Center position crucial UT issue

KNOXVILLE - First-year Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley is searching for new methods to motivate his Volunteers after they "shut it down" in a 48-13 loss to fifth-ranked Oregon last Saturday.

Perhaps his Monday comment on UT's centers was part of that new method.

"We don't have a center," Dooley said.

That might be a problem Saturday, when the Vols (1-1) face 10th-ranked Florida (2-0) in the teams' annual SEC opener.

Starting center Cody Pope sat out Monday's practice after a tough week that featured a trip to the hospital for undisclosed "precautionary tests" and two injuries against the Ducks - a stinger and a concussion.

"We may give Cody his own reality show," Dooley said. "We've got a lot of drama around Cody Pope. I don't know what we'd call it. Y'all can think of something."

Junior college signee Darin Gooch, who replaced Pope against Oregon, worked with the first team Monday. Seldom-used third-year sophomore Carson Anderson worked with the 2s.

Freshman James Stone worked some at center in preseason camp, but Dooley said Stone has proven "better at backing up left guard and left tackle."

"It's hard. It's hard," Dooley said. "We don't have a center."

Gooch, a late addition to UT's signing class, was preparing to play his second year with Butte (Calif.) Junior College before getting a spring-practice call from the Vols.

His adjustment hasn't been the easiest, though. The Nevada native wrestled in the 215-pound weight class as a high school senior and swelled to 270 at Butte.

Dooley wished the 6-foot-2 Gooch had stayed smaller.

"He was a little heavy [in camp]," Dooley said. "Darin came in and he was a pretty good player when he was light, and all of a sudden he goes, 'Uh-oh, I'm going to the SEC, so I've got to get to 300 pounds.' Then he can't move. So we're trying to lean him up. But he goes in there and competes pretty good now.

"A year ago, he was out in community college. He was sitting there in June lifting weights getting ready for Butte, you know. And here is. He's out there playing against Oregon. But he's competing hard. We're not afraid to put him in a game. He's played two games.

"We'll just see what Cody does."

Gooch felt OK with his performance against the Ducks and said that experience would be a plus if the Vols needed him again Saturday.

"I got in there and just tried to do my thing," he said. "I like to play physical, and I feel like I did a good job doing that. That was the first time I've ever been in front of 103,000 people before, so that part took a couple of plays to get past. But I feel like once I got that out of my mind, it was much easier to make the calls we needed to be successful.

"I'm trying to approach every single week the exact same way - like I'm going to play that week. I wouldn't say I'm preparing any different this week than I have the last two."

'Gray zone'

The area inside each 20-yard line is called the "red zone." Dooley calls the area between the 40 and the 20 the "gray zone."

"It gives me gray hairs, and that's why I call it the gray zone," Dooley said. "It's when you get to inside the 40 and you're in that, 'Are we in field-goal range? Are we punting? Are we going for it?' It drives you nuts. We even worked on it in camp.

"I don't know if anybody else calls it that."

Poole party

Junior tailback Tauren Poole said UT's offensive line "made me who I am."

And he is the SEC's leading rusher. His 136 yards per game is 16 more than the league's second-best average.

"As long as we continue to work together ... I am going to continue to fight for [the line] and for this team," Poole said. "If leading the SEC will win us games, then fine, whatever. If not, that is fine also.

"I don't have to lead the SEC for us to win games. But if I have to, I will."

Contact Wes Rucker at wrucker@timesfreepress.com, www.twitter.com/wesrucker or www.facebook.com/tfpvolsbeat.

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