When Tennessee's flight home from Los Angeles landed Tuesday night, Phillip Fulmer was still steaming.

Watching mistake after mistake during a late-night film session in the Neyland-Thompson Sports Center didn't help. Neither did more viewings and staff meetings Wednesday morning.

Even after practice Wednesday night, Tennessee's head coach was still smarting from the Vols' 27-24 upset loss Monday night in overtime at UCLA.

"Fact is, I probably fed off (the team) a little bit today because youth bounces back better than we do," Fulmer said. "They've had class and other things. I've had nothing but that film that I've sulked over for two days. I'm . . . really, really mad - I told them - really, really mad over some of the things that happened."

Openers always have mistakes, but the list of fixes after Monday's loss is longer than Fulmer or anyone else on the team would like.

On offense, Fulmer said the Vols wasted nine of their 76 plays between drops, bad exchanges or missed assignments. UT's defense couldn't stop UCLA's third-team quarterback on a pair of fourth-quarter touchdown drives, after forcing four interceptions in the first 30 minutes. And a first-quarter blocked punt for a touchdown, the first in Fulmer's 17 seasons as head coach, really stung.

"Nobody spends the time we spend on the kicking game," Fulmer said. "For some crap like that to happen to us, it makes you mad. I'm not blaming the kids. Bottom line, it starts with us. It starts with me, with us as a coaching staff. We'll go from there."

Tailback Montario Hardesty, who rushed for 66 yards and two touchdowns, said the mood of UT's coaches was obvious on Haslam Field for Tennessee's first practice since Monday's loss.

"Some of the coaches were still kind of down from the loss because we expected to go out there and win," Hardesty said. "But as practice went on as guys started to pick up and do a little better, the mood of practice started to change a little bit. The leaders on this team kind of picked it up a little bit. We all know we just got to get back to the practice field - that's where it all starts."

Starting quarterback Jonathan Crompton, who completed 19 of his 41 passes for 189 yards and an interception, agreed that practice will help UT distance itself from the loss and prepare to face UAB on Sept. 13.

"Having a great week of practice," Crompton said when asked how the team can begin to forget Monday's loss. "You've got to come out here and let that motivate you and go to practice ready to work every day."

Tennessee, which has lost two consecutive season openers after winning its previous 12 dating back to a 1994 loss at UCLA, has one more day of practice this week before its normal game-week schedule kicks in Sunday. The bye week, Tennessee's final break before playing nine consecutive games, including the toughest part of its SEC schedule, gives the coaching staff more time to begin correcting mistakes, Fulmer said.

Wednesday's practice began with an honest appraisal from Fulmer to his team.

"I told them today, I said, 'I'm not ready to give you any of the answers today. I'm just as frustrated and disappointed as you are,' " Fulmer said. "The one thing I told them, it's not all right. Everything is not all right. Somebody's saying that, it's not."

Even with a return to practice, the sting of Monday's upset loss has yet to fade. Neither has the frustration over so many critical mistakes in one game.

"We just made some really, really bad mistakes. More mistakes than I choose to live with," Fulmer said. "It's just unacceptable. It's not all right, and I don't expect our team to think it's all right. We corrected some of those mental things today. As we go along, I hope we learn some great lessons about how you have to play to win a football game."

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

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.