Misery Index Week 1: As Tennessee reaches new low with latest loss, how did it get here?

But as Neyland Stadium emptied Saturday afternoon, with the Vols scoring a meaningless touchdown with two seconds left as Georgia State players and coaches celebrated the most stunning victory of their lives, 38-30, Tennessee fans had to ask themselves: How did we get here?WINNERS AND LOSERS: Starting with Willie Taggart and Florida StateWEEK 1 OBSERVATIONS: Tennessee stunned in worst loss everTennessee head coach Jeremy Pruitt yells to his players during a game against Georgia State. (Photo: Wade Payne, AP)With all due respect to Georgia State, which looked nothing like a team that finished 2-10 a year ago and was picked to finish near the bottom of the Sun Belt Conference, it is impossible for a program like Tennessee to lose that game unless something is seriously screwed up internally. But the idea that a desperate fan base or a sports radio host or even Fulmer — who was trying to scheme his way back into the mix even though he had no administrative experience — saw themselves as more fit to fix Tennessee football via Twitter mob than the professionals who understood the totality of the situation was always a fever dream.It should have been very clear that Tennessee in 2017 was not the right job for a first-time head coach, and while it’s still within the realm of possibility that Pruitt can salvage this, Tennessee looked so soft and was so severely outplayed in the second half that it is legitimate to now question whether he knows what he’s doing at all. (Seriously, take a look at the records — nearly every coach who has had a great tenure in the modern era has won at least nine games by Year 2.) For that reason, and many others, Florida State fans needed to see something reassuring from Willie Taggart's team after going 5-7 last year to end a streak of 36 straight seasons playing in a bowl game. Oregon: In his second year as the Ducks’ head coach, Mario Cristobal is doing the big stuff right but getting a lot of the little things wrong, and it’s costing his team and the Pac 12. This season, it was the promise of having a team loaded with seniors, including four-year starting quarterback Jake Bentley, only to flop completely in a 24-20 loss to rebuilding North Carolina and a new coaching staff led by Mack Brown.