The Tennessee Vols didn't reach their ultimate goal of winning a national championship in 2024 after getting ousted in the first round of the College Football Playoff by the Ohio State Buckeyes, but the season was still a big success for the UT football program. 

Tennessee beat a couple of their top rivals in Alabama and Florida, they won an emotional road game against Oklahoma (head coach Josh Heupel's return to his alma mater), and they reached the 12-team playoff (something that Alabama, LSU, Ole Miss, Missouri, and South Carolina can't claim). 

And they did all of that with a redshirt freshman starting quarterback in Nico Iamaleava. 

The majority of the Vols fan base seems to agree that the season was a success despite the way it ended in Columbus. 

There's a minority of fans, however, that exist on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram — the Bermuda Triangle of social media — that are currently having a meltdown over Tennessee football. 

And that minority is louder than the majority. 

The nega-Vols, for lack of a better term, are in the midst of a freakout over Tennessee's offense, the NCAA transfer portal, NIL spending, and UT's coaching staff (among other things). 

And the negativity is becoming overwhelming. 

Over the last week, I've seen Tennessee fans on social media calling for assistant coaches to be fired and for the collectives associated with UT to be audited. I've seen fans in Instagram comments arguing with players who have entered the transfer portal. I've even seen fans questioning if Josh Heupel is the right head coach for Tennessee (which is laughably insane — the Vols have won 30 games in the last three seasons and they're 4-2 against Alabama and Florida during that span). 

If you didn't know any better, you'd think the Vols were coming off a 5-7 season. 

The negativity from the fan base isn't just unproductive, it's potentially damaging to the program. Tennessee should be riding a huge wave of momentum into the 2025 season. But instead, the program is putting out fires created by fans. 

Vols fans are a big reason why the program is where it is today. Tennessee fans are incredibly passionate and they demand excellence, which is beyond understandable. No one wants to be the fan of a mediocre program. And that was the case for Vols fans for nearly two decades. But the constant negativity isn't going to make Tennessee play better on Saturdays and it's not going to attract elite players. 

When fans are questioning the head coach and the NIL collective that just led Tennessee to a playoff appearance, it doesn’t exactly bolster the program’s appeal.

There's no doubt that there are areas where Tennessee needs to improve for the program to take the next step. 

The most important thing for the Vols is to continue stockpiling elite talent. Unfortunately, the noise created by fans is counterproductive to Tennessee's goal of attracting that talent.

Tennessee's fan base can be one of the biggest assets in sports when it's being supportive of the players and coaches. 

But the moment a big game doesn't go the Vols' way, that support often turns into negativity. 

There's always going to be adversity in sports. It's never going to be perfect. Sometimes it's not your night and you lose. It happens to nearly every team that plays competitive sports. This idea that Tennessee needs to make sweeping changes because they lost to Ohio State and lost a couple of players to the transfer portal is misguided. Some small changes need to be made — the offense needs to continue to evolve and the Vols need more production from several position units — but clearly what Heupel is doing is working. 

From 2008 to 2020 the Vols beat Florida once, they beat Alabama zero times, they never won more than nine games in a year, and they had eight losing seasons. 

In four years under Heupel, the Vols have four wins against Alabama and Florida, the program's had four straight winning seasons, they have an Orange Bowl win against Clemson, a Citrus Bowl win against Iowa, and a playoff appearance. 

Four years ago, Tennessee went 3-7 and the program was under a massive NCAA investigation. It's safe to say that the program has exceeded expectations (so far) under Heupel. 

I think some fans forget that juggernaut programs aren't built overnight. Georgia was where Tennessee is right now for 15 years under Mark Richt before Kirby Smart took over. Clemson needed seven seasons under Dabo Swinney to break through and reach the national championship game. It takes time.

Look, I'm not trying to throw shade at the negative portion of the Vols fan base. Those fans are as passionate as anyone who wears orange. They just want to see Tennessee be successful. They care deeply. They're smart fans. And they are incredibly important to program. 

But the best way to help the team get better is to stay positive, offer reasonable critiques that aren't an attempt to bash everyone involved in the program, and to keep hope alive. 

Heupel is the best thing to happen to Tennessee football in a long time. The last thing fans want to do is run him out of town because 30 wins in three years isn't good enough in their eyes. 

Sometimes it's best to take a step back and look at things from a different perspective. Tennessee athletics (that includes football) is thriving right now. It's as good as it's been this century. Fans need to make sure that every recruit and transfer player in the country feels that orange wave of momentum, instead of pushing negative narratives that just make it harder for Tennessee to reach its ceiling. 

If you can't handle a little bit of adversity as a Tennessee fan, then maybe you should take athletic director Danny White's advice and just text a buddy. Because having a meltdown on social media where recruits and transfer players can see it certainly isn't helping the program get better.