Tennessee's running backs invented a new brand of football.

And it has nothing to do with touchdowns.

During the summer Arian Foster, LaMarcus Coker, Montario Hardesty, David Holbert and others were playing football in the Neyland-Thompson Sports Center.

Only the ball was round.

It was futbol, you see, not football.

And it was fun.

"They actually picked it up on their own," UT strength and condition coach Johnny Long said. "They were out here watching our ladies soccer team playing. One of them might have took one of the balls and started kicking to the side and the next thing you know they're out here every day playing on their own."

Coker says the Vols caught World Cup fever.

"World Cup," the redshirt freshman says. "We just watched that."

So two or three times a week, as extra conditioning before or after weight sessions, UT's backs were indulging in the world's game.

With a Tennessee twist.

The games, usually two-on-two or three-on-three, were played on a stretch of turf from the goal line to the 20-yard line and between the hash marks.

Goals only counted when the ball crossed on the ground, and players had to pass three times before shooting.

The winning team had to score five times.

Sometimes the games would drag on -- the winning team was the first to five goals.

"It took a long time to score," Foster said. "A weird little game. We made up the rules as we went along. No rulebook, but we'll probably make one and patent the game."

Long certainly wasn't opposed.

Summer workouts aren't exactly the most thrilling thing football players can do.

Lifting. Running. More lifting. More running.

But anything that breaks the monotony and still helps players get in shape can't be bad.

"I'm the kind of person if they're having fun, when they're doing it and enjoying it, you let them go ahead and continue to have fun with it," Long said.

Long and UT's strength staff do plenty to break up the monotony. In the past, the Vols run relay races with sand bags and set up obstacle courses to keep things fresh.

This idea, though, came from the players.

"It was fun, different," Foster said. "Everybody likes a little switch up. The routine gets old and easy. It wasn't really a weight-training program from the staff. We just went out there playing around."

It was extra conditioning above and beyond normal workouts, and that's not a bad thing.

"It's about stop and go, changing directions. People think football's played on two feet, but there's cutting on one foot, driving into the ground," Long said. "You look at soccer, it takes an athletic movement and takes an athlete to be able to control the ball first, keep body awareness and run and dribble a soccer ball the whole time.

"To watch those guys all the time, it makes you say, 'Wow.' "

And, it seems, a new source for trash talking.

Coker, who got his first taste of soccer this summer, quickly identified himself as the best soccer player when asked before adding, "Arian's pretty good, too."

Foster, who had never played soccer, had his idea about who the best was.

"I was, shoot," he joked. "I took him (Coker) about three times. Ask him about that."

And the benefits?

Coker is in the best shape of his football career.

Foster said the soccer workouts opened his eyes to the quickness he'd gained in the offseason.

And despite the differences, football and futbol weren't that different.

"It was more a football-type situation," Long said. "They would get out there and compete and compete hard."