It’s going to be a long season.

That’s all I could think as my family and I walked away from Bank of America Stadium Saturday in Charlotte, aimlessly in search of pride in being Vols fans . . . and an Uber.

Expectations weren’t high, at least mine weren’t. Rewinding back just a week ago, here are a few snippets of my thoughts going into a matchup with nationally ranked West Virginia.

“I don’t expect the Vols to win. I’m not really sure it will even be close. . . I just hope to see some semblance of improvement, which shouldn’t be hard considering the Vols were historically inept last fall.”

And yet, the Tennessee season started with the center missing a block on a simple screen pass and quarterback Jarrett Guarantano being hit while trying to release on a one-step drop. The ball bounced backward and the Vols took a 10-yard loss.

Going backwards. It should be the new motto of the Tennessee program.

The 40-14 loss to the Mountaineers wasn’t devoid of good moments.

The Vols put together a time-killing scoring drive in the second quarter to momentarily seize momentum, capitalizing on new coach Jeremy Pruitt’s aggression to go for a touchdown on fourth down. Guarantano rolled out and found TE Dominick Wood-Anderson alone in the endzone, trimming the West Virginia lead to 10-7.

Guarantano himself had a decent stat line, completing 19-of-25 and guiding a Vol offense which prioritized ball safety, finishing with zero turnovers. New tailback Tim Jordan was a bulldozer at times, finishing with 118 yards.

Defensively, there wasn’t much to praise. Local fans did get a chance to see Manchester product Alontae Taylor start at cornerback. To my knowledge, he wasn’t in direct coverage on any of Will Grier’s five touchdowns, although the first score did go to his side and he looked a step late in undercutting the route.

We left to a John Denver “Country Roads” sing-a-long, which sounded awesome even though I didn’t feel like it was a place I belonged at the time. 
As we stopped and our ride neared on a packed Charlotte street, one guy walked past my dad – a sullen 60-year-old Vol fan who has had season tickets since 1986 and been watching and attending games since way before – and said, “Don’t worry, it’s going to get better.”

My dad never even looked up. He only muttered, “Yeah, we’ve been saying that for 10 years.”

Our driver pulled up and asked, “Where are you headed?”

Tennessee fans have been wondering that for a long time.