Tennessee’s Carlin Fil-Aime (27) is lifted into the air by Joshua Dobbs (11). Fil-Aime scored a touchdown just before. The Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles visited the Tennessee Volunteers in NCAA football action at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville on November 5, 2016.KNOXVILLE – When their season ran into trouble with an upset loss at South Carolina, Tennessee’s players turned back the clock in their minds to when football was less stressful.
The tweak in approach produced a looser team full of the energy it noticeably lacked against the Gamecocks.
“We talked all week last week about this being a child’s game,” left tackle Brett Kendrick explained Tuesday. “It’s just what we fell in love with playing when we were kids growing up, out in the back yard, on the playground. We played more loose on Saturday. We just decided we were going to go out there and have fun with it.”
It was easy for the Volunteers to have fun last week. They were playing an overmatched Football Championship Subdivision team from Tennessee Tech in a low-stress environment. Most of the starters were done for the day before halftime and watched as freshmen and reserves finished out the game.
Now it’s up to the Vols to carry the same lighter approach into what amounts to a three-week playoff starting against Kentucky on Saturday.