KNOXVILLE -- Tennessee won't face the situation on the football field for another few months.
The Volunteers are getting an off-the-field version of one of the game's most pressure-packed plays every week this offseason in the latest installment of coach Butch Jones's long and growing list of mottos and slogans.
What the third-year coach is calling "Fourth-and-1 Wednesdays" has become as much a part of the players' offseason program as weightlifting, conditioning workouts and voluntary on-field work, though the new addition has much more of an off-field focus as part of Tennessee's "Vol for Life" program.
Each week, the Vols host speakers on various topics, ranging from leadership and accountability in everyday life to more specific real-life situations.
"The Fourth-and-1 program is another great idea that Coach Jones has, and what it's designed to do is to really kind of hit these guys right between the eyes with some more pertinent information," VFL program coordinator and former Vol Antone Davis said Wednesday night.
"Today we talked about domestic violence and sexual assault. We have to cover it. We have to cover it not just once a year; we have to continue to cover it.
"The players are starting to realize that these types of programs and these types of presentations, if you will, are designed to help them and designed to make them more informed so they can make better decisions."
Football, as Jones often likes to say, is just a sped-up version of life, and the weekly meetings continue a trend begun under him of bringing in outside speakers, from noted authors to guests with military backgrounds.
Many of the various phrases Jones has introduced to Tennessee wind up plastered on the walls of the eye-popping Anderson Training Center, the program's headquarters, or printed on shirts players might wear during workouts or underneath their shoulder pads at practice.
The veteran players have become accustomed to them and realize Jones has a purpose behind them, including the "Fourth-and-1 Wednesdays."
"At first, you see it as corny and you kind of hear different things all the time, but the message that we're receiving during these 'Fourth-and-1' things is really powerful," rising senior offensive tackle Kyler Kerbyson said this past week.
"You go into it with a different mindset. It's not always what have you done wrong or what you need to improve on. It's more this is how you need to live your life. It's a life meeting. It's not a position meeting. It's about how to be a good man and a good father and a good husband."
The guest list this offseason included Freddie Scott, a former teammate of Davis who's involved with the NFL's player engagement program; John Underwood, the founder and director of the "Life of an Athlete" program, which has worked with professional, collegiate and Olympic athletes and the Navy SEALs; and the return of "The Program," a team-building and leadership-development initiative led by former U.S. Marine Eric Kapitulik.
"Coach Jones does a great job of bringing in guys that can help develop us on and off the field," rising fifth-year senior guard Marcus Jackson said. "He always brings in speakers, and they always give a good message. We always make sure we're trying to develop ourselves as players on the field and off the field."
Scott spoke to the team this past week about domestic violence and sexual assault, a topic that's hit a little closer to home for Tennessee with the alleged incidents this past season involving star linebacker A.J. Johnson and cornerback Michael Williams.
Johnson, an All-SEC prospect once bound for the NFL, and Williams were suspended from all team activities last November after they were accused of rape and sexual assaults, and both were indicted on two counts of aggravated rape by a Knox Couty grand jury last month.
Tailback Marlin Lane was suspended following a rape accusation two years ago, and cornerback Riyahd Jones, shortly after the end of his Tennessee career, was named as a suspect in a rape investigation last month. Neither of those players has been charged in either situation.
Coach Jones said part of the goal of the "Fourth-and-1 Wednesdays" is to further establish and develop the culture, both on and off the field, of his program.
"We've talked a lot about culture and talked about what kind of program we represent and what kind of program we want to leave a legacy for," Davis said. "In other words, when we leave here, what will they say about Team 119? Those are the kinds of meetings we've had so far."
Kerbyson said the messages, particularly for some of the more difficult topics, resonate with the players.
"We had a guy today come in talking about domestic violence and sexual assault, and it really just opens your eyes," he said. "A lot people suffer through it. He had examples of people in the NFL today that had to deal with it.
"The safety, (William) Gay from the Steelers, his mother actually died from his stepfather. They had a video of that and how it affects a lot more people than you think it does and it can happen to anybody."
"It kind of strikes you in the heart when you hear about these things. They always bring in examples of guys that are in our spot. The guy that we had today played at Penn State when he was in college, so he knows what we're going through, he knows what it's like and he's able to relate with us, which is great for us."
Both Davis and Coach Jones indicated the Wednesday meetings have been well-received by Tennessee's players.
"The players love it," Davis said. "We're doing good things with it; we're bringing in people that it's not boring, it's not something that's just one more meeting. It's something that, 'Hey, man, this is real, this is where the rubber meets the road. You guys need to know this stuff, and we care enough to take the time to teach it to you and we're going to show it to you.'
"The guys love it, and they're asking for stuff, too, which is kind of cool. They're saying, 'What about this? Can we do this? Can we do that?' It's really cool."
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.