Notre Dame has put up some big offensive numbers this season.

The Fighting Irish defense, likewise, has given up some big numbers to opposing offenses.

Four of its opponents have gained 400 or more total yards. Purdue rolled up 514 total yards. Others in this 400-plus-yard club are Michigan State (488), Washington (449), and Southern Cal (476); Brigham Young (392) barely missed it.

Perhaps Tennessee's sluggish offense will break out of its doldrums Saturday at Notre Dame.

Any predictions? Well, not from offensive guard Cody Douglas.

"With how we've been this year, I'm not ready to make any predictions," Douglas said. "We've got to go out and play hard and execute. If we can do that, I think we could be in pretty good shape, but to go out and say, 'We have an opportunity to do this and do that,' wouldn't be fair to say right now."

Douglas says the Vols have extra incentive to execute at Notre Dame -- and the three regular-season games that follow.

Douglas feels bad about the resignation of offensive coordinator Randy Sanders on Monday.

"For the rest of this season, we've got to kind of use that as motivation," Douglas said. "I think to a man, everybody feels exactly the way I do. Everybody feels bad about it, and as a unit, we've just got to find a way to pull together and focus and put together a good game and close out the season on a positive note and put together some good numbers for (Sanders). We owe him that much."

The Vols (3-4) must win three of their last four games to be bowl eligible.

It's quite a different scenario than what was expected in the preseason when the Vols were eying the SEC Championship and possibly the Rose Bowl.

"We need to win," quarterback Rick Clausen said. "We need to win or else we're not going to go to a bowl game for the first time in forever. That's not why anyone came to the University of Tennessee, to not go to a bowl game.

"We have a huge task ahead of us at Notre Dame and then we've got three other games after that, but we need to take care of business in house and worry about ourselves before we start worrying about our opponents."