The Tennessee Vols fan base needs to learn an important lesson from a team that they completely destroyed last season. 

And it's a lesson that has to do with mindset more than anything. 

There are plenty of fans who feel like the Vols' season is toast after losing to the Florida Gators in Week 3. 

Sure, fans know there's still plenty for this team to play for in 2023. But there are a number of fans who feel like an SEC East division title and a spot in the College Football Playoff are now out of reach. 

But that's not necessarily the case. 

And fans can look at LSU's 2022 season for evidence as to why. 

Halfway through the 2022 season, LSU was 4-2 and coming off a 27 point loss to Tennessee in Baton Rouge. 

Brian Kelly was in his first season as the Tigers' head coach, so it's not like expectations were unreasonable for LSU last season, but there were some whispers about whether or not the former Notre Dame head coach was in over his head. 

Kelly, however, stayed the course — even though he received some criticism for his take on the Tigers' blowout loss to the Vols. 

"We weren't as far away in that Tennessee game as the score indicated," said Kelly last October. "Look, I went for it in a lot of fourth-down situations that exacerbated the score. That could've been 'let's keep it close' and everybody would've been like 'oh they played them tough'. We didn't play the game to keep it close. We played it to win it."

Brian Kelly said on Saturday he didn’t think LSU was as far away as it appeared in the 40-13 loss to Tennessee pic.twitter.com/oHoILRM8Ab

— zach ragan (@zachTNT) October 23, 2022

At the time, it looked like LSU was on their way to an 8-5 season. Respectable, but far from the standard in Baton Rouge. 

The Tigers managed to turn things around before the end of the season. They rebounded after their embarrassing home loss to Tennessee to beat Florida, Ole Miss, and Alabama. They also took down Arkansas in a hard fought road game. 

LSU dropped a late-season road game to Texas A&M, but their strong performance after the loss to Tennessee was enough to send the Tigers to SEC Championship game. They ultimately lost that game to Georgia, but that's not really the point. 

The point, of course, is that LSU's season looked like it was "over", as far as any major goals were concerned, in early October. 

But LSU continued to push forward. They continued to improve. And eventually, the offense started scoring more points against tough opponents. The quarterback play improved. And the defense played much better the rest of the season than what everyone saw against Tennessee (except for the Georgia game — the Tigers gave up a season-high 50 points in the SEC Championship game). 

Success over the course of a season isn't always pretty. There can be lulls. There can be bad weeks. And sometimes it just takes a while for a new version of a team (which is what Tennessee is facing this season) to find its footing. 

The Vols aren't the team right now that they'll be at the end of the season. Tennessee should continue to improve as the offense becomes more comfortable with the new pieces that were inserted into the lineup this season. 

No one knows how this season will unfold for the Vols or any other team in the SEC. But all of Tennessee's goals are still achievable. They might need a little help, but the Vols can still accomplish many of the things they set out to accomplish this season. And they can look to a team that they boat raced last season for some motivation/inspiration. 

Tennessee HC Josh Heupel admitted he had a specific concern entering the second half against UTSA

Josh Heupel made an admission after Tennessee’s win against UTSA

Featured image via Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports