As I began the drive from Nashville to Knoxville last Saturday with my four-year-old son Connor I thought back to the days I rode to Neyland Stadium with my grandparents. I soaked in the traditions and the passion that is Tennessee football and want the same for my boy.

Happy Halloween Vol Nation! What’s scarier; that the Vols can still blaze their own path towards Atanta with a 5-3 overall record? Or, that Vanderbilt is just a game out in the East?

The opposite of love is not hate it’s indifference. And there are many things in which I would classify myself disinterested. Septic tank maintenance, proper monument cleaning techniques and the NHL are just a few.

Two weeks ago the Tennessee football program appeared to be at a crossroads. The Vols were 2-2 and had been far from impressive. To many Tennessee fans, it was not simply that the Vols were 2-2 it was the way in which they had amassed that 2-2 record.

What a weekend down on the bayou as LSU hands Florida its second straight loss 28-24. The Gators appeared to control the momentum of this slugfest between SEC titans for most of the night but the Tigers remain undefeated as the undoubted number one ranked team in America behind the aggressive decision making of Coach Les Myles.

College football has beauty that can be illustrated in many shades. You have the storied traditions of historic programs that carry presence with them when they charge on to the Fall Saturday fields of dreams.

This column is usually designed to focus on the SEC, however there is a polarizing issue resonating in the Big 12 and expanding into pop culture. Last weekend, Oklahoma St. gave up a school record 718 yards of total offense but defeated Texas Tech in a shootout 49-45. That, however, is neither where the story begins nor where it ends.

The empirical data suggests that the Tennessee football program has fallen from the conference elite into more of an SEC middle class. The numbers speak for themselves. Tennessee is the fifth best team in the SEC since 2001.

The polls list USC as the top team in the country and it’s tough to argue that unless you have seen LSU play this year. I understand that USC is an unbelievably talented team that has rolled off quite a run over the last few years. USC is 60-6 since 2002.

Well we’re off and running, the 2007 college football season has kicked off. We had a wonderful weekend of college football featuring massive blowouts, doses of reality for historic programs and unlikely upsets. Oklahoma scored 79 points its first time out, without Adrian Peterson and now prepare for a visit from the U. Texas will not walk through the Big 12.