KNOXVILLE – Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley didn’t want the steady rain, the hangover from his team’s disappointing and painful loss to Florida or the upcoming opponent to mar Tuesday morning’s practice.
So after the Volunteers completed their stretching, Dooley gathered his players around him and issued them a wake-up call.
He did it with some emphasis, too.
“Just resetting them for the week,” he said after the Vols responded with an energetic workout to begin their preparation for Saturday’s game against Akron. “It’s always hard when you come off a loss like that to refocus on what’s next, so I didn’t want to start off practice the wrong way.
“The important thing is, number one, accepting responsibility for everything that happens in your life … and two, valuing the journey of self-improvement and what I can do to help the team. If our focus is on that, we’re going to be fine.”