What is Tennessee football? It's a question Vols fans have asked themselves too often in recent years, as there hasn't been a clear answer for over two decades now.

In 1998, Tennessee football was a program that had just produced one of the greatest quarterbacks in football history, and even though he was gone, it was still able to win a national title. The Vols won the first championship of the BCS era, and it was the sixth (recognized) title in program history. They'd also won back-to-back SEC titles. It felt like the sky was the limit.

Now, 20 years later, it's hard not to wonder if 1998 was the limit. There would be four more SEC East titles over the next decade, but the Vols haven't won an SEC championship since, and they certainly haven't won a national title. 

Since Phil Fulmer stepped down following the 2008 season, Tennessee fans have been waiting for the next Fulmer, a coach to take their program back to the top. They haven't found him. The likes of Lane Kiffin, Derek Dooley and Butch Jones occasionally showed flashes of promise, but that's all they ever amounted to -- sometimes not even that. Since 2009, the first season without Fulmer, Tennessee has gone 62-63, and nobody has been able to come close to his level of accomplishment.

Of course, there's one thing current coach Jeremy Pruitt has accomplished as Fulmer did but the rest were unable to replicate: losing a nonconference game to an opponent from outside the Power Five. When Tennessee fell to Georgia State 38-31 at Neyland Stadium on Saturday, it was the first time the Vols had lost to a school from the current Group of Five since Wyoming came to Neyland and beat them 13-7 on Nov. 8, 2008. That loss came days after Fulmer announced he would be stepping down at the end of the season.

That came 10 years after 1998, and now, just over a decade later, there's that same kind of existential dread surrounding the Tennessee program. No logical Vols fan came into 2019 thinking Tennessee was going to challenge Georgia for the SEC East crown and head on to Atlanta to topple Alabama. There were legit questions and concerns about this 2019 team following Pruitt's debut season. It was a season that provided glimmers of hope for the future (wins at Auburn and over a Kentucky team that finished 10-3), but the season ended with a couple of duds against Missouri and Vanderbilt (the Vols were outscored 88-30 in those two games).

An experienced quarterback and a strong 2019 recruiting class (No. 13 nationally, though No. 7 in the SEC) had Tennessee fans thinking 2019 would be different. Sure, there'd be problems, and there was still a long way to go, but those problems weren't supposed to be so apparent in a home opener against Georgia State. That long way to go wasn't supposed to look so long so quickly.

But then Georgia State happened.

Georgia State happening makes 1998 feel like it was a lot longer than 21 years ago, and it's not getting any closer. That 1998 season took place four to five years before current high school juniors (the players coaches spend the most time recruiting) were born. That 1998 season took place 15 seasons before the Georgia State program even came into existence. 

So what is Tennessee football? In 1998, it was a program that won a national title. On Saturday, it was a program that lost to Georgia State. The answer lies somewhere in between, and the longer it takes to find it, the more likely it'll be an answer Tennessee fans would prefer to avoid.

Fun Fact of the Week

OK, so this fact might not be very fun for Tennessee fans, though it is interesting. The coach of the Georgia State team is Shawn Elliott. The team's offensive coordinator is Brad Glenn, and Saturday's win over Tennessee was Glenn's first game as the Panthers play-caller. Elliott hired Glenn this offseason from Western Carolina after last year's OC, Travis Trickett, left to join the West Virginia staff during the offseason.

Elliott hired Glenn because he was familiar with him, as they'd worked together before. They were  both members of the 2007 Appalachian State staff. You might remember the 2007 Appalachian State team as the one that went into The Big House and beat Michigan.

Let this be a lesson to Power Five programs who haven't won a national in over 20 years: stop scheduling teams with Shawn Elliott and Brad Glenn on their coaching staff.

Pyrrhic Victory of the Week

One thing that makes sports so powerful is that sometimes not even victory can help you escape a feeling of doom. If you don't believe me, ask USC right now. There wasn't a coach entering the 2019 season on a hotter seat than USC's Clay Helton, who is very much in need of a successful season if he's going to keep his job. So while Saturday night's (narrow) victory over Fresno State was a good start for the Trojans, it came at a very expensive price.

Starting quarterback J.T. Daniels left the game with a knee injury in the first half, and all worst fears were realized on Sunday when it was announced that Daniels had torn his ACL and meniscus. Daniels will miss the rest of the season, and now Helton must find a way to not only win enough games to keep his job but do so without his starting QB. And it's not like the Trojans looked great before Daniels got hurt either.

Helton described the injury as "gut-wrenching" after the game, and it's hard to disagree with his assessment. Particularly when Helton's job status now rests on the shoulders of Kedon Slovis, a freshman who came on in relief of Daniels. Slovis' performance wasn't poor, but it was clear new offensive coordinator Graham Harrell didn't want to put too much on the freshman's plate. He completed six of the eight passes he threw for 57 yards but had an interception.

And why is Slovis the lone option for the Trojans right now? Well, he beat out redshirt sophomore Jack Sears, the 105th-ranked prospect in the Class of 2017, for the backup job. Sears has since entered the transfer portal.

Slovis won't have a lot of time to settle in, as the toughest part of USC's schedule comes in the first half of the season. Starting this week, the Trojans begin a five-game stretch that will see them play Stanford, at BYU, Utah, at Washington and at Notre Dame. It's a five-game stretch that could very well decide Helton's fate.

Meltdown of the Week

For the first 30 minutes of the game, Kendal Briles seemed like a savior to Florida State fans. The new offensive coordinator's Seminoles offense scored 31 points and had 358 yards of offense in the first half, averaging a ridiculous 10.8 yards per play. It was a pace that was nearly impossible to maintain over 60 minutes, and that's precisely what happened.

The problem is things went too far in the other direction. The second half saw Florida State total 68 yards of offense and average 2.3 yards per play while being shutout. That was very helpful to Boise State's comeback bid, which they finished, rallying from a 31-13 deficit late in the first half to beat Florida State 36-31 in Tallahassee.

TV Analyst of the Week

I don't get the ACC Network on my cable package. I'd prefer to have it, but oddly enough, I wasn't all that upset when I couldn't watch No. 1 Clemson destroy Georgia Tech on Thursday night. I did, however, become somewhat distraught when I couldn't watch Wake Forest and Utah State on Friday night, and I became downright inconsolable on Saturday night when I learned I had missed this.

If this is what "Mark Richt: TV Personality" is going to be, I hope he never returns to a sideline.

Whoopsie of the Week

Back on Aug. 22, just over a week before Tulsa was to open its 2019 season on the road against No. 18 Michigan State, running back Corey Taylor made a bold prediction. He felt he and his teammates would have a strong day against a Michigan State defense that's proven to be difficult to run against over the years.

"With the offensive line that we have, those are great guys, so 100 yards apiece (for Taylor and fellow Tulsa RB Shamari Brooks), at least, and 5 (yards) per carry is pretty reasonable," Taylor told reporters.

Well, that's not how things went. Tulsa lost to Michigan State 28-7 on Friday night, and Taylor finished with -1 yards on 7 carries. Brooks bested him, managing 0 yards on 6 carries. As a team, Tulsa managed to rush for -73 yards on 25 carries. Yes, that's a negative symbol in front of the 73, not a typo or a smudge on your screen.

Thoughts and Prayers of the Week

May the memory of St. Francis punter Ryan Oliver live on forever in our hearts and minds.

Bad Beat of the Week

This could have gone to anybody who had the under in No. 4 Oklahoma's 49-31 win over Houston on Sunday night, but I think the worst beat of the weekend had to be Northwestern (+6.5) at No. 25 Stanford. The Wildcats trailed the Cardinal 10-7 with the ball and only 30 seconds left in the game when this happened.

That's a Stanford cover, folks. Of course, considering this was a game between Stanford and Northwestern, you've only yourself to blame if you bet anything but the under anyway.

Scholarship of the Week

Nevada upset Purdue 34-31 on Friday night with the help of a walk-off 56-yard field goal by freshman Brandon Talton. The 56-yarder was the longest walk-off winning field goal in the history of the Mountain West, and it had a far more significant impact for Talton. The walk-off winner also allowed him to walk-off his status as a walk-on, as he was rewarded with a scholarship after the game.

College Football Playoff Projection of the Week

Because it's never too early, right?

1. Clemson
2. Alabama
3. Oklahoma
4. Ohio State

Until the next Monday After!