Packer: Times are good, despite what naysayers say

Photo by Joe Howell

Tennessee head coach Phillip Fulmer leads the team to Neyland Stadium on Saturday before the Southern Miss game. Quarterback Erik Ainge wears a cast on a broken finger. The Vols won 39-19, improving their season record to 1-1.

University of Tennessee fans are spoiled rotten, spoiled with teams that fight for championships every year. And, here we are again with a football team fighting for an SEC championship and fans are calling for the head coach’s head.

It’s the old theory that the glass can be either half full or half empty. The are people out there who will put their spin on the numbers to make it look like doom and gloom have set in with the football program. But, when I took the option to order my tickets to the SEC championship, if the Vols can win their last three conference games, it dawned on me how truly ridiculous all this talk is in Knoxville about needing a change at the top.

Tell the University of Nebraska that firing Frank Solich was the best move and I’ll bet you that you would get some Husker fans who would change his opinion from what it was just a few years ago. Notre Dame has gone through more football coaches than Tennessee has basketball coaches over the years and they’re still looking for their savior.

The more I looked at the numbers of the entire athletic program at UT, the more it hit me that we might well be in the middle of one of the greatest times in the program’s history.

For all the trials and tribulations the football team has put fans through this year, the team is still wins over Arkansas, Vanderbilt and Kentucky away from another trip to the title game in Atlanta. And, the Vols should be favored to win each one of those games.

The basketball team will start the season in the top 10. The No. 7 ranking is the highest the Vols have been since reaching number No. 4 in the 1998-99 season. Thompson-Boling Arena has been given a multi-million dollar facelift and in the eyes of some is the most impressive college basketball venue in America.

Las Vegas has also taken note of what Bruce Pearl has accomplished. According to the experts, the Vols have the sixth best odds of any team in the country of winning a national championship.

The Vols odds are 12 to 1 of winning it all this year. The only teams with better odds are North Carolina, UCLA, Memphis, Kansas and Louisville. Teams below the Vols are Georgetown at 15 to 1, Duke at 18 to 1, Arizona at 20 to 1, Kentucky at 25 to 1 and Florida at 75 to 1. Pearl has officially put the Vols on the elite national level and the nation has paid attention.

The Lady Vols are the defending national champions and are the consensus favorites to repeat. Pat Summitt and her Lady Vols will start the season ranked No. 1 again this season. They have the premier player in women’s college basketball who might be the best to ever play the game.

In looking back over the past 15 years, this has the potential to be the best yet. Over that period, the 1997 produced the highest winning percentage among all three major sports of 86 percent. Of 81 games during the 1997-98 school year, the football, basketball and women’s basketball teams won 70. The football team won the SEC championship. The Lady Vols won the national championship and the Vols basketball team finished 20-9.

The winning percentage in 1998 was a little lower at 84 percent with a combined record of 65-12. However, it’s the year that fans look back on because of the national championship in football. The Lady Vols won the SEC championship that year and the Vols went 21-9 and won the SEC East in basketball.

Since the 1998 season, only one year has the overall winning percentage dipped below 70. That was 2004 when the Vols went 14-17 in men’s basketball, the Lady Vols lost five games, and the football team lost three, but played in the SEC championship game.

Look, everybody has a way of taking the numbers of each program and slanting them to win their argument. But, by looking at the numbers and championships, it is possible for the football team to win one this year. It is probably even more likely that we will look back on this year and talk about SEC, and possibly national championships for both the Vols and Lady Vols in basketball.

You can put whatever spin you want to on UT athletics. You can choose to be miserable in the middle of a possible championship season for all three sports and see the glass as half empty. Or, you can do what I’m doing and enjoy what could be one of the best years in school history with championships in several areas.

I’m not so blind to see that the football team has looked less than “Vol-like” against Florida and Alabama in the second halves of both games. But, what is very “Vol-like” is to beat all three teams left on the schedule. If that happens, I’ll see you in Atlanta!”

Mark Packer hosts the Locker Room, presented by Parkwest Medical Center, on Sunday at 10 p.m. on MyVLT2.

© 2007, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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