Mark WiedmerKNOXVILLE - Maybe next week.
Maybe next week the real University of Tennessee football team will reveal itself. Maybe next week - that nettlesome nemesis Florida set to arrive at Neyland Stadium - we'll find out if the Volunteers are a 3-0 football team because they're pretty good or because they've yet to play anyone who's worth a darn.
We say that after watching Team 120 outlast Ohio 28-19 in one of those victories that was never seriously in doubt but not exactly 100 percent secure until the final minutes. Given that the Vols were favored by as many as 27.5 points at one point last week, the silver lining of this nine-point victory over a mediocre Mid-American Conference team playing on the road is that it shouldn't generate overconfidence in either the Vols or their fans.
Instead, one probably should expect the Big Orange to be little underdogs against the Gators, despite Tennessee's nine-game winning streak dating back to last year, now the nation's third longest behind Alabama and San Diego State.
Some of that mediocrity against the Bobcats was self-inflicted, of course. Tennessee was flagged for 94 yards in penalties (Ohio had 30).
Some of it was due to five Big Orange fumbles, none of which were lost, but a couple of which turned promising drives into punts.
A small bit of it was due to the less than laser-like accuracy of senior quarterback Josh Dobbs, whose overall performance was just fine - 19-of-27 through the air for 203 yards, two touchdowns (both to Josh Malone) and one interception, plus 59 rushing yards and a TD by land - but also included missing a couple of open targets.
Or as Tennessee coach Butch Jones noted, "We threw the ball better today, but we still missed some wide-open receivers."
If the Vols had won this one by 58-19, one might have Jones was merely poor-mouthing, that he has his team right where he wants it to snap that 11-game losing streak to the Gators.
But this didn't look like that. Take away the first 38 seconds, when Dobbs artfully polished off a 55-yard drive in just three plays by threading a perfect scoring pass to Malone from 20 yards out and a second 20-yard TD toss to Malone four minutes into the fourth, and it all resembled something of a 3-hour-and-32-minute root canal.
Even Jones groused: "This football team lacks consistency right now."
Unfortunately, after Saturday, it may also lack a fair number of incredibly consistent and talented players who might have minimized that problem. Linebacker Darrin Kirkland Jr. already was out, as were fellow defenders LaTroy Lewis and Justin Martin. But good as those players are, team captains Cam Sutton and Jalen Reeves-Maybin have been better.
Yet both left the field against Ohio and Jones later softly said of Sutton's leg injury, "Cam Sutton will be out for an extended period of time."
If Reeves-Maybin joins him in a long absence, Tennessee's much-touted depth will be severely tested.
None of this means the Vols can't beat Florida on Saturday. The penalties and fumbles aside, the offense appears to be rounding into form. The defense, despite all those injuries, did force the Bobcats to settle for four field goals, which caused Ohio quarterback Greg Windham to say, "Their defense, they have a good front four. They played their tails off."
That front indeed played well, especially Derek Barnett, who had five total tackles. So did Baylor School graduate Colton Jumper, who had seven total tackles filling in for Kirkland at middle linebacker.
To add to that momentum going forward, junior college transfer Jonathan Kongbo, he of the three total tackles, said, "This is the first day I felt like I knew exactly what I was doing."
Those who expected the Big Orange to put up big victory margins in each of these first three wins should take notice of the nation as a whole. Other than Louisville - which beat No. 2 Florida State 63-20 in a game that wasn't that close - who really looks good right now?
Alabama squeaked past Ole Miss, which got bludgeoned in its final half against FSU. Until they faced South Carolina State on Saturday, Clemson's Tigers had twice underwhelmed against Auburn and Troy. Colorado threw a scare into Michigan at Michigan. Almost everybody seems at least somewhat vulnerable.
"Is this game our season?" Jones replied when asked about Florida. "No, every game is our season."
But Florida is the first game on the SEC schedule, as well as the first of four killer league games that include back-to-back visits to Georgia and Texas A&M before the Vols host Alabama on Oct. 15.
"We have to get better in a hurry," Jones said before adding, "starting tonight, tomorrow and Monday."
Yet however much better they need to be, Dobbs made sure to note a major improvement from the first two games, when the Vols fell into a 13-3 hole against Appalachian State and a 14-0 crater against Virginia Tech.
"We wanted to start fast and finish strong, and we did that," he said.
If they can do the same against Florida, we may finally have some sense of just how good this Tennessee team really is.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com