Utah state could have beaten 2013 Tennessee so I'm fine with Tennessee not being 2012 Tennessee too. I haven't been impressed with Tennessee. I was a big fan of Patterson because he won me a fantasy championship with those big beautiful mitts of his. But Tennessee IMO is below any money game we've played in a while.
I know you "have talent" but I've also seen what it got you. I saw wazzu, cal, Utah, and everybody else but Virginia and FCS out perform you vs Oregon. I saw a low tier sec team that causes me less apprehension than almost any BCS team and is certainly the sec team id choose to play besides Kentucky.
You can pick and choose your examples of who was supposed to compete. But I notice southern Alabama, a team in their second year of FBS, isn't on that list. Or Vanderbilt. Not a lot of teams lose by an average of 14 pts to them the last two years, if ever. I'm just saying it how it is. My confidence that usu will compete comes partially from how USU looks but mostly from how Tennessee looks. If you think the big T on the helmet somehow earns you 3 touchdowns, good. I hope the team does too. But these 3 touchdown predictions are crazy. Usu has lost 2 games in 3 years by more than 10 and they were both after keeton went down this year.
Auburn, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Utah, byu, USC, Texas AM all talked the same way when we played at their stadiums. Unfortunately usu didn't close out a single one of them. But some had fans headed to the exits early and all were within a final play. I don't think usu will win, but they have as good a shot at beating you by 10 as you have of beating usu by 21.