KNOXVILLE - Tennessee offensive left tackle Brett Kendrick isn't averse to checking out at least a few of those social media posts that focus on the Volunteers. Especially after Saturday's Hail Mary between the hedges delivered a 34-31 win over Georgia.
"One of my favorites was someone who had angels lifting Jauan (Jennings) up (on his game-winning catch)," Kendrick said. "Fans can be creative."
Angels. Remember the "Hand of God" fumble regarding Arkansas quarterback Clint Stoerner during the Vols' run to the 1998 national championship? Or all that laundry dropped throughout the Carrier Dome by an SEC officiating crew in Tennessee's narrow win at Syracuse early in that same season? Or all those empty yards the Florida Gators piled up inside Neyland Stadium, largely because Vols linebacker Al Wilson emptied the football more than once from Gator ball carriers?
Point is, this Tennessee football season - assuming the Big Orange can avoid losing both this Saturday at Texas A&M and on Oct. 15 at home against Alabama - is beginning to feel a whole lot like that 1998 championship season, when everything that needed to fall into place perfectly did, right down to Florida State playing the lightly used Marcus Outzen at quarterback in the national championship game.
Some believe all that could change this weekend at big, bad Texas A&M. After all, it's the Aggies who now have John Chavis for defensive coordinator, just as Tennesseedid in 1998.
But Tennessee doesn't have to win this one to stay in the playoff hunt. It just needs to win either this one or the Alabama game, then win out during the regular season on its way to an SEC title-game triumph. Accomplish all that and it's pretty hard to imagine a scenario by which the Vols wouldn't be one of the last four standing.
However, there's more than luck on UT's side these days, even if Vols haters surely will argue that nobody completes a Hail Mary for a winning touchdown without some luck.
Merely consider, for instance, the kickoff-return play that Tennessee head coach Butch Jones called for just prior to quarterback Josh Dobbs finding Jennings.
"I think executing the different kickoff return that we had on there, we've had that in for three years and we've never executed it, never done it," Jones said Monday during the team's weekly media luncheon. "We practice it every Friday, but our players were ready to go."
Say what you want of the Vols' slow starts this season in pretty much every game, they've made the big plays and only big plays when it came down to one play spelling the difference in victory or defeat. Even redshirt long-snapper Riley Lovingood got in on the fun for his downing of a punt on the Georgia 3-yard line, a play that led to a UT defensive score. He was named the SEC special teams player of the week on Monday.
Another key to that kick return by Evan Berry? He went out of bounds four seconds from the finish. As Jones noted during the presser, had he tried to get more yardage he might have been tackled and the game would have ended.
Certainly huge luck played a role in the officials flagging the Bulldogs for excessive celebrating following their apparent winning score with 10 seconds to play. Had Georgia not been backed up 15 yards on its kickoff following that score, Berry would have had a hard time reaching the UGA 48, which became the 43 for Dobbs' huge game-winner to Jennings after a Bulldogs offside penalty, but there was also much intelligent play from the Vols' side of the field, as there always seemed to be throughout that 1998 campaign.
Even all the injured Vols on this team might remind UT fans that remarkable running back Jamal Lewis was lost less than halfway through the 1998 season.
There's also defensive end Derek Barnett seemingly channeling his inner Al Wilson every time the Vols need it, as they desperately did against both Florida and Georgia.
Given his somewhat lackluster first-half efforts, perhaps he needs an earlier wakeup call or a pregame double-espresso, but as fellow defensive lineman Kendal Vickers said of Barnett on Monday: "When we need him the most, he shows up."
So does Dobbs, much as Tee Martin always did for the 1998 champs.
Jones had some fun with his QB on Monday, joking, "There's only one person who can rattle Joshua Dobbs, and that's (his mother) Stephanie Dobbs."
But wideout Josh Malone said of his quarterback: "Josh always looks at the positive, always stays calm. No matter what happens, he just snaps and clears. He'll just say, 'There's still a lot of game to play.'"
Again, to return to the national championship season, that was Martin. Cool. Confident. Efficient.
There's still a lot of season to play, of course. Seven more games in the regular season. Perhaps as many as three more after that. A 5-0 start guarantees nothing, though the SEC East is now overwhelmingly the Vols' to lose.
Still, the Monday words of Jones are gaining momentum with each passing week and victory.
"It's a special group of kids," he said. "And a special team."
Let these Vols go from 5-0 to 7-0 over the next two weeks and they just might become the most special football team seen around Knoxville since 1998.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.