Rocky Top hits rock bottom: Where did it go so wrong for Tennessee?

Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse for Tennessee football, the Vols lose the season opener at home to Georgia State.

This is it. This is rock bottom for Tennessee football. The Vols 38-30 loss to Georgia State is the lowest of the lows for a program that can’t blame Butch Jones or Derek Dooley for the state of the once-proud program.

Tennessee’s listless outing at home in the season opener is an indictment on head coach Jeremy Pruitt. He didn’t have his team ready to play and made Georgia State look like the University of Georgia. Seriously, they allowed 38 to Georgia last year and 38 to Georgia State.

Georgia State was previously 0-11 all-time vs. Power 5 teams. Georgia State was supposed to be a cupcake for Tennessee. That’s why they paid them $950,000 to play them.

Tennessee paying close to a million to be embarrassed in the season opener is an embarrassment and the fans should demand an apology after that public humiliation.

This is not what Tennessee football is supposed to be.

“I have watched Tennessee football since I was three-years-old and this is rock bottom, Paul Finebaum tweeted. Beyond words. Beyond belief.

The Vols won a National Championship in 1998 when Phillip Fulmer led a team of Tee Martin, Peerless Price and Al Wilson to a win over Florida State in the first BCS title game. It wasn’t that long ago. But the last decade has been one Vols fans would like to forget.

Lane Kiffin went 7-6 in his lone year on Rocky Top in the first post-Fulmer era of Tennessee football. He bolted for USC, a completely understandable move to return to a better program where he was once an assistant.

Dooley went 15-21 (4-19 SEC) in his three years in Knoxville after replacing Kiffin. He was an outright disaster on and off the field. His shower etiquette speech is one of the most cringe-worthy this century.

Butch Jones comes in who had conference titles on his resume at Cincinnati and Central Michigan. He had a flattop and was full of buzzwords and catchphrases. He could also recruit. Josh Dobbs and Derek Barnett were among his headliners to Rocky Top and help restore the program to the winning ways of the past. After a five and seven-win season his first two years, the patience started to pay off. A pair of nine-win seasons and Top-25 finishes followed in 2015-2016.

The Vols were building the program back “brick by brick” as Jones was quick to say.

Then it all came crumbling down like a house of cards the next year. Tennessee went 4-6 and winless in the SEC. That was it. He was out. Just like that.

Then the craziest coaching search of my lifetime — perhaps anyone’s lifetime — ensued when the fans led a revolt after Greg Schiano was getting the job. When that didn’t happen, it was going to be Mike Leach. Then the University fired Athletic Director John Currie, replacing him with Fulmer.

Jon Gruden, Matt Campbell, Mike Gundy, Dan Mullen and Chip Kelly were all rumored to be in the conversation during the entire process.

In the end, Fulmer hired former Alabama assistant Jeremy Pruitt to be a first-time head coach.

Pruitt won five games his first year in Tennessee, including a 2-6 mark in the SEC. He lost to Vanderbilt and Kentucky, something that used to get a Tennessee coach fired on the spot. Nevertheless, there was hope, whether it was fleeting or blind faith, 2019 would be better.

It’s not. It’s worse than it’s ever been before.

There is plenty of blame to go around. The coaches made some bone-headed decisions. Players didn’t all pan out. The athletic director hired the coaches in the first place. That stuff happens everywhere, in every sport.

Sports happens. Losing to Georgia State shouldn’t.

Finebaum was right. This is rock bottom for Rocky Top.