UTK dangerously close to becoming UK

My doofus little brother lives in Rockford and is a UT graduate. Yesterday he finally said what I've been thinking that he was thinking: "I like college basketball more than college football these days." He pointed out how college basketball season is way longer than the college football season and how the March Madness tournament is so much more awesome and exciting than the bowl season.

At that point I realized that Tennessee really is a few more Sweet 16s and a few more crappy football seasons away from being a basketball school... another Kentucky, basically.

* Both are lucky to win three conference games a year in football.

* Both are always looking for "improvement" and "building blocks" and moral victories in football. A trip to the 2014 Music Compass Pizza Bowl would be celebrated as improvement and a building block heading into next season. For either program.

* Both have a big-arse basketball arenas and a bunch of gray-haired hillbillies swearing oversized sweaters at the games.

* Both have bad high school football.

...At some point, when your football program has a stretch of prolonged misery and suffering as Tennessee, fans will look forward to something else to cling to. It's only natural. Fans need something to cheer about. After all, Missouri and Texas A&M have more SEC conference victories than Tennessee in the last four years. So does Vanderbilt. Only KENTUCKY has fewer.

If Coach Martin keeps the b-ball team strong for a few more seasons, and after Butch Jones proves to be a fraud full of corny euphemisms and desperate motivational tactics, Tennessee's battle cry in football really will be...

"Well, wait until basketball season."

Just like Kentucky. It really is amazing how quickly things can happen!