Tennessee Vols athletics in midst of most exciting November since 2007

One year after the Tennessee Vols fired Butch Jones, morale is significantly higher. In fact, it’s the highest for the UT Volunteers in November since 2007.

A year ago, the Tennessee Vols were going through a very negative period. John Currie had just fired Butch Jones as the football program was en route to its worst season in school history. Meanwhile, the men’s basketball program was projected to finish next to last in the SEC.

By the way, the total national embarrassment of the fallout from the attempted Greg Schiano hire hadn’t even begun yet. However, the process was already beginning to make the University of Tennessee great again.

It started with Rick Barnes. Early on, Tennessee basketball proved they were a different team, highlighted by their huge win over the Purdue Boilermakers and N.C. State Wolfpack, and their close loss to the Villanova Wildcats, in The Bahamas. Meanwhile, the Tennessee Lady Vols were showing that they had a bright future with their new group of freshmen, rolling off to an undefeated start as well.

Then came the key moment in football. The Tennessee Vols collapsed to a 4-8 season. Currie tried to hire Schiano. He failed. There was a disastrous coaching search to follow that involved Mike Gundy, Jeff Brohm, Dave Doeren and Mike Leach.

And on Friday, Dec. 2, Phillip Fulmer launched a successful coup to replace Currie as athletic director. He then hired Jeremy Pruitt. One year later, the groundwork of all of this is finally showing a good bit of success.

Another elite recruiting class has the Lady Vols as arguably the best young team in the country, even if they aren’t getting a lot of hype. Holly Warlick, with her new contract extension, could now prove that.

The men’s basketball program, meanwhile, is the real story. They are No. 5 in the nation right now, coming off a year in which they shared the SEC Championship and were a last-second shot away from a Final Four run.

Finally, there’s football. After a horrendous start, Jeremy Pruitt is in the midst of working a minor miracle. The Tennessee Vols are one game away from a bowl at 5-5 and just beat their second Top 25 team of the year, the Kentucky Wildcats, over the weekend.

Looking at where all three programs are and what they have to play for, this is one of the most exciting Novembers in some time. In fact, the athletic program as a whole has not been in this great of a state around this time since 2007.

That year, Tennessee football was rolling en route to an SEC East championship. The Lady Vols were looking to repeat as national champions, and the men’s basketball program was in the Top 10 in Bruce Pearls’ third year.

But in between the years, the Vols missed a bowl five of 10 times and had a losing season six of 10 times. They only reached the Top 10 in men’s basketball once. So yes, this November hints that the program is on the way back to where it was 11 years ago.

By the way, remember who was at the helm during that time? You guessed it. Fulmer was running the football program. Clearly the university appears to be much more stable and in much better shape when he’s involved.

With Fulmer at the helm in charge of the whole athletic department, the Tennessee Vols have taken major leaps. Morale is 100 times higher than it was a year ago, and it looks like it’s only going to rise in the future. So relish this November Rocky Top. It’s the perfect precursor to the holiday season, and UT fans might be entering the holidays this year in a much cheerier mood.