So... Tennessee lost the day of the division split.
We ended up in the East which was pretty weak with the exception of Florida. At the time, people expected Tennessee to dominate the East. There was one problem. Florida had a significantly better coach (Spurrier) than Tennessee (Fulmer) and schooled Tennessee most years. As a result, Florida established itself as an overall better program than Tennessee (something that Tennessee never recovered from).
Skip ahead to 2001 with Mark Richt now at Georgia, Georgia is starting to figure things out. Meanwhile, Tennessee is starting to decline. Not able to keep up with modern football and expecting to school teams like Georgia as they had in the 1990s. Georgia starts to take over the series. As a result, Nationally Georgia starts to turn it around and appear as a better program. Especially by the time Fulmer is fired. Also the SEC West shows improvement. LSU hires Nick Saban who turns their program around. Tommy Tubberville brings new life to Auburn. Alabama would struggle for a few more years but hope was coming as we see in hindsight.
Fulmer is now fired, but Tennessee is unable to recruit a solid coach. Coaches prefer now Alabama, LSU, Georgia, or Florida over Tennessee. All have better programs by now. Tennessee continues to fall behind in the pecky order. Auburn surpasses us as well.
The decline continues as even Arkansas (with Bobby Petrino), South Carolina (with Steve Spurrier), Mississippi State (with Dan Mullin), and Ole Miss (with Hugh Freeze) all hire better coaches than Tennessee and build better programs. (All 4 are now superior to Tennessee over the last 10 years in records). Tennessee no longer waltz into stadiums and wins games. 10 win seasons are gone. Making Bowl games is now even a chore.
There was a critical coaching search in 2017. Florida had been terrible but still beat Tennessee nearly ever year under McElwain and Muschamp. Florida wins the coaching search hiring Dan Mullin. Why would he consider Tennessee? Florida is now a better program. Most of the country would agree. So is Georgia. This is something that wasn't TRUE in 1992 but is now.
Tennessee basically has 3 embarrassing Ls now on its schedule every year (Alabama, Florida, and Georgia). Tennessee must then search for other wins against teams that are more their level such as Missouri, South Carolina, and Kentucky. Tennessee isn't a 10 win program competing for SEC Championships. They are now 3rd (being generous) in the pecking order in the SEC East and somewhere ~9-10 in the SEC overall pecking order.
Florida and Georgia both have better coaching staffs and better athletes. Alabama has a better coaching staff and talent. Tennessee has no hope against that. No hope to ever getting back to being one of the top programs in the SEC. We are like a Minnesota or Nebraska. We were once good but we cannot get the coach or players to compete with the top dogs anymore.