His point may have been made about the importance of the game, however, I disagree with the points he makes in between the title and the point he gets to at the end. When a team finishes 5-6, it gets very easy to focus on everything negative. This author probably did not watch all 11 games from last season, nor the 13 the previous season. Had he watched both seasons, he would have seen the fine line between winning and losing close games. He would have seen how what he calls "surface changes" would have amounted to a probably back-to-back run at an SEC title. And how the "surface changes" might very well send the Vols back to the SEC Championship Game which they participated in 2004. He probably didn't even research the seasons following 1998, to see regular seasons in '99 of 9-2, '00 8-3, '01 10-2, '02 8-4, '03 10-2, and '04 9-3. Those seasons are a tier below a national championship season, however, they do not represent a spiraling down to the depths of the NCAA. For that you can look at the Washington Huskies as an example.
