UT coach Derek Dooley yells from the sidelines.VIDEO: Dooley, Vols talk about turning their focus toward Saturday’s game at Kentucky.
KNOXVILLE — Two weeks and two extremes for the Tennessee football team.
From an embarrassing blowout loss to a dramatic, season-salvaging overtime win, the Volunteers have been at both ends of the emotional spectrum, including how to handle and move forward from both.
“I think both are very difficult,” coach Derek Dooley said at his weekly news conference Monday. “A bludgeoning loss and an emotional win, they’re both hard. It probably took us more than 24 hours to get over last week, and we better be over this past win this week. If you don’t, you’re going to go out there and get beat.”
The Vols, who need a win at Kentucky on Saturday to reach bowl eligibility, made it a point to move on from a 42-point loss at third-ranked Arkansas last week by not watching the video. The challenge early this week is moving on from a come-from-behind, overtime win against Vanderbilt on Eric Gordon’s game-ending interception return for a touchdown. A loss to the 4-7 Wildcats would undo any good done from beating the Commodores.
Austin Johnson actually thinks it’s harder to bounce back from a loss than a win.