Adams: Heat's on, but it's all relative

If you really want to know how hot it is, don't check the heat index. Ask a football player.

The heat index accounts for heat and humidity. It doesn't account for full football gear or the intensity of a Tennessee practice.

So don't bother telling your favorite Vol, "Hey, good news, it won't get worse than the mid-80s next week" as the team heads into the second half of what has been a rigorous training camp.

But you can make some players feel better. Just give them the weather forecast for their hometown.

As uncomfortable as East Tennessee might be for an August practice, the weather could be a lot worse back home. In fact, one player's sweltering heat could be another's cool breeze.

"I love it," UT freshman defensive back Janzen Jackson said at media day. "At practice the other day, some of the players were saying it's hot. Me and Prentiss were saying this is beautiful weather."

Jackson is from Lake Charles, La. Prentiss Wagner, a redshirt freshman, grew up in Clinton, La., further north - but not far enough north to escape south Louisiana's notorious heat and humidity.

"I know they had to cancel a couple of practices at McNeese (in Lake Charles)," Jackson said. "A lot of my friends back in high school said they had canceled a lot of the two-a-days because of the heat index.

"It was over 110, something crazy like that."

Willie Bohannon, a redshirt freshman defensive end, remembers practicing in over 100-degree temperature in Mobile, Ala. He also remembers indoors wasn't much better than outdoors.

"They called off practice one time (because of the heat)," he said. "So we went in the gym and practiced."

He smiled, just to let you know how uncomfortable that must have been.

Jarrod Shaw, a junior offensive tackle from Lafayette, La., can relate. One of his worst memories of high school practice was cramping up in a stifling gym, after rain had forced his team inside.

Not that a sunny day was any better.

"We had black helmets," Shaw said. "That made it so much worse.

"I'm kind of glad to be up here. The Florida guys know, too. This isn't as bad as it is back home."

Former UT quarterback Bobby Scott knows all about that. Scott, who was at practice this week, played professionally with the New Orleans Saints, who made the mistake of holding one mid-1970s summer camp in Thibodaux, La., where mosquitoes can be mistaken for small birds, and alligators can intrude during a round of golf.

The camp featured heat, humidity and fog.

Mother Nature brought the heat and humidity. The fog came by truck.

"They would fog the field for mosquitoes," Scott said. "Halfway through practice, the mosquitoes would be back. They weren't little ones, either.

"You could hear people slapping them on their legs all through practice."

But even Thibodaux, La., could be somebody else's cool breeze.

Pete Cordelli, the defensive coordinator at Olive Branch (Miss.) High School, said his team was complaining about the weather last week when the temperature reached 96 degrees. So he read them an email he received from a friend stationed in Iraq, where the seven-day forecast ranged from highs in the 120s to lows in the 90s.

"We're in full military gear," the soldier wrote Cordelli. "We've got 80-pound backpacks, metal helmets, leather combat boots to our knees, loaded rifles and 16-hour shifts.

"Hope two-a-days are going well."

Sports editor John Adams may be reached at 865-342-6284 or adamsj@knoxnews.com.

© 2009, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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