From the beginning, when Butch Jones started building his Big Orange vision, the cautious optimist pointed to 2016. Sure, everyone wanted better sooner and bigger now, but equal measures of time and talent were needed to lift the Vols from the depths of the Derek Dooley disaster.
It makes sense, this rarity of patience in a got-to-have-it-yesterday world, but rarely do passionate college football fans choose the sensical path.
Well, today starts 2016. Happy New Year everyone, and Butch, it's time to step to the forefront.
The recruiting foundation - yes, you could even say it was laid five-star brick by five-star brick - is strong. The talent is better. The improvement is tangible. The expectations are real and, more importantly, realistic.
Simply put, the time is now.
It's 2016, and that starts today. Between bites of Bloomin' Onions and Shrimp-on-the-Barbie gags, the Tennessee Vols have a more meaningful postseason game than most in the Outback Bowl.
No, this is nowhere near the importance of Clemson-Oklahoma or Alabama-Michigan State in the College Football Playoff semifinals on New Year's Eve.
But for the Vols - who will be a trendy pick for a lot of top-10 preseason rankings later this year - the first big step for the big year on everyone's orange calendar starts with a feisty Northwestern bunch who won 10 games in 2015.
Is this a do-or-die game? Certainly not, but it's more than goody bags and camera time, too.
Look at it this way - the Vols get a headstart on the biggest single day reserved for college football across the country. Theirs is the only game going from noon to 1 p.m. as the nation looks for college football fulfilment. They get the New Year's Day festivities started, and this side of Butch swinging by a prospect's high school, there's no better commercial for the completion of the rebuilding of the Big Orange Power T than starting fast today.
Think of the chance here. It's a full hour of how Jones and Co. have the Vols restocked. It's a full hour of Josh Dobbs and Jalen Hurd and how Tennessee will have as many returning starters as any team in the country. It's a full hour of boasting about the star-laden, baby-faced defensive line that has morphed from arguably the worst position group in the Southeastern Conference three years ago to one of the strengths of the program.
A full hour? Heck, Tony Robbins is worth half a billion dollars, and his informercials were only 30 minutes.
To go even further, to watch today's game is to peer inside the psyche of a program that has to take the next step mentally to take the next step in the process.
Under Jones, UT has moved from rebuilding to scrappy to a program on the rise the past three years, respectively.
Even the biggest UT detractor has to admit the Vols were on the verge of something special over the past three-plus months. A fluke loss to Florida avoided here or one fourth-quarter tackle of Oklahoma's Baker Mayfield there and UT would be a 10-win team looking for 11 today - and likely doing it in the Sugar Bowl.
Still, the step forward to eight regular-season wins was significant, and it would be even more pronounced if a ninth win is secured today.
As for the mentality, well, although today may be the last game of the 2015 season, it will be the first of many over the next 12 months in which Tennessee is the favorite.
Despite their 10 wins and No. 12 national ranking, Northwestern's Wildcats are an eight-point underdog. Can Tennessee and its maturing players handle the heavy burden of being the hunted against similar competition rather than the easier role of being the hunter?
It's one of the things that makes Alabama's recent run of dominance even more impressive. The Crimson Tide are everyone's Super Bowl. They carry the bull's-eye from opening day through the end of the year.
And they handle all comers.
Tennessee is about to be that in the SEC East. Look around the division.
Despite the amazing first year for coach Jim McElwain, Florida figures to have serious talent troubles next year and will have to choose between a true freshman quarterback and a truly bad quarterback.
Vandy and Kentucky are, well, Vandy and Kentucky. The rest of the East is rebuilding under defensive-minded first-year coaches. That leaves Tennessee and a bevy of familiar faces, and today will be our first glimpse at how the Vols handle the role of being expected to win against ranked competition.
There's less pressure trying to play a favorite close and slipping in and pulling an upset.
Well, that pressure flips in 2016, and as we all know, 2016 starts today.
Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6343. Follow him on Twitter @jgreesontfp.