It's a simple question that is sure to be on the minds of Tennessee football fans during the first few months of 2022.
If the Volunteers were this good offensively in Josh Heupel's first year as head coach, what can they accomplish with a second season in the system and with so many returning pieces?
Offensive coordinator Alex Golesh already has pondered that thought, even before the Vols wrap up 2021 with Thursday afternoon's Music City Bowl against Purdue. Tennessee heads to Nashville with a 7-5 record and with averages of 459.0 yards and 38.8 points per game, with its average points ranking ninth nationally and third in the Southeastern Conference behind Alabama and Georgia.
"You will have time to really process your thoughts instead of processing on five hours of sleep and 18 Red Bulls in a day," Golesh said in a recent news conference. "You can actually decompress a little bit, figure out what's been good and what hasn't. I think it will be huge to understand that instead of going into it blind.
"You're going into it with a really, really clear and concise plan of who the guys are and how you can grow."
Tennessee enters the Music City Bowl having scored 466 points and needing 19 more to set the single-season program record. The Vols have accomplished this not only with a new staff but with a top quarterback who was at Virginia Tech this time last year, a leading rusher who had just 26 carries last season and a leading receiver who entered this year with eight career catches.
Yet Hendon Hooker, Jabari Small and Cedric Tillman have flourished in the new, up-tempo system and will be back for more, which opens the door to countless possibilities.
"I think it's being more multiple in what we do," Golesh said. "In year two, guys have a baseline of the system. Every time you come in with something new, they've always reflected to, 'I already know that. I am going to continue to build on it through that.' Now they have a year's worth of video, specifically on themselves doing it.
"Now I'm going to refer to, 'We did it like this. This is how we want to change it.' In the thought process, I think it makes it a lot easier."
Golesh labeled Hooker's decision to use the NCAA's extra year of eligibility that was implemented after the coronavirus outbreak "an early Christmas present for all of us." The 6-foot-4, 218-pound quarterback has exceeded all expectations during his first few months in Knoxville, completing 180 of 261 passes (69.0%) for 2,567 yards with 26 touchdowns and three interceptions to rank third nationally in efficiency.
Hooker also has rushed for 561 yards and five touchdowns, ranking second on the team in that category behind Small's 612 yards and eight scores.
"The quarterback run element wasn't what we were going into this season thinking," Golesh said. "We knew we had a little bit of deficiency in some other spots, but that became a little bit of an out. You don't want to run the quarterback as much as we did at times, but having that ability will change what we are."
Hooker's 148 carries have topped the 114 by Small, and he doesn't mind the abundance of running at all.
"It's football, so I love everything," Hooker said. "I love barking out the signals. I love looking off the safety and working the other side of the field. Whatever I can do for the team to win is what I'm going to do."
Jaylen Wright and Len'Neth Whitehead should complement Small in next season's backfield, with Wright rushing for 355 yards and 5.2 yards per carry as a freshman and Whitehead rushing for 207 and 6.5 as a redshirt freshman. Of the 32 carries by Whitehead this season, none have resulted in lost yardage.
Tillman, who announced this past week that he was returning for a fifth season, has erupted this year for 57 catches for 931 yards and nine touchdowns. He will enter the Music City Bowl with three consecutive 100-yard performances and six straight games with a touchdown.
Jalin Hyatt, Jimmy Calloway, Ramel Keyton and Walker Merrill will be looked upon next year to fill the voids left by Velus Jones and JaVonta Payton at receiver, and top tight ends Jacob Warren and Princeton Fant will be back.
"It's going to be a great year next year," Fant said.
It's certainly going to be a more familiar year due to the comfort level in Heupel's offense, not to mention the comfort in having Hooker back.
"I think there's a whole other evolution to what we do in terms of formational differences," Golesh said. "You've seen us grow offensively as the year has gone on. We've looked different at times, continuing to add this and that to his plate. I think the more you change with pictures with how fast we play, the harder it is to defend.
"He's going to give us the opportunity to be more multiple as he develops. He's just been uber efficient this year."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524. Follow him on Twitter @DavidSPaschall.