Former Tennessee football coach Phillip Fulmer guided the Volunteers to five consecutive top-10 finishes during the late 1990s, including the national championship in 1998.
Fulmer coached against top-10 opponents such as Alabama, Auburn, Georgia and most notably Florida during his time in Knoxville, so he is well-versed on what such a program looks like. He believes, at long last, that Tennessee resembles a top-10 team again heading into its fourth season under Butch Jones.
"Absolutely it does," Fulmer said. "I've had a chance to go over and watch practice a couple of times, actually two or three times, and they have all the tools to have a really, really good team. I think the progress has been steady and normal, and that last year we had a chance to jump it a little bit faster by beating Oklahoma or Florida, which were both really strange games. We're sitting here now with a chance to win the East, and I don't think there is a great team in the East other than maybe us.
"I think we could play Alabama once in the regular season and then again in the SEC championship game, but that would depend on a lot of things, like not getting injuries and playing up to our potential. If you're just talking about preseason expectations, I don't think there's any doubt we're one of the best teams in the SEC."
Tennessee closed last season with six consecutive victories, including a 45-6 drubbing of Northwestern in the Outback Bowl, to finish with a 9-4 record. The Vols went 5-3 in conference play, their first winning league mark since Fulmer's next-to-last Tennessee team in 2007 went 6-2 and won the Eastern Division before losing the SEC title game 21-14 to eventual national champion LSU.
From 2008 to 2014, the Vols were 40-47 overall and 17-39 in league contests, marking the longest run of mediocrity in program history.
While Jones has steadily rebuilt the Vols from a disastrous stretch in which they lost 14 of their final 15 SEC games under former coach Derek Dooley, he has a 6-9 record in one-possession games. Tennessee lost multiple-possession leads last season in setbacks against Oklahoma, Florida and Arkansas, and the Vols have lost multiple-possession leads the last two years against the Gators.
"You have to look at both sides," Fulmer said. "We were very lucky to beat South Carolina last year by knocking the ball loose at the end of the game, and we were lucky to come back from a 24-3 deficit versus Georgia. We just have to play up to our level at all times, because we didn't play up to our level early against Georgia or to our best level against South Carolina, and we certainly didn't play to our best level late in the game against Oklahoma and Florida.
"We've made some changes on defense, and I hope that helps us, because we didn't line up well on defense at times last year. I'm not just saying that now after the fact, because I was talking about this last year. You've just got to go do it, because sometimes getting over the hurdle is harder than getting to the hurdle. I hope we can, and I believe we can."
This will be the eighth college football season since Fulmer last coached, but he still has plenty of coach in him. Given that it's mid-August, he has no shortage of concerns about this year's Tennessee team despite its lofty status.
Fulmer, who was a guest this past week of "Press Row" on ESPN 105.1 FM, begins with depth at linebacker, depth at tight end and just keeps going.
"We need to have a more physical blocker at tight end," he said. "(Ethan) Wolf is a good player, but he's an off-the-ball kind of guy. You need those guys on short-yardage and goal-line situations to be able to hold up and move somebody. Our offensive line needs to play up to its experience level. They were awful a couple of years ago, but they're older now and wiser, and there is more competition.
"Finding a receiver who can be a go-to guy is a huge deal. (Josh) Dobbs has to throw the ball better down the field. None of this stuff is just easy."
Fulmer does light up when discussing the tailback tandem of Jalen Hurd and Alvin Kamara - "Those two guys are special," he said - and loves the overall attitude of the team, adding that everyone is "saying the right things and managing themselves well."
Missing the opportunity to develop players is something that sets in for Fulmer this time of year, but he points out that 40 years in coaching was sufficient. He is enjoying time with friends and family, as evidenced by a motorcycle trip he has taken this weekend with former teammates and his role as "an assistant to the assistant that is the assistant on a peewee baseball team."
There is also the fact that Fulmer could be a trivia answer as the last SEC head football coach to work longer than 15 seasons at the same school. Mark Richt was fired this past December after 15 seasons at Georgia, and Les Miles almost didn't make it to a 12th season at LSU.
"Yeah, it's different," Fulmer said. "The athletic directors have a lot of financial pressure, and there is the immediate gratification of fans that can leave coaches on a short string. You're going to have cycles. You're going to have an injury that comes up in a year you thought you were going to win 10 or 11 and instead win eight, yet it may have been your best coaching job you've ever done.
"People want to win all the games all the time, and that's just not real, but that's where we are."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.