Dear younger self: You took Tennessee Vols athletics for granted

Editor's note: In light of the Vols' 2017 football season and firing of Butch Jones, it's a good time to reread Jesse Smithey's column from June 2017.

Seeing kids and families near, on and around the University of Tennessee campus this summer will definitely conjure up a sense of nostalgia for me.

Twenty years have passed since I graduated high school and did my student orientation at Tennessee.

So now that I am nearing the age of 40, I figured maybe this is the best time to pen one of those trendy letters to my younger self. Here goes … 

Hey Jesse, 
It’s me. I’m you. You, you’re me. I’m just 20 years older and somehow found a way to get you a letter. Weird, huh? Yeah, well, deal with it. Things are just weird in the future. Wait until you see Miley Cyrus.

Anyway, I know you’re only now starting to learn about email. So in order to save you some of your precious dial-up minutes from that AOL disc you got in the mailbox, I figured I’d drop you an old-fashioned, handwritten letter. (Don’t worry. That dial-up internet noise no longer exists.)

I just wanted to tell you that you made a wise decision to attend the University of Tennessee. I know you didn’t really put much thought into it. Sure, you graduated third in your class. I remember. But academics had nothing to do with you leaving Humboldt and heading 300 miles east. 

Admit that you came to Tennessee because you had to go to an in-state school to get your tuition paid for – and, most importantly, you wanted to go to a school with a thriving sports culture.

Well, it paid off. The sports will be awesome for you.

SPOILER ALERT. Look away if you don’t want to know that Peyton Manning returned to school for his senior year – your freshman year – and led Tennessee to the SEC Championship. I will leave all the Heisman details for you to discover.

Read more:

► Peyton Manning’s legacy took off at Tennessee

► John Adams: Manning was franchise for Vols, others

► From the archives: Peyton Manning’s final game for the Vols

And definitely stop reading this letter if you don’t want to know that you got to see Tennessee go undefeated in football in 1998 and win a national championship.

You also got to see Pat Summitt at her coaching peak, capping her third consecutive women’s basketball national championship in 1998 with a perfect 39-0 mark. And, hey, appreciate her more while you’re in school, OK?

Read more:

► John Adams: Summitt’s connections went way beyond basketball

► Pat Summitt will be remembered as Pat as well as coach

Also, the men’s basketball team somehow rebounds from the Wade Houston and Kevin O’Neill years and becomes NCAA Tournament eligible. The baseball team goes to a World Series.

Basically, all the sports programs are great, and you won’t realize how great until you get to be about my age now. You, like so many in Knoxville, will asininely assume it’ll always be that way. 

Guys named Kiffin and Dooley will teach you otherwise.

The undergrad students at Tennessee these last 10 years are definitely jealous of you.

They’ve lived a college football reality where Vanderbilt is an actual football threat. 

So, I’ll leave you with this. Get out of North Carrick Hall more. Put down your Playstation controller. I know, I know. PS1 is awesome. But save up for some Atlanta football road trips. Get to some Lady Vols basketball games.

You’ll experience the golden years of Tennessee athletics. Believe that. 

Because in 2017, I can’t tell you if it’ll ever come back.