September 19, 2012

Vols find some positives to build on

Not surprisingly, after last Saturday's 37-20 loss to Florida, it's been a tough week around the Tennessee football program. Positives have been tough to come by, but one of the challenges for the coaching staff this week has been to stress to the team that for the better part of three quarters, they played winning football against a high-caliber SEC opponent.

Of course all of the good vibes were wiped out by what happened in the last 18 minutes of the game, and the final result overshadowed everything else. However, in reviewing the game tape, the Vols' staff had to feel that the seeds of a quality football team have been planted, even if the growing process is still underway.

One area where the Vols showed some promise was in the highly scrutinized run game.

Like everything else about the contest from the Tennessee perspective, the final numbers, 83 yards on 28 carries (3.0 yards per rush), didn't look great. In the first half though Tennessee had 67 yards rushing on just 15 attempts, and were doing what they needed to do, namely keeping the Gators' honest.

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