Vol's safety won't miss any games despite off-the-field incident

KNOXVILLE - Sophomore safety Darren Myles Jr. won't miss any games despite his recent off-the-field incident, Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley confirmed to The Times Free Press on Monday afternoon.

Myles, expected to start this season, was arrested outside a West Knoxville restaurant and night club at 2:29 a.m. on April 18 - mere hours after the Orange and White game - and charged with public intoxication, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.

"We are not suspending (Myles) for a game from that incident," Dooley said during an exclusive, 30-minute interview with the Times Free Press. "It's a combination of internal discipline and internal education, and that's where we're going with it."

Dooley said Myles' incident was his first since the new head coach arrived in January, and he said the player hasn't had any issues since.

"Darren's a guy who, since I've been here, has done some great things and shown a lot of progress in so many areas," Dooley said. "I know he had some issues before, but he's done nothing but climb on the right path since I've been here. But he made a bad decision the night after the spring game, and so we were certainly disappointed in Darren. But we handled it internally with Darren, and with the rest of the team. We didn't limit some of the things with just Darren. It's important that the team is a part of all this, too.

"We feel like Darren's back on track, and we're going to continue to do things with Darren to make sure he doesn't slip up again."

Dooley spoke at length about several other topics surrounding the UT program, and Tuesday's print edition will feature every word from the half-hour interview.

Read Tuesday's Times Free Press for more UT coverage.

Other contacts for Wes Rucker are www.twitter.com/wesrucker and www.facebook.com/tfpvolsbeat.

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