Tennessee's first losing football season in 17 years was bad enough. Losing to Vanderbilt for the first time in 23 years made it worse.

But to fully appreciate the impact of UT's 28-24 loss to Vanderbilt on Saturday, you needed to look around Neyland Stadium with one second left and a game hanging in the balance.

You needed to see all the empty seats. You needed to see how many fans had left early.

Who's going to win?

Who cares.

You saw the same thing last week against Memphis. Never mind that the game was still up for grabs in the fourth quarter. Many fans had seen enough.

The lure of a 6-5 season couldn't keep them in their seats. Neither could the hope of a lower-echelon bowl game.

The Vols beat Memphis and lost to Vanderbilt. Feel free to shrug.

This season was lost a long time ago. Nothing that happened against Memphis or Vanderbilt would change that.

The Vols were expected to challenge for an SEC and national championship. Next Saturday, they will play Kentucky in hopes of avoiding a last-place finish in the SEC East.

And don't assume they will prevail. Don't assume anything with this team.

The Vols almost lost to a Memphis team without its best player and down to its fourth option at quarterback, a mid-season convert from wide receiver. They lost to a South Carolina team that isn't nearly as talented as its record. They lost to a Vanderbilt team that had lost six consecutive games and given up 200 points in its last five.

Remember the narrow win against UAB in the season opener? That wasn't an aberration. That was a preview.

This team couldn't win Conference-USA, much less the SEC. And it's just as well it didn't win its way to a bowl game.

If it had, the company line would be: "We turned it around, finished strong and gained momentum for next season."

At least, that's what you would have heard until some Big Ten team handed UT its head in the Music City Bowl.

Face it, there's not many bowl-eligible teams that UT could beat. And as harsh as this might sound to UT head coach Phillip Fulmer, the Vols aren't the best 4-6 team in the country.

Midway through the third quarter, UT had a fourth-and-1 at the Vanderbilt 3-yard-line. The "1" was more like one inch than 1 yard.

Arian Foster rushed for 223 yards on the day. But with a first down just inches away and a touchdown 3 yards away, he lost ground against Vanderbilt's defensive surge.

The play symbolized the season. At crunch time, the Vols get crunched. And when a big play is in demand, the other guys usually make it.

You can trot out all sorts of reasons for this team's failure. Fulmer mentioned a few of them after the Vanderbilt loss: injuries to key players, a tough schedule, bad luck, a couple of questionable calls.

That's just what you don't need to hear. Here's what you do need to hear:

"We have to be accountable," Fulmer said. "It starts with me."

But if he were really intent on being accountable, he wouldn't have mentioned the schedule, the injuries, the bad luck and the calls. Instead, he would have talked about how badly he misjudged his personnel. He was wrong about his quarterbacks, wrong about his receivers, wrong about his offensive line and wrong about his running backs.

How can a head coach be so wrong about so many positions? He thought he had maybe his best offensive line, thought that he had his best collection of wide receivers, thought he had two quarterbacks with whom he could win. He was wrong, wrong, wrong.

Foster's running has been one of the bright spots of the second half of the season. His running also magnifies another coaching mistake.

Foster is clearly a better running back than Gerald Riggs, who suffered a season-ending injury against Alabama. Foster runs harder, runs with more savvy and better balance, and has more big-play potential. Why couldn't his coaches figure that out?

Fulmer talked about his players being more accountable as well. But that's just talk.

It's up to a coach to hold them accountable.

Wide receiver Robert Meachem should have been benched when he failed to extend himself on a catchable deep pass against Notre Dame. Quarterback Erik Ainge should have been benched when, under duress, he carelessly threw the ball near a Notre Dame defender.

UT established itself as a mistake-prone, poorly coached, undisciplined team in the first game. The next nine games have merely provided confirmation.

The Commodores are the latest opponent to capitalize on the Vols' shortcomings. In so doing, they did the Vols a favor.

You can't get better until you realize how bad you are.