MEMPHIS -- Only after Tennessee's first road game of the season could you say David Cutcliffe was truly back home.

Never mind that he was hired way back in December for a second tour of duty as UT's quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator. Or that he introduced UT players to his way of doing things in the spring.

He wasn't all the way back home until the final score was posted on the scoreboard Saturday at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium: Tennessee 41, Memphis 7.

The game was right out of the mid-to-late 1990s when the Vols didn't go a month without blowing out an opponent; when the defense dominated and the offense put on a show; when head coach Phillip Fulmer, defensive coordinator John Chavis, and Cutcliffe were building toward a national championship.

It was a 1990s kind of game for the offense, and a Peyton Manning kind of game for quarterback Erik Ainge. The Vols piled up 566 yards, and Ainge completed 23 of 27 passes for 324 yards and four touchdowns.

And it was the kind of game UT fans dreamed of when Fulmer rehired Cutcliffe after a dreadful 2005 season.

A month into the 2006 season, Ainge qualifies as the comeback player of the year in college football; the man who coaches him is a leading candidate for the Broyles Award, which goes to the best assistant coach in the country.

Not that Cutcliffe wants to hear any of this. He looked almost as uncomfortable as the Memphis defense when someone hinted that his offense had played a complete game.

"I don't know if we're right there yet," he said. "We're having fun coaching them. What is good is the way we're working in practice."

Mention a great game, and he talks about practice. Mention what the Vols did against the outmanned Tigers, and he talks about Georgia. Mention what a huge hand he has had in UT's resurgence, and he talks about everybody else.

"I'm obviously a very small cog in all of this," he said.

Note to anyone who saw last year's offense: He actually said that with a straight face.

An offense that didn't score 30 points in a regulation game last season has scored 30 or more in four of five games this season. And Ainge has gone from one of the least effective to one of the most productive quarterbacks in the SEC.

Last season, Ainge completed 45.5 percent of his passes for 737 yards and five touchdowns. Through five games this season, he has completed 69.9 percent of his passes for 1,389 yards and 12 touchdowns.

Cutcliffe has improved Ainge and the offense. He also has come close to a goal that seemed laughable when he first said it.

"I want to score at least 30 points every game," he said after assuming command of an offense marked more by question marks than accomplishments.

"I meant that about scoring 30 points," he said Saturday. "It's tough in this day and time. But why would you set it any lower?

"Look at the history of Tennessee. When we score 30 points, we (usually) win easily."

The victory over Memphis was easy even by the standards of the 1990s. Obviously, it takes two teams headed in different directions to produce such an outcome.

Memphis had two weeks to implement a new defense for UT. Judging by Saturday's performance, two months wouldn't have been enough time.

The Tigers looked so helpless against UT's offense, it's a wonder the Memphis faithful (assuming there is such a thing) didn't start chanting "Bring back, Joe Lee."

Joe Lee Dunn is the former Memphis defensive coordinator whom head coach Tommy West fired after the Tigers' 1-2 start. West then appointed himself defensive coordinator and spent an open-date week revamping a defense he thought had underachieved.

"I did a poor job preparing our football team for this game (Saturday)," West said.

No one would argue.

And no one would argue that the Vols were primed to take advantage of a fragile opponent -- just as they did in their heyday.

From 1995 through 1998, Cutcliffe's UT offenses scored 40 or more points 17 times. Until Saturday, UT had gone 20 consecutive games without scoring as many as 40 points.

But don't even suggest that the offense has arrived.

"I'm anxious to get back and get started on Georgia," Cutcliffe said. "It's a huge challenge."