ESPN College Football

PASADENA, Calif. -- A 27-24 overtime loss to a beleaguered UCLA team was hardly the birthday present Tennessee coach Phil Fulmer was looking for. In fact, being serenaded with the "O-ver-rated" chant by UCLA fans as he walked off the field was probably the last thing he wanted. Fulmer, who turned 58 on Monday, is again faced with trying to rally his team after another dismal start to a season.

"We probably made enough mistakes to lose three, four or even five games tonight," said Fulmer, whose team has a week off before facing UAB followed by games against Florida and at Auburn.

The 11-day layoff is probably a very good thing for a program that will surely go from being ranked No. 18 to unranked while it sorts out issues in every facet of the game. Then again, the time off also will give Vol Nation ample time to dissect what has to be one of the more nauseating losses in recent UT history.

The feeling surely must sting even more than both of Tennessee's two demoralizing defeats in 2007. The first of those was a 45-31 pounding at Cal, where the Vols yielded almost 500 total yards. The second was a 59-20 demolition in Gainesville, where Florida gained 554 total yards.

Those games were blowouts. They were the kind of games where Tennessee got brutalized the way the Vols usually beat on Kentucky or Vandy. But still, they were also games against supposed scoring machines.

That certainly wasn't the billing the 2008 UCLA Bruins received. This loss was more than just the Vols failing to uphold SEC pride on a prime-time Monday night stage by losing to a Pac-10 team. Tennessee lost to a rebuilding Pac-10 team. Most Vols fans had already marked down a W before packing all of their bright orange garb and flying cross-country for what was supposed to be another clinic in SEC football.

UCLA was beyond depleted. Never mind those bold newspaper ads talking about the future of Bruins football as it relates to USC, Rick Neuheisel's squad was relying on a patchwork offensive line and a third-string QB. The Bruins also saw three more offensive starters get knocked out of the game in the first quarter. QB Kevin Craft even gift-wrapped four first-half interceptions for the Vols. When the UCLA junior finally found a rhythm, the Vols looked like they knew that their missed opportunities would come back to haunt them.

Walking off the field as the Bruin players fell to the ground, celebrating like they just clinched a Pac-10 title, center Josh McNeil put his arm around QB Jonathan Crompton. As the overrated chant rained down, McNeil told Crompton to keep his head up. "We've got 11 more games to go," McNeil told Crompton. "We've got 11 more games. We have to show a lotta fight and correct the mistakes we've made."

That message seemed to get through to Crompton, who struggled against the various looks UCLA sent at him, going 19-of-42 for 189 yards and an interception in his second career start. He was the first UT player to address the media. He said all of the right things after the game and exuded the leadership his team will need as it looks to pick up the pieces.

"We don't need to get our heads down because we played good," he said, adding that the Vols must work on finishing.

Fulmer is banking that his team will use the experience it gained from rallying from a 1-2 start in 2007 to push through and win the SEC East title. That fight silenced a lot of talk that Fulmer was on the coaching hot seat. This loss shouldn't put Fulmer back on there, but to some critics it might.

Five minutes after leaving the field, Fulmer made sure the confidence of Daniel Lincoln didn't take a big hit after the sophomore kicker missed a game-tying 34-yard field goal in overtime. Lincoln, of course, also was the one who booted the Vols into the OT in the first place, drilling a 47-yarder in the final seconds of regulation.

Fulmer reminded his team that the game wasn't decided by one kick. He's right. The Vols have many more reasons to address. An experienced O-line surrendered far too much pressure and had too many procedure penalties. There was a huge protection breakdown on the punt team. Receivers dropped passes. And once Craft stopped throwing interceptions and the UCLA receivers started making plays underneath the Tennessee defense, the Vols didn't come up with any answers to get him back out of sync.

Fulmer deemed the situation "fixable."

It is, although that 2007 trip to Atlanta to play LSU for the SEC title probably feels like a very long time ago.

Bruce Feldman is a senior writer with ESPN The Magazine. His new book, "Meat Market: Inside the Smash-Mouth World of College Football Recruiting," is on sale now.