It’s okay not to have a clear answer. “I don’t think anyone saw this coming, so quickly,” said Phillip Fulmer, a former Tennessee coach and athletic director who had a small role in it over the years. What this gesture lacks in depth I don’t know, it makes up for in precision. Tennessee is No. 1 in the College Football Playoff rankings, entering an epic matchup Saturday against No. 3 Georgia in the SEC Game of the Week on CBS (3:30 p.m. ET). The Volunteers hit that high point for only the second time in the middle of a season since 1939. Their streak is so well established, a loss in Athens, Ga., might not even matter in these final College Football Playoff rankings. Just don’t try to explain it. “It takes four or five years to build a program,” Tennessee AD Danny White said. “That’s still the case. We have a great ranking and we’re having a great season, but you don’t rebuild a schedule in 18 months.” Maybe not, but don’t tell anyone outside of White’s office. White hired Josh Heupel after firing Jeremy Pruitt. It was January 27, 2021. Just over 21 months later, Tennessee is the best team in the country. At least that’s what the CAP Selection Committee thinks. Beat Georgia and that claim can remove any doubt. “The hunger we see [from the fans] it manifests,” White said. “The Alabama game, on the field after, there are adults yelling and crying. There was the feeling: “We’re not stuck in purgatory anymore. Win or lose, we have a chance.” Upheavals happen and there are upheavals. This came quickly and smartly. That game at Alabama on October 15th changed everything. The result showed that the Vols can work their way to a championship. It’s been done before. Tennessee faces the nation’s most explosive offense. There is a dominating factor in a unit that runs a play every 3.58 seconds. Quarterback Hendon Hooker went from Virginia Tech castoff to Heisman Trophy candidate. The defense may have proven that by holding Kentucky to six points last week, the fewest by Tennessee in an SEC game in 14 years. The same defense that is top 10 against the run also struggles against the pass. Seat-of-the-pants did we say? Tennessee’s best defensive back now starts for Oklahoma (Ky Lawrence). The best linebacker is killing it for Alabama (Henry To’oto’o). This is life in the transport gate, but that’s starting to not matter. Missing their top three secondary players Saturday, the Vols were chasing Wildcats QB Will Levis, a high NFL Draft prospect. Levis was sacked four times and held to 98 yards passing. It took some outsiders to do all this. White is the son of legendary Notre Dame and Duke AD Kevin White. Heupel had rebuilt his resume and career after being fired at Oklahoma, his alma mater, in 2014. These are their first Power Five jobs as a coach and AD. So there was a factor that naturally went into it when White finally hired Heupel away from UCF. Both were in the same positions with the Knights from 2018-20. White says he came up with a vision for Heupel after an intense 2.5-hour meeting with team leaders after Pruitt left. “It never crossed my mind to hire him,” White told CBS Sports. “I never even got to that point mentally. My mind never let me get to the point of bringing him up. At some point during these conversations with players, we started thinking, ‘Wait a minute, she would be the best choice .’ This was a dark time for me. I knew it would create more disruption for them [UCF] Players.” It kind of clicked, quickly. Heupel was a calming influence. This was a project that required special members. Tim Banks was hired as defensive coordinator in his sixth stop in 15 years. Alex Golesh was Heupel’s offensive coordinator at UCF in 2021. That unit finished No. 2 nationally in total offense. Heupel may now be the frontrunner for national coach of the year. Don’t ask how. Heupel inherited Hooker. The general was waking up at 5 am. offseason at Virginia Tech and was playing with the coaches to improve his game. Then, COVID-19 hit in 2020 and everyone’s game was affected. “When I got to Tennessee, I got back into the flow of things,” Hooker told CBS Sports. “I could have full access to the film room. I was in the facility eight hours a day watching film. Even if another player wasn’t there, I was in there trying to figure out what was going on.” In the spring of 2021, Hooker said he and then-roommate Velous Jones would be the last in the facility. A list of their goals was posted on a wall as what they saw before they left home: to make it to the Senior Bowl, the NFL Draft, the SEC Championship Game and the national championship. “Velous hit a lot of those goals,” Hooker said of Jones, now in his rookie season as a defensive back with the Chicago Bears. “I want to do the same.” Hooker has plenty of help in the wide receiver room, now one of the best in the country. Previously injured Cedric Tillman returned last week to join transfer Bru McCoy and Jalin Hyatt, the latter of whom leads the nation in touchdown catches (14). The recovery trend isn’t new, it’s just renewed, renewed, and much more urgent. That’s why Texas A&M hired Jimbo Fisher for better or worse to his then-only 10-year deal. Mel Tucker, who had his own 10-year contract, pulled off the biggest upset in the country last year at Michigan State. USC is that “it” team in 2022 as Lincoln Riley continues his freshman season. LSU is hoping for its own rebound. If they beat Alabama on Saturday, LSU will control their fate in the SEC West. “Everywhere, there’s this need to want to see results,” Kelly said. “This is what our society is about. There is no more patience for long-term plans.” The “phenomenon” appeared at the beginning of this century. Ads everywhere watched when Bob Stoops (Oklahoma), Jim Tressel (Ohio State) and Urban Meyer (Florida) each won national championships in their second seasons. it all happened over a period of eight years. Dogs may have “started” this trend 22 years ago. It is possible to draw a direct line from Oklahoma to Tennessee. Heupel was the quarterback for those 2000 Sooners who went from 7-5 in Stoops’ first season in 1999 to undefeated national champions. Oklahoma was coming off its worst three-year stretch in history (1996-98) when Stoops arrived from Florida. Like at UT now, the talent on this OU team was largely unknown. Soon WR Antwone Savage went from a little-known freshman out of Albany, Georgia, to a career year (50 catches). Linebacker Torrance Marshall from two different JUCOs became Orange Bowl MVP. Oklahoma was Heupel’s third school. He came back from an ACL and was recruited out of Snow College, a Utah JUCO, by then-offensive coordinator Mike Leach. In 2000, Heupel was named the Heisman runner-up and AP Player of the Year. “There are parallels,” Heupel said. “Talking about a program that was fragmented in some ways when we first got here. I think a clear vision for everybody to jump in the boat together and pull as hard as they can. This team continues to grow and improve.” There is even a parallel between Georgia and Tennessee. Kirby Smart went from 8-5 in his first season with the Bulldogs in 2016 to losing in the College Football Playoff National Championship a season later. Following Mark Richt for 15 years allowed Smart to start with a foundation. Heupel had to dig under a lost culture and an NCAA investigation. Today, the transfer portal and NIL are the biggest players. The quick turnovers put pressure on the likes of Steve Sarkisian, who has yet to get it done in his second year at Texas. In Tennessee, the NIL is a huge factor — if not now, soon. Spyre Sports Group is a Knoxville-based collective that signed incoming five-star Tennessee QB Nico Iamaleava to a multi-million dollar NIL deal. This has been anything but a quick turnaround at Tennessee if you count back more than two seasons. The program wandered in the wilderness for a while. Even worse than Auburn’s meddling with power, Tennessee fans were running the show for a while. Their meddling cost them more than an AD (John Currie) and a coach (Greg Schiano). It cost Tennessee credibility. There was instability. Before that, it was Lane Kiffin and Derek Dooley. Nothing—not a face, a philosophy, or a future—seemed to stick. The “answer” was Pruitt, a former 247Sports Recruit of the Year with three national championships on his resume as an assistant. Pruitt lasted three years, going 16-19 and leaving as the focus of a major recruiting scandal. White pointed out that the university was proactive in the investigation. The AD (Fulmer) and coach (Pruitt) during many of the alleged wrongdoings have been replaced. Only a handful of Vols on the roster, Pruitt said proudly, were ones “that I didn’t bring.” “I think the volatility was on, to be honest with you,” Fulmer said when Heupel arrived. “Hell, whatever happened to Pruitt didn’t slow us down.” “The recruits and the college football world in general have realized that it’s not something that’s going to destroy our program. Far from it,” White concluded. The topic isn’t even mentioned around the program anymore. “The first day I took the job, I stood there [and said], “This is what you envision. This is a journey,” Heupel said. “You figure out the type of team you want to build.” More Georgia vs. Tennessee …