KNOXVILLE - Dave Hart insists he's no different than anyone else in Tennessee's football fan base.
The fifth-year athletic director also wishes he was spending the weekend in Atlanta to watch the Volunteers play for the SEC championship against Alabama.
Even though that isn't the case, Hart feels pretty strongly that Tennessee remains on an upward trajectory under third-year coach Butch Jones.
"I think everyone in our organization would like to have been in Atlanta," Hart said Tuesday. "We'll be in Atlanta. This was a good step this year. Winning eight games was a very positive step for our football program.
"I go back to the Georgia game when we were down 24-3 coming off some gut-wrenching, heartbreaking losses, and without question, that's when this team took a giant step forward. If the culture wasn't what it is, what Butch has developed, that would not have occurred. And we haven't looked back since that comeback against Georgia.
"This is a different football team; this is a confident football team that's gained a lot of experience as the season has progressed."
That progress will earn Jones and his coaching staff more money this offseason, as Hart indicated Tennessee and its coach have "opened" discussions regarding a possible salary increase and an extension to his contract.
Hart handed Jones a $650,000 raise, a two-year extension through the 2020 season and $250,000 more for his assistant coaches after the Vols rallied from a 3-5 record to end a three-year bowl drought in 2014, but even with the new $3.6 million salary, Jones was one of four SEC coaches making less than $4 million this year.
It's likely his salary will be bumped near that number, and an agreement should come sooner than later.
FILE - In this March 27, 2015, file photo, University of Tennessee athletic director Dave Hart gestures as he speaks to reporters about the firing of head basketball coach Donnie Tyndall, in Knoxville, Tenn. Hart is ready to look ahead to 2015-16 after a tumultuous year that included record fundraising and modest improvements on the field but also the abrupt firing of men's basketball coach Donnie Tyndall and criticism over the elimination of the Lady Vols nickname in all sports but basketball. (AP Photo/Wade Payne, File)Since he took over early during Derek Dooley's second year as coach in 2011, Hart has reiterated Tennessee's need to get the football program healthy for the good of the entire department.
Hart strongly believes Jones has done so by stabilizing the "mess," as he termed it, the coach inherited when he was hired from Cincinnati.
"Because of what Butch Jones has created through his leadership and his energy and his ability to recruit, our football program is healthy," Hart said. "There are very, very exciting and bright days ahead with our football program.
"There will be other hurdles. There will be other disappointing Saturdays. There will be other gut-wrenching losses. But they will become fewer and fewer and fewer as we continue to move forward with our football program.
"We've been to the mountaintop, and it's hard and it's frustrating when you've been there and you're trying to get back there. But it can also be exhilarating, to be a part of watching that take place. We're in a good place right now."
Hart concedes that some frustration is warranted for fans who saw Tennessee blow double-digit fourth-quarter leads to Oklahoma at home and at Florida in a three-week span in September, cough up another 14-point lead against Arkansas and let a late lead slip at Alabama.
That loss in Gainesville, after which Hart sat despondently on a table in the Ben Hill Griffin Stadium tunnel leading back to Tennessee's locker room, is the one that kept the Vols from winning the SEC East and reaching Atlanta.
However, he believes the wait is nearly over for Tennessee fans.
"We have the most passionate fan base in the country," Hart said. "I say that constantly without hesitation, and I believe it in my heart. And sometimes that passion, not only here but elsewhere, can manifest itself in moments of frustration.
"I'm guilty of that myself sometimes. I got in the fetal position on some Sundays this past season. I understand. It's important, and it hurts, and we've waited a long time.
"But our fan base will continue to be rewarded with where this football program is headed."
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.