s small, but it stands out.

What stands out in the football conversation this week? We’re all new to 12-team playoff committee rankings, and have very little experience listening for our name in playoff conversations at all. In that first bracket last week, it felt surreal to see us there, at least to me; the latest piece of gratitude for how far this place has come.

It was a similar feeling two seasons ago, when the Vols were atop the initial rankings. That too stood out and made me grin, Tennessee’s name with the number one next to it.

It didn’t last, for reasons that had much to do with Georgia. And that was okay; the ride was still exhilarating, still new, and opportunity was indeed still out there.

This set of rankings has led to more consternation. Again, we’re light on experience here, in part alongside the whole country. Everyone other than Oregon is probably feeling some anxiety. But I’ve heard a lot more this week on what will happen to the Vols if they lose than how we can, you know, win.

As the bubble creeps into our football vocabulary, so too does this idea from basketball: Saturday is probably the hardest ask. Plenty of great Tennessee teams have found their way to Rupp Arena in February, where we’ve pointed out the truth that, hey, beating this Kentucky team on the road is actually more challenging than anything we’d have to do in the NCAA Tournament. We knew coming in that winning at Georgia would be the most difficult Saturday of the season.

But don’t lose the plot. If you’re in the playoff conversation, you’re in the championship conversation. You’re here believing Tennessee can give themselves a chance to win the whole thing. In FPI and Kelley Ford’s ratings, the best team in the nation is Alabama. The Vols would be about +4 in Knoxville if we ran that back this weekend, which is about where it was when it actually happened, and it actually happened, again. In those ratings, the Vols should be about +6 in Athens this weekend instead of the +10 where we’re hanging out right now in real life.

But in this very real life, Tennessee can give themselves a chance to make anything actually happen. And if we’re there – especially if we’re there after all these years somewhere else – perhaps we should spend more time enjoying questions not about what’ll happen if we lose on Saturday, but how we can win.

Nico Iamaleava’s health and the uncertainty of his status complicates that conversation, and rightfully so. So let’s focus on what we do know:

Tennessee Defense National Rankings

How many teams scored 20+ points on a Tennessee defense, 1989-present

• Four: 1989, 1996, 2005
• Three: 1993, 1998
• Zero: 2024

Again, that is absurd.

It’s been absurd all year, and it’s been somewhat obscured all year. In part because this team is elite in a different way than we thought they’d be. And in part because defense can be less exciting to talk about. Note the 1993 Vols up there; longtime readers here may already know I’m getting ready to say they’re the highest-rated team in SP+ in program history. But I/we always refer to them as “Heath Shuler’s Vols”, when in fact that defense – Shane Bonham, Scott Galyon, Ben Talley, DeRon Jenkins, Jason Parker, etc. – was flat getting after dudes all year too.

The only other Vol squad in the Top 25 era to surrender 20+ points just three times is the 1998 national champions. And even they had flashes of vulnerability to Donovan McNabb and Anthony Lucas; maybe Georgia’s talent will create similar opportunities. But you and I have both already seen this group hold Alabama’s offense – currently third in the nation in SP+ – to four yards per play.

Whatever happens on Saturday, we’ll have the conversation that follows it. Any version of that conversation will probably include some, “But what if we lose to Vanderbilt?!”; the bracket courts chaos.

But Tennessee’s defense has brought order all year, small font in preseason making the biggest, simplest difference every single Saturday.

Let’s worry about what’ll happen when we lose if we do. Until then, with this team and this defense? Let’s go win this thing.

Because that remains the biggest prize: the ability to say let’s go win them all.

Go Vols.