Tennesseecoach Lane Kiffin is doing the unthinkable. What no one else has the power to do.

He can talk smack to the Evil Wizard of Gainesville Urban Meyer and not only survive their first battle, but deliver enough body blows to be declared the victor on some scorecards.

He can craft and execute that game plan to perfection; warding off the beat down of beat downs, while also outcoaching coached that evil wizard.

He can take a literal pedestrian offense and make it competitive against the nation's top defensive unit.

He can also make losses seem like wins.

Quite the feat especially since the last guy who held his position had the ability to make wins seem like losses.

Tennessee went to the Swamp Saturday afternoon, supposed to lose by 30 - 40 - 50 or however many touchdowns, not points, Urban Meyer wanted to score on the boy wonder of the SEC.

The Vols, in fact lost the game on the scoreboard. Yet, you couldn't judge as much by the postgame reaction.

Kiffin was not taking any solace in any moral victories his team may have earned by staving off the pulverizing of the century by the best team of this century.

Meyer meanwhile was lobbing up excuses like he was on the losing end.

Too much pressure by fans and media. A flu bug hit the team. Then the unthinkable. Citing that Tennessee played conservatively down the stretch, Meyer said his team backed off the pedal and played just as conservative as their opponents.

While the argument does carry some merit in football knowledge - it doesn't fit the character of the Evil Wizard we all know. Just ask Mark Richt. He is still sitting in timeout in Jacksonville after last November's payback beatdown.

The same kind of payback beat down Lane Kiffin didn't receive.

For all the hype and soundbytes played from December 1, 2008 through September 19, 2009 - the promise of the biggest shellacking the world was to have seen never came. Kiffin pressed all the right buttons; he invigorated a stale fan base, rallied his own team and focused all the heat and pressure on him Saturday, when it could've easily been on the already fragile shoulders of quarterback Jonathan Crompton.

That's why Tennessee's coach continues to play it perfectly.

His public comments leading up to Saturday's game put a heavy focus on the game with the largest talent disparity in the 37-game series between the two schools.

His ability to instill competition, discipline and physical toughness into a vastly outmanned team to compete in the SECs upper echelon in 2009 allowed them to battle the Gator's to a two-possession game most of the way.

Kiffin - unlike his predecessor - stood up to the opposition, lived to tell about it (and still is talking about it, with verbal jabs thrown towards Meyer 363 days in advance of their 2010 meeting) and will have his program in better shape because of it when that next meeting rolls around.

Seth Butler is a sports writer and columnist with the Newport Plain Talk. He can be contacted at seth.butler@yahoo.com.