So I watched part of the Tennessee-Vanderbilt game Saturday while on a Zoom call with some friends from college. I went to SUNY Geneseo for undergrad, which as I am sure you all know is settled in the hotbed of college football known as western New York (note: this is sarcasm).

My friends aren’t huge college football fans, but it got me to wondering: If they watched this game, would they become college football fans?  I can’t imagine a scenario in which that would happen. Was this game a prime example of the immense beauty of the sport?  No, no it was not. But I can tell you wholeheartedly that Tennessee does not care in the least. For the 1st time in more than 2 months, the Vols won a college football game. Victory bells rang from Mountain City to Memphis (note: this is more sarcasm) as Tennessee snapped a 6-game losing streak, beating the Commodores 42-17.

The reality is that this was a Vanderbilt team with only 49 scholarship players. They had only 18 players on defense. The Commodores were also a team that entered the game at 0-8. Vanderbilt is as bad a football team as we’ve seen in the SEC in quite some time.

And they were leading the Vols 10-7 in the 2nd quarter.

That all said, Tennessee rolled up on their opponent. Harrison Bailey finally got a chance to show what he could do for a majority of a game, and he wasn’t half bad. Bailey went 14-of-18 for 207 yards and 2 touchdowns. Yes, he had a fumble when he was hit as he threw, but he also had no interceptions. Backup J.T. Shrout also got a bunch of playing time, but he didn’t look nearly as impressive. Shrout was 6-of-13 for 90 yards and 2 scores, and he had an awful interception in the 4th quarter.

Tennessee’s 540 yards of offense against the Commodores was well above their 338-yard average. Also, I’m not sure Tennessee has scored 42 points as a team in a game since the Obama administration (even though 1 touchdown was from defensive back Bryce Thompson on a pick-6).

The Vols defense made some mistakes, but it looked as good as it has in a few weeks. Tennessee’s special teams made all 6 extra points with new kicker Toby Wilson. They even converted on a fake punt, with Paxton Brooks connecting on a 31-yard hookup to Henry To’o To’o.

This was all encouraging!

The talk this week in Knoxville has been around the future of Jeremy Pruitt as Tennessee’s head coach. He’s in his 3rd year as the Vols head coach. Another 3rd-year coach at his school, Dan Mullen, had Florida in the discussion for the College Football Playoff until Saturday’s loss to LSU. Tennessee is a mere 16-18 under Pruitt, with an 0-9 record against Alabama, Georgia and Florida. Next week, they will likely fall to a really good Texas A&M team to drop to further under .500 under Pruitt.

I don’t think this victory over Vanderbilt does very much to ease the fears of Vols fans. Again, this was a historically bad Commodores team. But at a minimum, it shows that Tennessee can lay into an inferior opponent and prove that, yes, they can close out a game. This win should silence the talk of Pruitt being fired. As I’ve been saying for months, the concept of Tennessee AD Phillip Fulmer firing Pruitt, and Tennessee paying an 8-figure buyout during a pandemic, is just too much for me to believe.

That doesn’t mean that I believe Pruitt is gong to succeed at Tennessee … but for at least a week, the sun is shining on Rocky Top.