Can the Vols have fun in the land of pressure and expectations?

Heading into and coming out of the Vols' 55-0 win over Tennessee Tech last Saturday, the word "fun" has been uttered more than once.

From head coach Butch Jones' discussions of the need for high fives and chest bumps, to the players talking about just getting back to playing the game they loved as kids, "having fun" has been the narrative.

That was last week. The game against Tennessee Tech might as well have been the Orange and White game. No offense intended towards the Golden Eagles, who have a bright future in FCS with their talented, young head coach Marcus Satterfield. But it's easy to have "fun" when your starting quarterback is wearing a ball cap in the second quarter of a game. It's easy to have "fun" when you score 21 points on seven offensive snaps. It's easy to have "fun" when you have virtually no possibility of losing.

"Fun" is possible when you have no pressure.

Again, that was last week. This week, welcome back pressure.

This week, welcome back to Power 5 Football and the "No Fun Zone". Welcome back to facing an SEC opponent whose year will be made if they beat you. And they can beat you.

That would really be no fun.

Tennessee's game with Kentucky this Saturday at Noon (EST) is a playoff game for the Volunteers if they want to keep any divisional title hopes alive. If you don't beat Kentucky, the season's last two games mean very little.

In other words, welcome back to the pressures of big-time college football, where fans pour in by the thousands, the coaches are paid millions, TV contracts provide hundreds of millions and experts number into the billions. Or so it seems.

It's called scrutiny and it's "fun" for the media, the big donors, the armchair quarterbacks and just about everyone else.

And therein lies Butch Jones' challenge. How does your program handle pressure? Two weeks ago, it didn't handle the pressure well and Tennessee blew a game at South Carolina as double digit favorites.

“I think it could have had something to do with the expectations on us,” Brett Kendrick said of why they weren't having fun. “I feel like there was a lot of pressure on us. We talked so much last week about it being just a kid’s game, just go out there and have fun. You really do play a lot better when you’re loose and not worried about going out there and making a mistake.”

Members of the 1998 national championship team will tell you the most difficult game they played that season was the SEC Championship game. The pressure was enormous. All their dreams would have been dashed had they not beaten Mississippi State. The Vols played tight and were almost overwhelmed in the first half before rallying for the win.

I remember what Phillip Fulmer told me as I was congratulating him after his '04 Vols beat Florida. He said the reality is that it's what you DO with that win, not the win itself.

Butch Jones has said all year that the more you win, the higher the stakes. And with the more you win, the greater the pressure. That pressure returns Saturday.

“If you are a competitor you want to play in these types of games,” Jones said. “They hear it. These are still 17-22 year old kids. They hear everything that's out there. This is a generation that has grown up on social media so they hear everything. For them it's almost having a safe haven when they walk in here and do what they love to do and what they have grown up doing which is playing football.

“We are judged on how we perform in four hours. You have to get back to the love of it. But also part of the recruitment process is recruiting individuals that are passionate about what they are doing. That they need football in their lives. It's more than just a love for the game because it's hard.”

I get where Kendrick, Jones and others in the Vol camp are going with this. Football is a game that should be played with joy and passion for the sport, not with a sense of dread. Maybe the word "fun" isn't the right word. Maybe a better word is "excitement". Maybe the word is "enthusiasm".

Unfortunately, "fun" is more unattainable than ever in college football. With the cost of doing business in the big-time college football world greater than ever, "fun" is only attainable if you win and, even then, it's short-lived.

To win, you have to manage the pressure and there's nothing fun about that.

At noon on Saturday, it's all on the line for the Vols. Yes they need help, but the help is pointless if the Vols don't beat a capable Kentucky team.

In other words, this Saturday is not really about having fun. It's about not being overwhelmed or paralyzed by the expectations and pressure. It's about embracing the challenge with excitement and enthusiasm and going right at Kentucky, instead of letting the upstart Wildcats come at you.

I do know this...

Winning is fun.

Beating a rival who is desperate to beat you is fun.

Playing for a championship is a lot of fun.

Use whatever term that you see fit, Vols, but at 3:30pm EST on Saturday, if you're 7-3 it will have been a “fun” day of ball for the Big Orange.