Tennessee defensive coordinator Sal SunseriKNOXVILLE - The frustration was evident in Sal Sunseri's voice.
His Tennessee defense is having a rough season, and the Volunteers' first-year coordinator steered the spotlight and blame away from his players after Wednesday morning's practice.
"I am not disappointed in the kids," Sunseri said. "I'm disappointed in myself. I've just got to keep pushing them and keep on finding out what's going to trigger them to make them better.
"I'm disappointed in myself because I know what's going to work, I know what they have the capabilities of doing and I've just got to get it out of them."
After surrendering a program record 721 yards to Troy, Tennessee is 112th nationally and last in the Southeastern Conference in total defense in Sunseri's first season in Knoxville. The former NFL and Alabama assistant has come under fire for the defensive woes, which have undermined the production of a talented offense. There's been busts and missed tackles, poor schemes and players struggling to make plays.
Nothing has worked, but Sunseri and his players are continuing to search for ways to fix it.
"People told me that I was too small to play, I was too this and all that and I worked through it and got it done," Sunseri said of the early days his All-American college playing career at Pittsburgh. "Right now we've just got to play better defense, and that's the attitude I want to take to the kids. We're going to work through it so we understand it and we do what we need to do to get better.
"Hey, it's been a learning process on both sides. The kids, my hats are off to them because they came out here today and they gave everything they could. They're trying; they play hard in the game, and we've just got to quit making mental mistakes."