Wiedmer: Bad weekend for football in Tennessee

The numbers are anything but pretty: UCLA 19, Tennessee 15. LSU 23, Vanderbilt 9. Furman 38, UT-Chattanooga 20. And just to make sure we include our state's professional football team -- Pittsburgh Steelers 13, Tennessee Titans 10.

That's four games for four of our favorite Tennessee Valley football squads this past weekend and four losses. It's sadder than a Tammy Wynette song. Talk about your lost weekends.

But surely this was a fluke, an event as likely to roll around as often as Haley's Comet, a passable health care plan or a Will Ferrell movie worth the cost of admission.

Not exactly. These same four teams lost on the same weekend three times in 2006. There was another meltdown on the fourth weekend of October in 2005. And another on the first weekend of October in 2003.

This isn't an unhappy accident. This is a tradition.

It's no wonder that we're starting to get a reputation for being a basketball state, at least as long as you don't include the NBA doormat Memphis Grizzlies. While the Volunteer state has placed at least four colleges in the NCAA men's tournament each of the past three springs, the four aforementioned football teams -- UT, UTC, Vandy and the Titans -- haven't all four produced winning records in the same year since, well, never.

The closest all four teams have been to winning in the same season was 1975, when the Titans -- who were still the Houston Oilers -- finished 10-4, the Vols were 7-5, the Commodores 7-4 and the Mocs 5-5-1.

The last time Vanderbilt, UTC and UT all finished with a winning mark in the same year and the Oilers were at least .500 was 1968, when UTC went 9-1, UT finished 8-2-1, Vanderbilt went 5-4-1 and the Oilers were 7-7.

UTC (7-4), UT (6-5-1) and Vandy (8-4) all had winning seasons in 1982, but the Oilers were 1-8 in that strike-shortened season.

Clearly, if Memphis really is the birthplace of the blues, the first sad song was surely written during football season.

In fact, the only Tennessee college to feel good this weekend about the oblong ball was Middle Tennessee, which won 31-14, possibly because it was playing in-state foe Memphis.

But is this past weekend an early sign of trends to come this autumn, or merely a collective bump in the road? Can any, all or some of these teams rebound to experience a postseason?

Let's begin with UTC, since the Mocs aren't going anywhere regardless of their record during to APR penalties banning them from any possible postseason play. The Furman game may have been over early, but UTC fought hard to come back, which had to ease the frustration of the 11,000 fans who filled Finley Stadium. Expect the Mocs to remain a work in progress under new coach Russ Huesman for the rest of this season. Prediction: 4-7.

As for Vanderbilt, a lot of people will lose at LSU this fall. But the Commodores (1-1) also have road games remaining at Rice, Army, South Carolina, Florida and Tennessee with losable home contests against Ole Miss, Georgia and Kentucky. Prediction: 5-7.

Then there's Tennessee, which looked like it was ready to join the Titans in the AFC South after its 63-7 win over Western Kentucky on the opening weekend, but now looks in danger of a second straight losing season if it can't find a quarterback capable of holding his own against a top flight BCS program. Prediction: 7-5, but only if defensive back Eric Berry remains 100 percent healthy for the entire season and only because the Vols still have in-state foes Memphis and Vandy left to play.

Finally, the Titans. Yes, they went on the road and lost to the defending Super Bowl champs in overtime. But they also caught a huge break when Steelers safety Troy Polamalu was knocked out in the first half with a knee injury. The Titans' offense was nowhere with Polamalu on the field and wasn't much better when he went down, especially late.

Still, not many teams are going to win in the Steel City this season. Let's keep the Titans at 11-5.

But just to give you something to feel good about our state's athletic teams, college basketball practice officially begins in less than five weeks.