Vols T logoThat's the message Butch Jones volleyed across the SEC Wednesday as his second consecutive top-five recruiting class was being finalized.
Whether it was the bowtie that capped 11th hour flip Drew Richmond, a five-star talent at a 10-stare position of need for Jones and Co. Or if it was the image of Jones in bright orange UT bucket hat that five-star defensive tackle Kahlil McKenzie has made a trendy fashion statement among Vols fans everywhere.
No, the window dressing is immaterial compared to the message, and that is clear: The Vols are back, talent-wise.
Back-to-back collections of this many big-name performers means that expectations naturally go up. Going into 2014, six wins and a postseason trip seemed like a noble goal.
Now, with four five stars joining a roster that returns as many as 19 starters, well, take your six wins and peddle that to Kentucky.
Nope, the increased talent means a heightened level of expectation, and for every Johnny Vols Fan everywhere, that's arguably the best news from this star-filled signing day.
It's time to embrace the excitement that comes with a revamped roster and a collection of talent that is not going to be greeted by 20-point spread and 30-point losses. It's time to jump from the bottom half of the East and stand toe-to-toe with Georgia and Missouri for a trip to Atlanta.
It's time to put Vandy and Kentucky back into the assumed win column rather than the presumptive struggle category.
There is no more obvious and direct correlation in colege sports than the need for a bevy of talented recruits to succeed in the SEC. After Wednesday passed, 12 of the SEC's 14 teams ranked among the top 22 teams in the natonal rankings according ESPN.
Say what you want about the state of the SEC, but know this: The league gets the most premiere high school players annually. Yes, outliers like FSU and Clemson and USC and Texas fight there way into the mix most years, but the power players want to be a power part of the power programs in the games most powerful conference.
Need proof? OK, Oklahoma is considered a blue-blood program by any measure across the landscape of the game, and the Sooners finished 17th in the national recruiting rankins. That's good enough to be one spot ahead of Missouri, which finished 10th in the SEC.
But beyond looking under every bleacher in every corner of the country - UT has newcomers from nine states - approaching an even talent level with the rest of the league gives us a fair measure to the biggest question remaining as Tennessee ambles toward a return to its glorious past.
It's time to see if Butch Jones and his staff can coach. Before 2015, when Jones and company were taking the tattered shreads of the Derek Dooley Orange Pants brigade into Saturday after Saturday of hopeful upsets and "Let's play 'em close" affairs, it was difficult to tell if Jones was Knute Rocke or a rockhead. Bill Belichick can't win when fewer than five of his players would start for the opposition.
But now that Butch has a roster that has the look, feel and talent of an SEC bunch, well, this is a fair test case.
We have witnessed they are skilled in rebuilding. The talent has gone from arguably the worst collection of UT players since the late 1970s to being stocked with promising young stars.
We have experienced the rejuvenation of a fan base that has bought every slogan and catch phrase hook, line and sinker. We have even seen the Vols go from punchline to proposed puncher in 24 excruciating months as Jones restocked the shelves.
The cautious Vols will offer that young talent can be exposed in the SEC and that has merit.
But to be a Tennessee fan today, is to embrace the knowledge that supporting young talent is way more appealing than backing old dreck.
Sure, a true measure of the last two signing classes is a few years in the future. But the emotional measure of this momentum is having plausible beleviablity that the future is now and the past is in the rear view mirror.
So embrace the chance to acquire the ever-important skill of learning how to win.
The title dreams may be another year - and another star-studded haul for the recruit-whispering Jones - away, but the promise of 2015 is filled with being on an even playing field talent-wise with the Georgias, Floridas and Mississippis as opposed to the Vandys and Kentuckys.
Yes, Virginia there is a Santa Claus on this annual sports freak show holiday fest known as Recruitmas. And yes Vols fans there is a light at the end of the tunnel. It's not a train; it's the shine of all those stars Butch is bringing to town.