No. 15 Vols turn attention towards Akron
Tennessee looks for continued improvement on both sides of the ball for their upcoming football game.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) - The 15th-ranked Vols hit the practice field Tuesday morning to begin work on the game plan for Akron’s visit to Neyland Stadium on Saturday.
The game sold out Friday, according to Athletics Director Danny White.
Defensive coordinator Tim Banks, offensive coordinator/tight ends coach Alex Golesh and a few players met with members of the media after practice to discuss UT’s win at No. 17 Pittsburgh and the upcoming matchup with Akron.
The group touched on mistakes from this past weekend that have been addressed in film study and on-field work early in the week. Offensively, the Vols realize they did not reach their potential against the Panthers.
“It didn’t start well, but it ended on the right side of things. For us, we harped on it Sunday and Monday, drilling home what was bad and drilling home what was good. We reiterated our standard as we do every week that we are going to work our tails off to be the best offense in the country, and we have to take care of the football and be better situational football. We were not good in those things, but it panned out at the end. Again, credit the football gods or the fact that we are really good people,” said Golesh during his appearance with the media on Tuesday.
Defensive coordinator Tim Banks and senior linebacker Solon Page, who was asked if the Vols’ defensive line had a chip on its shoulder going into the Pittsburgh game. He answered, “We get overlooked every game. We have to make sure we clean up the things that hurt us in the first half. Make sure we do not have the same mistakes we did affect us again. That was the main thing. The attention to detail in this team this year is way different. Like I said, leaps and bounds beyond what were last year, and that gave us the edge to win the game.”
Defensive coordinator Tim Banks added, “We have one of the best, most prolific offenses in the country, we know that. We obviously have a lot of pride in what we do on defense as well. We don’t get into how many points they scored or didn’t score or things of that nature. We know any time we get a chance to have a positive impact on the game, that’s what we’re trying to do. We were obviously fortunate enough to have a positive impact this Saturday.”
NEYLAND AT NIGHT
A day prior to the Akron game will represent the 50th anniversary of the first night game in Neyland Stadium. On Sept. 16, 1972, No. 7 Tennessee topped Joe Paterno’s No. 6 Penn State, 28-21. The matchup saw the Vols jump out to a 14-0 lead after one quarter, with junior tailback Haskel Stanback punching in a pair of rushing touchdowns for UT. Stanback’s third rushing score of the day with under nine minutes remaining in the fourth quarter all but sealed the deal in Tennessee’s first victory under the lights.
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