The CheckerBoard

It seems that most people are in agreement that even a halfway decent defense would mean at least two more wins to this point in the season (i.e. UT would be 6-3 if not 7-2 instead of 4-5 right now). The stars on this offense are almost entirely players Dooley recruited, and even if Bray/Hunter/Patterson go pro, Tennessee still has players like Croom, Young, Howard, Worley, and Peterman in the wings along with the bulk of the OL returning. Even if scoring drops off to 25-30 PPG, Tennessee could still shock some people with a halfway decent defense next year.

If this team wins out, they would be 7-5 and heading to a bowl game, which would be a winning (i.e., over .500) record - still not enough for some people, but it would still be an improvement. The big key is that they would have won two more games than last season, regardless of how the bowl game finished, which is tangible improvement DESPITE the defensive woes.