Players will fill out chart to make sure they improve

Photo by Saul Young

Quarterback Erik Ainge leaves the field at Tuscaloosa, Ala., on Saturday following Tennessee’s 41-17 loss to Alabama.

Photo by Saul Young

Quarterback Erik Ainge leaves the field at Tuscaloosa, Ala., on Saturday following Tennessee’s 41-17 loss to Alabama.

On the surface, Tennessee quarterback Erik Ainge understands the comparisons.

Through seven games, the Vols are 4-3 and have lost to their two biggest rivals by a combined 63 points.

Just two years after he lived it, the senior can see why some might compare this season to Tennessee's 5-6 season in 2005.

He's just not buying it.

"If you look at the wins and losses, yeah, it's similar right now," Ainge said Monday, two days after the Vols lost 41-17 at unranked Alabama. "From a team standpoint and what we're doing and the energy and everything around here, it's nothing like that.

"It's like we're playing good, but we're not playing good enough to win in some big ballgames. And we're making some mistakes for whatever reasons that are costing us some wins. I don't think it's anything like 2005."

Neither do his teammates, who want to make sure Tennessee doesn't let a lopsided loss to Alabama keep Tennessee from rebounding against No. 15 South Carolina on Saturday (TV: ESPN, 7:45 p.m.).

In 2005, Tennessee was 3-2 and ranked No. 17 only to lose an ugly 6-3 game in Tuscaloosa.

From there, it went on to lose two more games before a late loss to Vanderbilt knocked them out of a bowl game.

On Saturday the Vols were 4-2 and ranked 20th, but still lost 41-17 - their worst defeat against Alabama since a 28-point loss in 1986.

In 2005, the Vols lost two more games after Alabama, part of a four-game skid that sent them reeling to their first losing season since 1988.

The record might be similar to 2005, but the attitude isn't.

"In '05 we had a lot of good players, but people started becoming selfish and things like that," junior linebacker Jerod Mayo said. "We're determined not to let that happen this year."

The Vols have kept this season away from 2005 territory once already.

After a 39-point loss to Florida, Tennessee won three in a row, including a 35-14 victory over Georgia.

Senior defensive end Xavier Mitchell wants to see a similar turnaround, only one that lasts a little longer.

"We can bounce back from anything," Mitchell said. "We're going to use this as fuel to feed the fire and keep going.

"Hopefully everybody keeps in mind that the losses that we've taken were pretty significant. Not take a loss here and then bounce back for three games, but keep it always on our mind so we could finish this thing out."

Enter Tennessee's new chart.

At coach Phillip Fulmer's urging, the Vols will fill out a chart for the next five weeks, which asks if players did all they could to improve on a daily basis.

"If you can't give it everything you have - getting to bed earlier, waking up earlier, watching more film, trying to get your body feeling better, getting yourself mentally ready to play for 35 days - then you're not very dedicated," Ainge says. "We feel the guys on this team - the better guys especially - are guys that are going to be able to give everything we have for 35 days whatever happens."

Mayo would add tuning out the detractors to Ainge's list.

Only a few weeks ago, columnists advocated Fulmer's ouster. Fans piled on, both on the Internet and talk radio.

The same things are happening again.

Mayo says the Vols need to tune it out once more, like they tried to do following their loss to Florida.

"We're a tight-knit group of guys," Mayo said. "Coach Fulmer and his staff do a good job of keeping us together and keeping us close, blocking off the media and blocking off the nay-sayers. That's pretty much what we have to do this week as well."

Not just this week.

After hosting Louisiana-Lafayette next week, the Vols have games left against Arkansas, Vanderbilt and Kentucky - teams that are more than capable of beating Tennessee.

Regardless of how those games play out, the Vols need to remain hunkered down for the long haul, Mitchell says.

"One day we could be the best team in the country, and another week we could be the heel of every joke," he said. "We've got to just stay focused and concentrate on ourselves and progressing as a team and not worry about what any other team says or any other person out there is saying about us."

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

© 2007, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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