Opponent level big jump for UT

KNOXVILLE -- Tennessee's first three football games under coach Lane Kiffin always looked like a ladder.

It's a considerable step up today to UCLA before the Volunteers face top-ranked Florida next Saturday.

The Bruins, at 4 p.m. today in Neyland Stadium, should represent Kiffin's first authentic challenge as UT's coach.

The Vols had their fun in a 63-7 season-opening throttling of Western Kentucky, but things should turn more serious against a school that started UT's downward spiral last September in the Rose Bowl.

"We made our guys realize that (last) Saturday was one game, and it means nothing," Kiffin said earlier this week. "That game means nothing now, and whether you won by one or 56, it's the same thing.

"We're 1-0, and so now we'll move on to the next game, and we'll be 2-0. And then we'll worry about the opponent after that."

Kiffin tried to tap-dance around dismissing the Hilltoppers before admitting last Saturday "ended up being like a preseason game.

"That was good, because we came out healthy," he said. "But the thing I'm nervous about is we still haven't played a game. Our guys don't know what it's like to play 80 plays in a real game. We've got a big challenge ahead of us.

"It was good to get a lot of guys to play, but at the same time we have a lot of work to do, and we're going to need to have very physical, intense practices this week to make sure that we're in shape for a full game."

Sixty game minutes weren't enough for the Vols and Bruins last season. Daniel Lincoln missed a field goal in the first overtime to leave with a 27-24 defeat.

Everyone remembers what happened from that point.

"But that's going nothing to do with this year, or this game," Vols senior quarterback Jonathan Crompton said.

Crompton, like most of his teammates, dismissed any notion that today was about payback. Nothing today will change what happened last year in Los Angeles, he said, and it won't completely erase the scars from a seasonlong nightmare.

"As soon as I got last season out of my head, and just said, 'You know what, let's just start new,' it really started to click," said Crompton, who tossed a career-high five touchdown passes last Saturday.

Senior guard Jacques McClendon was one of the few Vols to admit a desire for revenge.

"Oh, definitely," the former Baylor School star said. "When you go back and look at that film ... man, we definitely could have had ourselves in a better position to win that game. They took advantage of our mistakes, so obviously we need to eliminate those mistakes."

Added junior All-America safety Eric Berry: "Just heartbroken. We had them, and we let them back in the game. You can't do that against a good team. This year, we have to make sure we stay focused the whole game."

The Vols didn't need that consistent focus last Saturday. They were shut out in the first quarter before pouring on 63 points.

Kiffin has long since moved on from that game.

"I don't have a whole lot of comfort level yet," he said. "That was one game. We're playing a much, much tougher opponent on all three sides of the ball ... so we've got to go back to work like we have been.

"We've got to grind the same way that we have. We've got to prepare the same way. We've got to focus the same way. This is a big challenge for us."