Tennessee offensive guard Cody Douglas has never faced this kind of adversity in football.

The Vols must win their next three games to go to a bowl. If not, they will have their first losing record since the 1988 team finished 5-6.

"I don't think I've ever had a losing record, so to be 3-5 is a new feeling for me," Douglas said Tuesday. "It's something that was unexpected, but it's here, I'm dealing with it, and I'm gong to finish out the season the best way I know how."

Douglas, a senior from La Marque, Texas, has not faced this type of adversity in football, but he's faced plenty in his life. The adversity confronting him in football this season pales in comparison to what he's dealt with in his life.

"As a kid, the divorce of my parents, my father basically cutting ties with me as a kid, my brother passing, my grandfather passing the day of the Ole Miss game this year," Douglas said.

"I mean, definitely, things like that. Football's football. I mean, at the end of the day, it's a game."

At the end of the day, Douglas returns home to his wife, Richae.

They were married on July 16 in Houston.

They grew up together in small-town Texas and started dating when Cody was 16 and Richae was 14.

Cody knows the Memphis game Saturday is huge, but regardless of the outcome, he won't take it home with him.

"There are things in life bigger than football and more important than football, basically family," he said. "I have a wife at home. I can't go home with a (bad) attitude and take it out on her. As soon as I leave here I've got to put it behind me. I have a family at home and I have to be a good husband."

Douglas has been invited to play in the Senior Bowl, and he hopes that will help him get into the NFL.

If the NFL doesn't work out, Douglas would like to get into coaching and teaching at the high school level. He'd like to coach in Galveston, Texas, with his brother-in-law, Jonathan Cooper.

Douglas doesn't want his UT career to end three games from now. Four straight victories -- including a win in a bowl game -- would help ease the sting of a very disappointing season.

"It feels like a bad dream," Douglas said. "You wake up every day and it's there in front of you. It's big on a certain scale, but in life there's a lot of things that are more important than football."