“Well, you wake up in the morning, you hear the work bell ring. And they march you to the table to see the same old thing. Ain’t no food upon the table, and no pork up in the pan. But you better not complain, boy, you get in trouble with the man.” — Creedence Clearwater Revival

There’s a line that Bill Parcells used to use when he coached the New York Giants. He passed it on to his assistant, Bill Belichick, who keeps it alive to this day.

It’s a tight-lipped response for any question that a coach doesn’t want to answer.

“It is what it is.”

And when it comes to Tennessee football, it is what it is.

Last weekend, orange-clad UT fans traveled to California by the thousands to watch their beloved Vols, the team that had been so disrespected by the national media, take on a group of beat-up, banged-up Pac-10 sissies.

Turns out, it was money poorly spent by all those folks. But it is what it is.

Since 2000, Tennessee has been a pretty good football program. Pretty good. Lots of teams would love to have their record. Southern Cal, LSU, Florida, Texas and Ohio State would not.

Tennessee can make a run to the conference championship game when the breaks go their way. But they can also fall to 5-6 when the bounces go against them.

It is what it is.

What the Vols can’t do is get back to dominant status. And face it, that is a pretty high goal. There are only so many dominant teams in college football these days.

So while some folks look at UT coach Phillip Fulmer’s record and scream bloody murder, others look at the same record and say, “How can people want more?”

It’s important to note that Fulmer is 14-12 in his last 26 games against SEC foes. And no coach in Tennessee history has ever overseen nine consecutive years without winning a conference championship.

It’s also important to note that Fulmer is a UT guy, a favorite son, who brought Vol fans their first national title in 47 years and is just a stone’s throw from passing The General on UT’s all-time win list.

That’s the story of The Two Fulmers. That’s the story of The Two Tennessees.

It is what it is.

Tennessee has turned into Clemson, where an 8-4 record is followed by a 10-2, then a 9-3. A five- or six-loss season occasionally creeps in, too, just to make life interesting.

But there are no titles. No highest highs, no lowest lows.

No Mount LeConte. No Mississippi delta. Just the plateau in between.

In the 2000s, UT is 71-32. That’s a .689 winning percentage. Apply that to a 12-game regular season and the result is an 8-4 average.

Folks can say that’s “fuzzy math” if they like, but UT power-brokers have erased any doubts that 8-4 is absolutely the norm in Knoxville. An 8-4 record gets you another year on the contract. An 8-4 record gets you more money in the bank.

There are people in town who’ve been saying this about the program for a while. But all of those “negative” media folks tend to get in trouble with the man, if you will.

And that’s why I’m not going to make this a negative column. It’s a positive column.

Personally, I don’t think things are as bad as many fans seem to think right now. Really, I don’t.

Two years ago, the Vols walloped Cal in the season opener and we all started talking about national championships and returns to glory. That team finished 9-4 and never looked as good as it did on opening day.

This year, I’m betting on the opposite, because I don’t know how Tennessee can look any worse than it did on Monday. I expect to see improvement.

Jonathan Crompton may be 0-3 in games in which he’s taken the majority of the snaps and he may be a 47 percent passer for his career, but he has the talent to make big plays.

I think he will. In fact, I fully expect Tennessee to upset either Florida or Auburn. At that point, 1-1 in the SEC, fan fury will be dialed back down. Folks will point to last year’s turnaround. They’ll realize that a conference championship is still within reach. The pro-Fulmer gang will be louder than the anti-Fulmer gang.

But if past form holds true, the Vols will then lose to Georgia or Alabama. And the pendulum will swing again. The anti-Fulmer folks will call the talk shows bellowing, “I told you so.”

Of course, that won’t last, either. Because if form holds, the Volunteers will start to gel as they snowball down the stretch. They’ll topple South Carolina, Vanderbilt and Kentucky. Again.

Then all will be right with the world. The talk in Knoxville will be about The Great Rebound of 2008. “Coach Fulmer might have done his best job yet.” “They turned the season around.” “When their backs were against the wall …” And so on.

So I say Tennessee will finish the season right around 9-3 or 8-4. As usual. There’s no 6-6 on the horizon. Things aren’t as bad as some folks want to think.

’Cause when it comes to Tennessee football, it is what it is. And in this decade, that’s right around 8-4.

John Pennington hosts the Hall’s Salvage Sports Source on Sunday at 11 a.m. on WATE.

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.