Not a must but 'big,' Vols admit

KNOXVILLE -- Lane Kiffin has repeatedly maintained that "make or break" games don't exist in college football programs' first seasons with new coaching staffs.

In that's true, no Tennessee game this season is a "must win."

Kiffin didn't give any of his typical grins when asked about the importance of today's 12:21 p.m. Southeastern Conference game against Georgia in Neyland Stadium. His delivery couldn't have been much more deadpan.

"It's big, just because it's the next game," Kiffin said after Thursday's practice. "It's an opponent that we obviously recruit against a lot. It's an opponent that has a great tradition and great history. It's a great SEC matchup.

"It would be a great win for us, but we've got to play extremely well. That's the most important thing. If we do well, the rest will take care of itself. Don't worry about winning the game. Worry about playing well, and then wins come when you do things right."

Kiffin's attempt to deflect pressure from his players didn't prevent some of them from envisioning the benefits to UT (2-3, 0-2) if they beat the Bulldogs (3-2, 2-1).

"It's definitely a big game," senior offensive tackle Chris Scott said. "It could turn our season around."

No. 1 Florida is the SEC Eastern Division's only unbeaten team, and the Gators play tonight at fourth-ranked LSU. The rest of the East is jumbled.

South Carolina and Georgia each has one league loss. UT and Kentucky each has two. Vanderbilt has three.

Georgia hasn't played Florida, but the Vols still face games at No. 3 Alabama and No. 20 Ole Miss as well as a home clash with No. 25 South Carolina. The Vols still could play a major factor in the conference with a loss today, but a win would thrust them into their off week with momentum.

"We definitely want to get this win right here, because that will give us a lot of confidence coming back from the bye week," freshman tailback Bryce Brown said. "Georgia's going to come out and play with a lot of fire, but as the coaches tell us, it's all about us.

"This year we've beaten ourselves. There's not been one team that's handily beat us. We've just got to go in and take care of the little things and take care of ourselves."

Kiffin and his staff splice tape every week to show the players a handful of moments that turned wins into losses.

"Eight points!" defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin screamed several times this week, in reference to UT's four-point losses to UCLA and Auburn.

Senior center Cody Sullins said the Vols agree with that point.

"The morale's still pretty high," Sullins said. "Nobody's down in the dumps, thinking that the whole season is over. And the coaches are doing a great job of keeping us up and keeping us motivated and putting new stuff in the game plan and just energizing everybody.

"It's just ... there's not as much negativity going around as there was in the past, and that's why I think we'll be able to win a lot more games this year."

That glass-half-full approach ignores the flip-side argument for UT's SEC losses: That Florida and Auburn came within one or two self-inflicted, second-half wounds from routing the Vols, and that UT's last-second touchdown last Saturday left the final score a little misleading.

Lane Kiffin kept his public stance on the sunnier side, though. He called UT's fourth-quarter rally against Auburn "extremely encouraging."

"I would have much rather ended strong than maybe have had a really good first quarter and then not play very well on offense the whole second half and then have to go back and figure out what went wrong," Kiffin said. "It's good that we finished as good as we did. We have been a good fourth-quarter team this year. That's something that's pretty special to us, because we talk all the time about being a fourth-quarter team, being physical, being in condition to be able to win games in the fourth quarter.

"Now, we've got to win them, but at least we're on the right track as far as the way we're playing. We just need to start faster."

Regardless, though, UT senior quarterback Jonathan Crompton said today's outcome won't change the team's forward-thinking approach.

"Obviously, we want to win, and that's the big thing," Crompton said. "We're not going to say, 'We have to win this game,' but we're going to go out there and play our best and go from there.

"We're not putting the pressure on ourselves and saying, 'If we don't win this game, our season's over,' because it's not. Obviously we want to win, but we're just going to play our best and go from there."

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