Mike Strange takes a look at the upside of a losing season:

The four-game losing streak is the first in the program since the infamous 0-6 start in 1988.

“It was kind of like a tale of two seasons,” said Eric Still.

“Everyone calls the ’88 team the 0-and-6 team. People forget we won those last five games.”

The guys on that team haven’t forgotten that they picked themselves up off the mat and ran the table. Hobby was a defensive tackle. Still was an offensive guard.

And it mattered that they did because of what happened next.

“We all felt like we had our backs to the wall big-time from ’88 to ’89,” Still said. “And we came out swinging.”

In 1989, the Vols came out swinging and connected.

They were, in fact, one bad defensive day — a 47-30 loss to Alabama — away from being in the national championship race. They finished 11-1, shared the SEC title and won a thrilling Cotton Bowl battle over Arkansas.

Attention Volunteer fans. Memphis Tiger fans hate us.

Memphis fan Ed Smith:

I hate Tennessee. Why? I don’t know. Tennessee fans are arrogant, and they can’t accept defeat. They always blame it on someone else. They blame it on the officials, they blame it on the coaches. Sometimes you lose because you just get beat.

Kingsbury High School football coach Duron Sutton:

The guys who played with me hate Tennessee because they think they’re a superior team and that they don’t need to come onto the field to beat you.

Tiger fan Phil Owen:

I hope Tennessee never wins another game.

Former Memphis kicker Don Glosson:

We always get looked down upon by people over on the Hill. It was always a bigger game for us than it was for Tennessee. For Tennessee, it was just another win or a homecoming game.

Former Highland Hundred treasurer Michael Hawkins on why some Memphis fans may hate Tennessee only a little less than they hate Ole Miss:

We just tend to play Ole Miss more. Ole Miss doesn’t cancel contracts with us like Tennessee when they think there’s a chance we might beat them.

Harsh words.

But true?

John Pennington likes the Tennessee Volunteers over the Memphis Tigers this Saturday:

This game will PROBABLY be UT’s first semi-easy win of the year. Memphis is just too banged up to even hang with a mistake-prone bunch of Vols.

I expect UT to “pound the rock” successfully, connect on at least one deep pass, shut down Memphis’ already one-dimensional offense, and have many delusional Vol fans saying, “If we’d just played like that ‘gainst Bama!”

Barring 4 turnovers… UT 28, Memphis 13.

Another victim has fallen to the pain of 3-5 season.

The Tennessee Volunteer Athletic Department announced late this afternoon that Smokey IX has resigned as the Volunteer mascot effective immediately. Smokey IX, pictured below, will finish out the season in the press box at the feet of former Offensive Coordinator Randy Sanders.

Athletic Director Mike Hamilton, scrambling to find a replacement in time for Saturday’s Homecoming Game against Memphis, is rumored to have offered the position of Smokey X to the bird dog pictured below.

The canine’s owner, Everett Carbunkel of Snake Bit, Tennessee, could not be reached for comment.

Developing . . . .