University of Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley speaks to the press during an event.KNOXVILLE – The spirit was back on the Tennessee football team’s practice field on Wednesday morning.
The Volunteers were so poor on Tuesday that second-year coach Derek Dooley declined to meet with reporters following practice, but Dooley and his assistant coaches spoke with the media after a bounce-back day.
“I think a lot of it had to do with us being a young team and not really understanding the expectations of an open week,” Dooley said of Tuesday’s bad day. “That starts with our coaches and me communicating, doing a better job of communicating what the purpose of the open week is and what our expectations are.
“It’s really no different, and what I talked to them today about (is) just defining a standard of who you are as a man and who you are as a competitor, and challenging yourself every day to meet that standard and not succumbing to the desires of the world or how you feel to where you might compromise that standard. Hopefully, we learned a little bit. Had a good day of work today, and we’ll see where we go from there.”
The Vols, who have an open date this week and return to host Buffalo on Oct. 1, practice Thursday before taking the weekend off from the field. The training camp style of practices has given UT’s staff a chance to evaluate some younger players, especially Tuesday when a handful of players sat out as precautions.