Nobody could have guessed this was coming.

Two years ago, Tennessee football reached its lowest point in program history. A 3-7 season and a flurry of NCAA violations gave way to the dismissal of head coach Jeremy Pruitt and a kicked off a mass exodus of some of the top players on the team.

Here’s a short list of those players, most of whom were starters: Eric Gray, Ty Chandler, Henry To’o To’o, Key Lawrence, Quavaris Crouch, Baylen Buchanen, Brandon Johnson, Deandre Johnson and Wanya Morris. And that’s not even the half of it.

With the firing of Pruitt came the departure of Phillip Fulmer as athletic director. The program was tearing it down and starting from scratch.

Right off the bat, newly hired AD Danny White said he would find a coach that would have the Vols on top again – soon. Many were skeptical.

At first, fans were frustrated with the hire of Josh Heupel from Central Florida. He seemed to be a coaching prospect whose team had gotten worse each year during his 3 seasons as head coach with mediocre defensive numbers. Some might have been cautiously optimistic about the idea of a fun, fresh offense. But at the time, there wasn’t much to celebrate other than that.

Now the fans have something to celebrate. That may be the understatement of the week.

Tennessee did a few monumental things Saturday against Alabama. The Vols snapped a 15-game losing streak against a bitter rival and legitimized their standing as a national championship contender, improving to 6-0 for the first time since 1998 with a 52-49 win against the Crimson Tide.

Look at this crowd. There wasn’t a security force in the nation keeping those fans from the field

Everyone who suited up Saturday night played a part in Tennessee’s win. Chase McGrath knocked the biggest kick of his life through the uprights for the game-winner. Jalin Hyatt looked like a man amongst boys. With 5 TD receptions he tied a single-game SEC record and shattered Tennessee’s record. The defense played as well as you can down 3 starters in the secondary.

But Tennessee’s journey from the bottom of the SEC to today was forged by 3 men: White, Heupel and Hendon Hooker.

The Virginia Tech transfer has a claim to the title of best football player in the nation right now. Even with a few mistakes he was calm and collected when it counted. A pass few will forget was his laser to Bru McCoy with 9 seconds remaining, setting McGrath up for a reasonable field goal.

A run through the numbers reveals why Hooker is a Heisman Trophy frontrunner: completions on 21 of 30 attempts for 381 yards and 5 touchdowns. Hooker was the catalyst for a team that scored the most points on the Crimson Tide in more than a century. Alabama’s last time seeing 52 on the opposing scoreboard predates the crossword puzzle.

It’s been said Hooker was a good quarterback who has reached a new plateau after coming to Tennessee. That’s a direct result of Heupel. The quarterback position is where it is won or lost, after all.

Tennessee always seemed like a team that was a good quarterback away from competing in this past decade. Josh Dobbs provided that in 2016, but there was no one to fill the void after his departure.

Football is supposed to be fun. Both for the players and the fans. Nobody was having fun in Knoxville 2 years ago.

Not only was it bad, it was dreary. A 3-7 record meant Tennessee’s lowest win percentage in program history. The defense allowed the 2nd most points per game in a season since 2000. In nearly every offensive category, the Vols ranked in the  bottom-5 among Tennessee teams since 2000.

White saw that upon arriving in Knoxville and made the call to a familiar face – the coach who mentored Dillon Gabriel, Sam Bradford, Drew Lock, Landry Jones and McKenzie Milton was perfect for the job and, though not planned, the perfect guy to transform Hooker into who he is today.

And White’s intuition was right. Heupel was the perfect coach for a rebuild of this caliber. He’s got a long career ahead of him and a lot of work to do, but not a soul in Knoxville expected him to beat Alabama in Year 2. For that alone he gets a pass for a good, long while.

The Vols will be receiving a few No. 1 votes in the AP poll. They’re legitimate national contenders and they have a Heisman-caliber player under center.

Let’s just go ahead and say it: Tennessee football is back.

And they’re having fun, too.