The idea was hatched by a few media types (blush, blush) during Tuesday's University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football luncheon.
In light of last weekend's crushing loss to The Citadel, maybe Mocs senior quarterback B.J. Coleman should pull a Tim Tebow and give some inspired speech about "a lot of good will come out of this."
And, "You will never see any player in the entire country play as hard as I will play the rest of the season."
And, "You will never see someone push the rest of the team as hard as I will push everybody the rest of the season."
And, finally, "You will never see a team play harder than we will the rest of the season."
When Tebow uttered those words at the close of a stunning home loss to Ole Miss during the 2008 regular season, the Florida Gators went undefeated the rest of the way and claimed their second national championship in three years.
Maybe a similarly stirring address from Coleman would put the Mocs in the proper frame of mind to knock off top-ranked Georgia Southern on Saturday in Statesboro, Ga.
After all, while that other football game involving schools from the Volunteer State and the Peach State is kidnapping most of the region's attention, UTC-GSU might determine a FCS playoff bid.
"We don't need it," Coleman said of a suggested speech following Tuesday's practice. "The guys are fine. They're working their rear ends off. They've gotten better every week."
He paused, then added something that's easy to forget: "What happened to us is part of football. It's part of sports. Sometimes you come up short."
The older you get, the harder it can be to accept that simple fact. You turn your emotions over to a bunch of teenagers and hope they send them back to you happier than they received them.
And given where the UTC program was at the close of the 2008 season -- 1-11 with the lone victory over NAIA member Cumberland -- third-year coach Russ Huesman has been almost too good a miracle worker.
Back-to-back 6-5 seasons have arguably raised the expectation level to unreasonable heights. Never mind that 70 percent of the roster is freshmen and sophomores. Or that Keon Williams -- the former Red Bank star for whom so much was expected -- is sitting out the season for disciplinary reasons.
Or that, first and foremost, the Southern Conference is the Southeastern Conference of the NCAA's Football Championship Subdivision, which means any team in the league can beat you on a given Saturday.
Moreover, perhaps the toughest lesson to learn when you are unaccustomed to winning is that the game lasts a full 60 minutes. The fourth quarter is just as important as the first.
Up 27-0 midway through the third against The Citadel, the Mocs momentarily forgot that, to the great regret of their fans and themselves.
"It hasn't been pleasant," senior linebacker Ryan Consiglio said. "You feel like you've got a knot in your stomach that you can't get rid of. There's obviously going to be a backlash when you're up 27-0 and lose."
But to view the message boards and listen to the players and coaches is to sense there may have been a backlash to the backlash.
"Lots of students have asked, 'What happened?'" said Consiglio. "But then they'll say, 'Don't worry. You'll win the next one.' I wouldn't trade our fans for anything in the world."
The fans all know what this week could mean, both good and bad, to UTC's future dreams. But before the Mocs could look ahead, they also needed to put the past weekend behind them.
"We've finally gotten to Tuesday," Consiglio said before practice began. "Now we can start fresh."
Someone asked Huesman what he wanted to see in Tuesday's practice.
"Enthusiasm, energy," he said. "Other than that, I'll know when I see it."
Practice done atop Scrappy Moore Field, Huesman was asked if he saw what he was looking for.
A smile crossing his face for the first time since Saturday's halftime, he said, "I thought practice went pretty good today."
Maybe a lot of good can come from the past three days without a speech after all.