KNOXVILLE – The question to Tennessee freshman quarterback Tyler Bray went something like this:
“Tyler, which would you rather face – a nasty, aggressive defensive line like Ole Miss, or a room full of (semi) nasty, aggressive reporters?”
Answered Bray without so much as a smile during the Volunteers’ news conference Monday afternoon: “A defensive line. This is probably the hardest part of all of this. It’s nerve-racking. You have to keep thinking of what you’re going to say before you say it. You don’t want to say something you shouldn’t.”
This is not to say Bray will ever have reason to bray about the media, at least not as long as he keeps throwing five touchdowns for 308 yards in a single half, as he did in the first 30 minutes of Saturday’s 50-14 victory over Memphis.
This also is not to say that the Southeastern Conference’s newest freshman of the week is necessarily looking forward to facing the Rebels’ physical front of D.T. Shackelford, 320-pound nose tackle Jerrell Powe, Ted Laurent and Jason Jones this Saturday.