OK, the warm-up worked, slow start was set aside, indispensables avoided injury, 56-0 romp, youngsters got to play.

Now comes a main event.

Every good Tennessee football team, through the decades, has faced the risk of Vanderbilt scarring or spoiling a season. It doesn’t happen often but the threat is out there.

Phillip Fulmer’s national champs of 1998 had to go to Nashville and take their chances. Those Commodores were no problem. The score was 41-0.

Fulmer teams went 15-1 against Vandy. His 2005 group lost – at home. That was Jay Cutler (315 passing, three touchdowns) against Arian Foster (40 runs, 223 yards, two scores). Very late, Cutler won with a connection to Earl Bennett. I’m not over it.

Along came replacement coaches, Derek Dooley, Butch Jones and Jeremy Pruitt. They made a mess. Vandy won five of seven – ah yes, fragments of the dysfunctional decade. Josh Heupel got that fixed.

Long, long ago, when Tennessee was learning to play, Vanderbilt had a superior football program. The Commodores even won five in a row in the 1920s before the coming of Robert R. Neyland. They beat the young soldier in their first meeting.

Neyland stopped that foolishness. In the 93 clashes since, Vandy won 14. The Vols took 22 in a row, suffered a setback and won six more – 28 of 29. Considering this is supposedly a rivalry, that was a mean streak.

All that was then.

Now is very different. This Vandy team is nothing like our long-standing opinion of Vanderbilt. It is 6-5, bowl eligible, a scrappy bunch, nifty quarterback and a very smart offense, built by outsiders.

That’s the story behind the story.

It has long been an accepted fact that Vanderbilt will never win a Southeastern Conference title. The school takes its fair share of TV millions and improves the overall academic appearance of the league.
Now and then, it is competitive – but not last year. It lost every SEC game by double-digits. Losing fit. Since 1959, Vandy has twice won more league games than it lost. Think about that.

Vandy coach Clark Lea is a Vandy man. He can read and write, speak in public and do numbers. Vandy people admire him. Alas, he knew he didn’t have forever to build brick by brick from the bottom up. He needed help trained in surviving impossible situations.

New Mexico State was winning a few with Jerry Kill as coach and Tim Beck as offensive coordinator. For a few dollars more and comp tickets to the Grand Ole Opry, they moved to Nashville.

Diego Pavia had been a blast as the Aggie quarterback. He was a darter and dasher who would also stand in and throw accurately even against the rush. He could make things happen.

Pavia came as part of the package. Tight end Eli Stowers came, too. He was a double transfer, from Texas A&M to New Mexico State to Vanderbilt. Others with chips on their shoulders, with something to prove, transferred in. NIL money has miraculous potential.

The movement was very unlike Vanderbilt. Old grads shuddered. Some of the newcomers had never heard of Shakespeare or even organismal biology. Anthropology? Are you kidding me?

Some of the newcomers – coaches and players – stunned Alabama. They won at Kentucky and Auburn. OK, they lost to Texas, South Carolina and LSU but fought a good fight.

Vandy kicker Brock Taylor #88 played high school ball at Knoxville Catholic. This year the sophomore has hit five field goals of over 50 yards including a 57-yard field goal at Missouri.

Take my word for it, these Commodores could knock off Tennessee. Possible. There have been seven road upsets of ranked SEC teams by the hot and bothered unranked. One more would absolutely wreck playoff hopes and plans. It would disrupt Heupel’s remarkable foundation, 30 victories in three years.

Diego Pavia is captain of the threat. Tennessee has not demonstrated great strategy at containing mobile quarterbacks. This one is mobile. If you are comfortable sending notes to defensive coordinator Tim Banks, mention the possibility of assigning a spy. It will help some if the defensive front doesn’t jump offsides.

As for that exercise against UTEP, it boosted Tennessee to No. 7 in the AP poll. Nico Iamaleava was awful in the first quarter but ended up at 17 of 23 passes for 209 yards and four touchdowns. Dylan Sampson put in half a day of work, 11 carries, 77 yards and his 22nd rushing touchdown. He passed the great Gene McEver for the most TD runs and points in a season – records established 95 years ago.

Team happiness was Bru McCoy catching two touchdown passes. Squirrel White and Ethan Davis got one each. Young running back Peyton Lewis scored twice. Cameron Seldon ran for one TD. Max Gilbert kicked eight extra points.

Jackson Ross was again a weapon as punt-and-roller. Boo Carter really is an exciting freshman. Some of the reserve offensive linemen looked better than expected. Maybe the Miners were exhausted by then.
Heupel has a great grasp of the upcoming game and potential playoff.

“The better you play, the more you win, the bigger the games get. For us, this is the next step in our journey, laser focus on how we prepare and practice, get ready to go play, and you’re going to have to play well – in all three phases in this one.”

As long as that goes well, you get to keep doing it.

Marvin West welcomes comments or questions from readers. His address is marvinwest75@gmail.com