Welcome back, Tennessee. You’ve been missed.

Well, let me rephrase that. You, Tennessee, have missed being atop the college football world. You’ve spent the last 2 decades telling yourself that 1 break here or there would’ve brought you back to the throne. And as you know all too well, not everything “feels like ’98.”

Saturday in Neyland Stadium didn’t feel like ’98. It felt like 2022, and that’s a darn good thing.

You see, in 1998, there wasn’t a Goliath standing in the way of college football immortality like the 2022 version of Alabama. As in, the overwhelming preseason No. 1 team in America who played in 6 of the last 7 national championships and beat Tennessee 15 consecutive times.

Finally, Goliath went down and cigar smoke went up into the Rocky Top air. As in, cigar smoke from the home team.

Tennessee didn’t just take down the Tide for the first time since 2006, nor was it simply that the Vols finally ended a 28-game losing streak against AP Top 5 teams and a 39-game losing streak against AP Top 10 teams. Never mind the fact that there were people smoking cigars who weren’t even old enough to remember the last time the Vols were ranked in the top 6 of the AP Poll.

Saturday was more than that. When Chase McGrath’s knuckling kick sailed through the Neyland Stadium uprights, Tennessee finally stopped being the butt of the joke.

Imagine that.

No “champions of life.” No awkward checkered pants. No turnover trash can. No coach lawsuits. No Peyton Manning curse. No thrown golf balls or mustard bottles.

Just pure, college football bliss.

For once, the college football gods looked down on Tennessee and granted it the wish it begged for the last 15 years.

Yes, it’s better that Bryce Young was out there, healthy, looking like the Heisman version of himself. We can talk about the issues with the Tennessee secondary later. For now, we should probably focus on the fact that the Heisman Trophy winner threw for 455 yards and lost. Will Reichard’s missed 50-yard kick with 15 seconds left set Tennessee up with what might end up being the “Heisman moment” for the next winner.

Some would argue that 1 of Hooker’s 5 touchdown passes to Jalin Hyatt would be more worthy. I’d argue that the 27-yard dart to Bru McCoy was perhaps a better reflection of Hooker’s resilience. Hooker hung tough in the pocket instead of taking a sack that inevitably would’ve forced overtime.

On a day in which leading returning receiver Cedric Tillman remained sidelined with an ankle injury, Hooker performed exactly as Tennessee fans could’ve hoped. He was surgical. Even his misses — there were only 9 — seemed to feel like missed opportunities. Like, when he had Ramel Keyton wide open but the veteran receiver cut his route short instead of hauling in a walk-in touchdown. One of Hooker’s lone misses came when he sailed a throw to McCoy and ended his streak of 262 passes without an interception, which marked the 3rd longest stretch in SEC history.

But that didn’t matter. What mattered was that Hooker hung blow for blow with Young and was also the best version of himself. When his receivers were covered, he used his legs to navigate the Alabama defense. When he recognized Hyatt had a mismatch, he hit him perfectly in stride, usually for 6:

Last year, Hooker and the Vols put up 24 points in Tuscaloosa, which marked the team’s best offensive output against the Tide in 18 years. On Saturday, he more than doubled that. I mean, the guy led the Vols to 21 first-quarter points. Alabama hadn’t allowed an opening quarter like that since the Sugar Bowl at the end of the 2008 season.

It begs the question — hello, Heisman?

For all the great individual performances we’ve seen against Alabama to vault guys to the Heisman Trophy, think about this. Cam Newton, Johnny Manziel and Joe Burrow took down the Tide en route to the award. Hooker had more touchdowns (5) than all of them in their Alabama victories, and he had just 16 fewer total yards than Burrow when he lit up the Tide for 46 points, which was obviously 6 fewer than what the Vols just hung on Saban’s defense.

Yes, the sport is different now than it was when Newton or Manziel were doing their thing, and no, Alabama’s defense isn’t on that level even if it does have arguably the best individual player of the bunch in Will Anderson. It also helps when Alabama commits a Saban era-record 17 (!) penalties for 130 yards. It’s safe to say a raucous Neyland Stadium atmosphere might’ve had something to do with that, too.

Alabama had been playing with fire in true road games — 4 of the previous 6 were decided by 3 points or less — and it finally got burned. It doesn’t necessarily mean the Tide’s season is suddenly over with 1 loss. Obviously, Alabama is still in control of its own Playoff destiny.

Crazy enough, though, so is Tennessee. The Vols still have the Georgia game coming up in 3 weeks, and a home game against Kentucky is the only other current AP Top 25 game left on the schedule. Could Tennessee theoretically lose against UGA and still make the Playoff as a non-division winner at 11-1? Absolutely.

But there’s more time to have that discussion/argument.

Saturday night was about watching the true revival of Tennessee football. Beating Florida was a boost. Beating Alabama was rocket fuel on Rocky Top.

It’ll take Tennessee fans days to come off the high of finally taking down Alabama. Shoot, who are we kidding? Tennessee fans will be telling their future kids and grandkids about the day the Tide finally came crashing down at Neyland. Lord knows they waited long enough for a moment like that.

Before he was handed a box of cigars, an emotional Josh Heupel tried to put in perspective what it meant to see the scene in Knoxville.

“It’s about this team, it’s for our former players and our fans,” Heupel told CBS. “We know what this means. Everybody’s lighting a cigar tonight.”

One of those former players was Erik Ainge. It was Ainge who previously held the dubious distinction of “last Tennessee quarterback to beat Alabama.” Ainge, now 36 years old with 3 kids, was in the house on Saturday. He was one of thousands who snuck a cigar into the stadium. Earlier in the week, Ainge predicted that Hooker would lead the Vols to a 3-point win and that he’d ultimately no longer be associated with Tennessee’s Alabama angst. Ainge was right, but little did he or anyone know the instant classic that would unfold.

It’s safe to say we might have a new phrase to describe optimism on Rocky Top.

“Feels like ’22.”