Life’s lessons just keep coming at Robert Meachem.

At times, Tennessee’s junior wide receiver has felt blindsided by expectations.

He pressed. He tried to too hard to live up to five-star rankings and High School All-America standards coming out of Tulsa, Okla.

He admits he was too hard on himself when things got tough in 2005.

No more, Meachem said on Wednesday.

The drive to be the best hasn’t diminished. He’s just changing his methods under the guidance of UT receivers coach Trooper Taylor.

"Calm down is what Troop tells me," Meachem said. "Some days I’m just trying to do too much. He just says, ‘Calm down.’

"He says have fun and be patient. We’ll be fine if you do that. The more you try to do, the more we look like 5-6."

Remembering last season’s record still hurts Meachem.

"We feel like it’s our fault (on offense) in a lot of cases," he said. "For me, I feel like I dropped a lot of key balls in some major games that probably would have some of those coaches (departed Randy Sanders, Pat Washington, Jimmy Ray Stephens) still here.

"You think about that, but you try to turn it into a positive and give it all you’ve got.

He turns to Taylor for guidance, and it’s not just about football.

"He teaches me a lot about life," Meachem said. "He teaches me about my little girl and what I need to do to help her.

"He teaches you about being a great citizen and a great person, not just how to be a great receiver."

Meachem goes to bed every night thinking about two things — his 1-year-old daughter living in Memphis and football.

Taylor helps him deal with both.

"When I go watch his little girl and little boy play," Meachem said, "it reminds me of how I want my little girl to grow up and how I grew up."

In some ways, those football lessons and life lessons go hand in hand.

"He could die and come back and not fulfill all the expectations our fans have for him," Taylor said. "So I tell him you go out and give it your best, but most of all, have some fun."

It’s about patience. It’s about relaxing. It’s about unlocking all that talent without paralysis from internal pressure.

"I take that one personal because he’s like a son to me," Taylor said. "He refers to my wife as a second mom and my kids as his little brother and sister. That’s personal.

"I want him to understand that. It’s no different than what I would tell my own son. He’s going to be fine. All he has to do is continue to work and go out there and make plays."

For two years, Meachem has been the Vols’ leader in receiving yards.

He had 459 yards and averaged 18.4 yards a catch as a redshirt freshman in 2004.

Last season, he had 29 catches for 383 yards and two TDs. Still, Meachem felt there was so much more he could do.

"All you thought about during bowl season, while you watched everybody else play, was 5-6," he said. "How are we going to get better?

"The only way we can get better is make the plays, believe that God is going to help you every day, and you’ve got to count on everybody that’s beside you."

UT coaches have promised a reduced receiver rotation led by the trio of Meachem, Jayson Swain and, Bret Smith.

That can only help according to Meachem.

"That’ll be great because we can get comfortable and we can all get in a groove with Erik (Ainge, UT’s junior quarterback)," he said. "Erik’s calling the shots and we’re going to roll with him and back him up.

"He has great confidence. He’s understanding things, reading defenses better and he’s doing everything a quarterback needs to do."

All that remains is producing positive results.

"California is going to bring it’s A-game," Meachem said of UT’s season opener Sept. 2 in Neyland Stadium. "They’re not coming all the way from the West Coast to lose.

"It’s a statement game for both teams and both teams have to make a statement. We’ve got to believe in each other, believe in what the coaches tell us and believe in ourselves. If we do that, we’ll have a great game."

If they keep practicing like they did on Wednesday, it won’t be so easy.

Meachem and the coaches seemed to agree that day six on Wednesday was the worst practice day by far for the Vols.

"We were 5-6 today," he said. "You can’t have days like that. We can’t have a day off for us to be the best.

"No other team around the country is having a bad day. They’re not taking days off."

Just chalk it up as another life lesson.