KNOXVILLE - Air Canada.
That's the nickname that's attached itself to Tennessee sophomore wide receiver Josh Palmer, and it's certainly fitting given both his Canadian roots and his 24.7 yards per catch through the Volunteers' first three games.
But that's far from the only reason for the Big Orange Nation to warmly embrace the Brampton, Ontario, native. Merely consider his jersey number.
A year ago, Palmer wore No. 5, the same number he's listed as wearing in the 2018 media guide.
But when the Vols take the field against the Florida Gators, senior defensive lineman Kyle Phillips will be wearing No. 5, same as he has all season, and Palmer will wear No. 84.
Why?
Said Palmer on Monday during the Vols' weekly media event: "Kyle's a senior. He's a captain. So he deserves number 5."
Sometimes little things mean a lot, and sometimes they don't. But that sort of selflessness is at least one sign that regardless of what's happening on the field, good or bad, the chemistry in the locker room is what it needs to be to build a successful program.
Not that Palmer switching jersey numbers over the summer is going to deliver the Vols a win over Florida on Saturday night. Palmer catching a few more passes at a 24.7-yard clip might. So might Phillips adding to the two quarterback hurries he has this season, which matches the two he had for the entirety of the 2017 season.
But whatever happens on the scoreboard against the Gators, you get the sense that this Tennessee team is generally made up of the right stuff character-wise, which is a credit to both first-year coach Jeremy Pruitt and his predecessor, the often-maligned Butch Jones.
Take, for example, redshirt sophomore offensive lineman Ryan Johnson, who's majoring in civil engineering.
In attempting to explain the difficulty of succeeding at both football and academics, Johnson said, "You've got to crowd 50 pounds into a 10-pound sack. It's a little hard not going crazy at times.
"You have to put a lot of things to the side. You have to know what's important. It's school and football, so there's not much time to do much of anything else except for sleep."
That doesn't mean he'll necessarily get much sleep this week between his class load and preparing to take on a Florida program that's won 12 of its last 13 meetings against the Vols.
"I can remember being 3 years old. This is the game everybody talks about," Johnson said. "I wanted to be a Tennessee player playing Florida at home."
So now he is. And so is Palmer, who could prove to be a huge difference-maker under the Neyland Stadium lights both with his hands and with his feet, given his 20-yard touchdown run against East Tennessee State two Saturdays ago.
"I credit it to the offense, and Coach (Tyson) Helton putting us in the best positions," said Palmer, who caught one pass covering 11 yards in last season's last-second loss to the Gators in Gainesville. "It could have been anybody in those plays (this season), making those catches."
Before he could make those catches for the Vols he had to make those plays on American high school soil. After his 10th-grade year in Canada, Palmer made the difficult decision to move in with his aunt in Miramar, Florida, and play football for St. Thomas Aquinas High School, which has a strong reputation for both academics and football in Fort Lauderdale.
The change from Canadian football, which his father had played, and U.S. football was difficult enough. Palmer caught just three passes totaling 30 yards his entire junior season.
But that was almost a breeze compared to the days when his aunt or neighbors couldn't take him to school and he had to ride city buses for two hours each way.
"I'd wake up at 5 o'clock in the morning, and I'd have to get to the bus stop by the gas station - an 11-minute walk - for the 5:40 bus," Palmer told SEC Country last year. "I take the No. 28 bus - that's about half hour to 45 minutes - wait five minutes for the No. 2 bus to come, and then ride 45 minutes and then wait 10 minutes for the No. 30 bus to take me the final 15 minutes to school."
He'd repeat that routine in reverse after practice each day.
"I'd do homework on the bus," Palmer said in the article. "When you wake up at 5 in the morning, you can't be in bed at 12, so you have to prioritize."
Maybe Pruitt knows all this and maybe he doesn't. But that work ethic fits the blueprint he covets for his players.
"He's still learning how to play football," Pruitt said of Palmer on Monday. "He hasn't played a whole lot, but he's getting better at his position. He's running routes a little smoother, a little cleaner. He's got to improve his blocking a little bit on the perimeter, but he has improved each week."
So have the Vols as a team. Maybe it will be enough against Florida and maybe not, but Palmer is more than a little excited to take the field under the lights, perhaps knowing that the Vols are 3-1 against the Gators after dark inside Neyland, the lone loss coming by a single point (21-20) to the eventual 2006 national champs. Moreover, UT is 4-0-1 all-time in Neyland on Sept. 22.
"We want to put on a show for them," he said of the expected crowd of 102,455.
If Air Canada can land in Neyland's checkerboard end zones enough times, the Vols just might put on more than a show. They might deliver a Big Orange victory.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com