KNOXVILLE - It was a strange 24 hours for the Tennessee football program.
But in a good way.
The last couple of times the Volunteers have been in the national news cycle, it hasn't been for the best of reasons. There was the infamous coaching search of 2017, which ultimately gave the program Jeremy Pruitt. There was the embarrassing loss to Georgia State, which opened as a 26-point underdog but won 38-30 at Neyland Stadium to start the 2019 season. A week later the Vols fell to BYU in double-overtime in spectacular fashion.
Now, though, things are trending in a positive direction. Regardless of the outcome of the national championship game between Clemson and LSU, Tennessee will open the 2020 season with the second-longest win streak in the FBS at six games, capped off with an improbable late rally for a 23-22 win over Indiana in the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl.
In the past two days, more positive news has inundated the program. First it was the report that Georgia offensive lineman Cade Mays, a Knoxville native, would be transferring to Tennessee, where he would join his brother Cooper, an incoming freshman. Then Thursday, junior offensive lineman and 2019 first-team All-Southeastern Conference selection Trey Smith announced his intention to return to Knoxville for his final season of eligibility.
"I think I left some money on the field, so to say," Smith said when asked why he chose to stay. "I think there are some major things I can increase and do better at, be a lot more consistent with my game. I want to attack those areas and do better."
There's no question that the additions are a big boost for the Vols going into the 2020 season, which begins on Sept. 5 at home against Charlotte. Although the Vols now return every offensive lineman who started a game in 2019, it's quite possible that Mays - who was a projected full-time 2020 starter at Georgia - will be hard to keep off the field, if he receives a waiver from the NCAA that would make him immediately eligible.
It was just one season ago that Tennessee fielded one of the worst offensive lines in college football. In 2020 it could be one of the best, as 2019 freshmen Wanya Morris and Darnell Wright earned valuable experience, with Morris starting 12 games and earning True Freshman All-American honors from 247Sports.com. In addition, center Brandon Kennedy, the rock of the line and the only player to start all 13 games, has applied for and already been approved for a sixth year.
And suddenly, the fortunes of a proud program have changed after a search that appeared bungled but yielded what seems to be a quality coach. Now the Vols have an eight-win season that at one point appeared lost and an offensive line that will have a level of talent and experience that it hasn't had in a long time - even without the confirmation of Mays' eligibility.
And the man who stated Thursday that "Tennessee is where I was raised - it's where I belong" is right at the crux of that emergence.
"It starts with his leadership," Pruitt said. "You saw the way he was standing up there at the podium, the type of person he is, the family he comes from, his values - just all the intangibles.
"You take away his athletic ability, which is phenomenal. I'm just talking about his makeup, who he is. It's contagious, and it's going to give him an opportunity to finish what he started."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3 or at Facebook.com/VolsUpdate.