KNOXVILLE – The football Rajion Neal was carrying hit the frigid, hard artificial turf at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium during the third quarter of Tennessee’s rout of Memphis.
The moment was a symbolic for the Tennessee tailback, as the thud of the fumble signified his promising freshman season hitting rock bottom.
“After the Memphis game when I had that fumble,” Neal said after Saturday’s practice, “it just started going downhill because I was thinking about it too much. I was worried, I was always down on myself.
“But it took the bowl practice, going home (and) seeing my family for me to come back and just get all the way correct. That was what kind of helped me get through the rest of that season and this offseason.”
Neal ran just four times for 14 yards against Memphis and four times for minus-1 yards against Ole Miss the next week. He didn’t play in the Vols’ final two regular season games after emerging as the No. 2 tailback behind Tauren Poole.