Tennessee has quite the habit of getting blown out in some games, and losing otherss they should have won. Take last year: The Cal loss, the blowout by Florida... and then a thorough beating of Georgia. The same Georgia team that hasn't lost since, and was anointed the 'best team in college football' at the end of the year.

Tennessee, as I've said before, is consistently inconsistent this way. It wouldn't surprise me at all if they played an incredible game this Saturday. They should be plenty motivated- last year's beating combined with being an underdog by more than a touchdown (at home!) should have gotten their attention. It can't help our cause that the players have said there's been a Tim Tebow poster in their weight room all summer ("So that we know what we're lifting for... this year is for them").

Allow me to introduce you to a phrase I use when talking and thinking about the outcome of games. I call it the 'Super Bowl Effect'. To use it in this instance, I think UT players and coaches will be extremely locked in and fired up because this game is like their 'Super Bowl'. This happens all the time in bowl games, or when pretty much any Pac-10 team plays USC. One team wants to win that much more than the other, and it can create a dangerous situation. It happens every week- though a lot of the time it just means that a game is much closer than it should have been. It also transcends sports- look at the entire season when our basketball team was 'defending it's championship'. Other teams would come out and often lead for a significant amount of the game because they'd play out of their minds. Then our superior talent would kick in and we'd win the game. So now you are familiar with the theory, which probably a lot of other people have similar theories with different names... whatever, I'm not trying to be original, just make a generalization.

We won't be able to match their intensity in this regard- but we do need to make sure we don't lose the game because of this (which sounds obvious, but what I mean is "keep down the big plays"). The game being on the road, and the fact that we might be cocky from last year's outcome, also don't make me feel any better. This is a huge game, as it always is, because of the national, conference, and division ramifications. We should be able to win, and win handily. The only way to know how the intangibles are going to stack up for us is to watch the beginning of the game. In this manner, Saturday will be like Christmas. I seriously won't be able to sleep. But a strong first half will have me positively giddy at half time. And wondering who will be the one to take down the Tim Tebow poster.