Dave Hart spoke extensively in part one of a two-part question-and-answer session with VolQuest.com about the challenges facing him as he remakes University of Tennessee athletics in his vision and that of his leadership council.

Now in the conclusion to our lengthy sitdown with the new czar of Volunteers athletics, Hart addresses the magnitude of the season-opening contest in football, hot-seat talk for Derek Dooley and myriad other topics.

VOLQUEST: You have seen a lot of big games and been around a lot of highly successful programs. Given the challenges that you have faced your first few months on the job, given the way last season ended can you recall going into a season with an opener that's maybe as imperative for this program or is as pressure-packed as it is for this program?

DAVE HART: "I've been in games before for these reasons it was very important. Momentum. Just to recover from the bad feeling we all had leaving Lexington. It would be nice in a best-case-scenario where you had a positive feeling coming out of that first game. But it's not an end-all game either way. It never has been and never will be because you have 12 of them. But certainly it's an important game."


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