In spite of the seesaw mixture of summer heat and heavy downpour Tuesday at Haslam Field, UT coach Derek Dooley found himself addressing another issue on the football field. The Vols completed the second set of two- a -day practices on Tuesday, but UT’s third coach in the last three years wasn’t pleased after trying to keep the players focused in the early morning workout. Dooley said the morning practice was “a bit sluggish.”
“There was a noticeable drifting of the minds in the meetings last night ,” he said Tuesday. “I could sense it. And then today, not the kind of focus we need.”
Dooley, the former Louisiana Tech coach, bel i eved focus needed to be driven into the freshman players. He understood that it was only part of the young players maturing.
“You kind of get the training- camp blues,” he said. “You’ve been around 120 guys, and the coaches are beating on you. All of a sudden, ‘Holy smokes!’ You’re looking around and things start feeling a little better. It ’s been going on since the beginning of time. It’s not something new at Tennessee.”
In spite of the recent distractions of students returning to campus, Dooley and the coaching staff were able to begin working on another in-game situation to test the offense. After the Orange and White offense saw success in late -game situations of a 135-play scrimmage Saturday night that saw quarterbacks Matt Simms and Tyler Bray each throw for more than 235 yards in a combined 27-for-50 aerial attack, Dooley said he decided to test the young squad’s aggression with a “two-minutes-before-the-half ” scenario this week. The coach stressed that he wanted to prevent the offense from becoming too aggressive before the half so that “(we) make sure we don’t go three-and-out. ”
Freshman Brent Brewer spoke about his rapid progress defensively through Dooley ’s systems after only two weeks with the Big Orange. Brewer was drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers organization in the 2006 MLB Draft , but after four years on the diamond, most recently with the Brewers’ Class AA Huntsville Stars, opted to play college football for the Vols. The recently acquired safety said Tuesday that he “ loves safety stuff ” and “ liked hitting people. ”
Brewer did agree that the transition was faster than expected, but the switch in running was a little different. “I got used to the workouts pretty fast ,” the Tyrone, Ga., native said. “When I got out here it was a little different, the sun and all of the running nonstop, so it was a big difference just (with) me trying to get used to being
out on the field.”
The Vols did perform a brief walk-through Wednesday afternoon but were given most of the day off because of the start of the fall semester. Wednesday evening, the team attended the UT Alumni Association’s “Welcome Back Barbecue” at Thompson-Boling Arena.
