Sept. 1. Three weeks from this Thursday. That's all the time that's left before it's once again Big Orange football time in Tennessee.
That's the night the Volunteers, nearly certain to be ranked in The Associated Press Top 25 when the preseason poll is released next week, will run through the "T" at Neyland Stadium as more than 100,000 of their fans rise to their feet on their way to filling the East Tennessee air with the constant crooning of "Rocky Top" for more than three hours in what is sure to be an easy win over Ball State.
At least it better be an easy win if second-year University of Tennessee coach Josh Heupel's program is to deliver the nine, and possibly 10 regular-season victories that at least a few people (blush, blush) predict for it.
And this UT team should get nine wins with its eyes closed. After all, its first semi-real test on Sept. 10 at Pittsburgh comes without the Panthers having the threat of superb quarterback Kenny Pickett, an NFL first-round draft pick in April who's now taking serious reps with the Steel City's Steelers.
Win there and the Vols are already 2-0 with certain nonconference wins against Akron in the third game and against UT Martin on Oct. 22.
Beyond that, Florida must come to Knoxville on Sept. 24 for the Vols' Southeastern Conference opener and reigning league champion Alabama to Rocky Top three weeks later. The Vols' trip to LSU the week before the Crimson Tide's visit would appear to be dangerous, and a game at national champ Georgia on Nov. 5 could prove too much to ask of Heupel's Heroes in his second season.
But even with losses to the Tide and the Bulldogs, LSU should be the only other plausible setback on the schedule. That would give the Vols a 9-3 record. Beat LSU and that jumps to 10-2.
That won't put UT in the SEC title game or the College Football Playoff, but it just might hand the Vols a New Year's Six bowl, especially if both Bama and Georgia wind up in the CFP again.
And if this happens, it probably won't be Heupel's high-octane offense that ultimately proves the difference in turning last season's respectable 7-6 record into something noticeably better this time around. Not to shortchange Heupel, but when your offense averaged the seventh-most points scored in the Football Bowl Subdivision last season (39.3), you probably don't have much higher you can go in that category.
However, when your defense gives up 29.1 points a game - 90th out of 130 FBS programs - you have almost nowhere to go but up. And if you expect to finish much north of 7-6, such improvement will probably have to come on that side of the ball - especially when your average margin of victory against FBS foes was only 6.4 points, which ranked 40th.
The good news is, at least according to those charged with improvement in that area, the Vols appear to be getting much stronger in that category.
For instance, linebackers coach Brian Jean-Mary said during a news conference last week: "I feel like we've gotten better in our second year in the system. We haven't added that much. We've tweaked a couple of things, but the guys are a lot more comfortable with what we're doing. (Coaches) are all looking at each other and can almost complete each other's sentences. That's what you want."
There was also this from sixth-year senior linebacker Solon Page III: "Well, it's a long season, hopefully we get the extra game in the season as well. So having that extra depth in the linebacker room is very crucial, especially because we want to be one of the hardest-hitting and hardest-playing linebacker corps in the country."
There's only one way to get the "extra game" Page would seem to be referring to, because the Vols are already all but a cinch for a postseason bowl game. Page's would appear to be referencing the SEC title game, which means the Vols would have to win the East Division.
Again, this is where the defense comes in, where the defense is CRUCIAL. Since Georgia doesn't face Alabama in the regular season - Georgia's West opponents are Auburn and Mississippi State - the only likely route to the league championship game for the Vols is to win in Athens, with a loss to Alabama affordable if they beat the Bulldogs.
It's unlikely, but the very fact that players are willing to bring it up publicly bodes well for their attitude if nothing else. Also, unlike last season, when Georgia's defense was so stout and impenetrable that quarterback Stetson Bennett didn't have to do much more than not turn it over, this newspaper's 2022 Best of Preps speaker will likely have to manufacture some offense this time around for the Dawgs.
Bennett's capable - just ask Alabama about the last eight minutes of the national championship game - but with UT's offense expected to be at least as good as last year's model and Georgia's D falling back to earth a bit, a more competitive UT defense should give the Vols something of a puncher's chance, especially with their trip to Athens one week after the Dawgs' annual showdown with Florida in Jacksonville.
If nothing else, assuming the Vols can avoid losing to Florida and LSU, it should keep Big Orange Country dreaming big dreams into November.
And that certainly appears to be where the players' minds are less a month from the opener.
Or as defensive lineman Tyler Baron noted this past week: "As a team you can see how everybody is buying in. You can see that we've all come together and we're going toward the collective goal of this team. And that's to win every game."
Or at least the one that arrives on Nov. 5 between some fairly famous hedges in Athens.
Mark WiedmerContact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @TFPWeeds.