TAMPA, Fla. - It's finally game week.

The Vols have been preparing for Monday's Outback Bowl against Penn State in some form for nearly a month.

Today they'll get back to their old routine in a new setting.

Tennessee takes the practice field this afternoon at the University of South Florida with the goal of picking up their 10th win of the season and their first bowl victory over Nittany Lions.

"We'll treat it with our meeting times and practice times just like a game week," UT coach Phillip Fulmer said. "All (10 practices) in Knoxville have been a bonus, including the weight lifting and the meeting times. As much as we can, we're going to stay on a good routine."

Tennessee's 10 practices in Knoxville were geared toward the dual purposes of preparing for Penn State and preparing younger players for next season.

That will still be the case here, but the Nittany Lions are looming larger.

Tennessee will have as much time as it needs to get ready.

Without classes, the Vols don't have to worry about NCAA rules that limit practices and meetings to 4 hours a day and 20 hours a week.

"Our meeting times, we can be as long as we need to be. Our practice times, we're going to use basically within the normal frameworks," Fulmer said. "But then we can work the young guys. And we've kind of counted the young guys as everybody but the seniors."

The Vols have made the most of their extra practice time so far.

While in Knoxville, they spent extra time with all their returning players.

They held a live scrimmage and got back to basics, mixing in plenty of contact.

Tailback Montario Hardesty said it's been helpful.

"Bowl practice is kind of almost like a week of spring practice or a week of fall camp," Hardesty said. "It's good for us as a whole team to get back to being physical and doing the little things technique-wise. I think this bowl practice has been good."

A win would make it even better.

Tennessee (9-3) has plenty at stake.

First, there's the chance to wrap up a third 10-win season in the last four.

A victory over Penn State (8-4) would finally put a ghastly 5-6 season a year ago to rest.

Then there's the hope that a victory would slingshot the Vols into a productive offseason and set the table for bigger things in 2007, much like a victory over Texas A&M did in 2004.

Before his team took four days off for Christmas, Fulmer told them to enjoy themselves but not to lose focus.

Senior linebacker Marvin Mitchell is singularly focused on double-digits.

"It's very important," Mitchell said of getting a 10th win. "9-4 doesn't sound as good. 10-3 sounds a whole lot better."

Drew Edwards covers University of Tennessee football. He may be reached at 865-342-6274.