Becoming the first team in school history to go winless in the SEC can shatter the confidence of players.
Going 4-8 â Tennesseeâs first eight-loss season ever â doesnât help, either.
One challenge of Tennessee coach Jeremy Pruitt and his staff is how to mend the mindset of a beaten and battered team.
When I asked Vols do-defensive coordinator Chris Rumph in a one-on-one interview about the talent the staff inherited, he provided insight into the psyche that was inherited.
At first, he said: “Itâs good talent, man. Just good talent.ââ
Then, he added: “Itâs a little bit like a dog thatâs been abused a little bit,ââ Rumph said of UTâs players. “Sort of shy. They donât really want to look you in the eye.
“If you raise your voice a little bit, they sort of, I donât want to say cower down, but sort of get in a submissive role. And thatâs expected for what theyâve been through. And Iâve been there before.ââ
Indeed, South Carolina was 3-6-2 Rumphâs first season as a linebacker in 1991. Four years later, the Gamecocks won their first bowl game ever, beating West Virginia â ironically, the Volsâ season-opening opponent.
So how do you deal with the current crop of Vols?
“We just got to put our arms around them and tell them, `We know where you want to go, allow us to take you there,âââ Rumph said.
Is it hard to change the culture of a team that went 0-8 in the SEC?
“Yes and no,ââ Rumph said. “If you got the right people and theyâre made of the right stuff, you can change them.ââ
I asked Rumph, who was hired by Pruitt off the Florida staff, about the compliment paid to him by Florida defensive end CeCe Jefferson at SEC Football Media Days — and if getting the most out of players requires having a good relationship.
“I think so,ââ Rumph said. “The guy has got to trust you. They first got to know you care and you love them become some of the things Iâm gonna ask them to do, they gotta know I care about them, that Iâm not putting them in harmâs way or Iâm not going to do anything thatâs gonna make them look foolish or embarrass them.
“So once a kid understands where your heart is and who you are as a person, as a man, I think you can get them to do just about anything.ââ
Later, a group setting with media, Rumph expanded on his answer, saying “Itâs more than football, itâs life.
“And I tell them all the time, `If the only thing you learn from me is how to tackle, how to sack and all that stuff, then Iâve failed.â I donât just want to be a guy thatâs going to teach you how to do that. I might as well leave. I donât want to do that.
“Iâm going to teach them how to be a man, how to be a father, how to be a husband, how to treat your wife, how to treat your kids, how to treat people. Thatâs what itâs all about. If we do that, the world would be great.ââ
Rumph said he has tried to impart his influence at his various coaching stops, which include Florida, Texas, Alabama, Clemson, Memphis and South Carolina State.
Rumph said itâs important to help young men mature “unless you want them kicking in your door at night robbing you. If you donât want that, then teach them. So thatâs what weâve got to do, weâve got to teach them.ââ
Dustin Lynch recently performed the biggest hit of his career, “Small Town Boy,” at the Grand Ole Opry.
The performance, which was filmed at the Opry on July 17, features Dustin crooning the tune that spent four weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Country Airplay chart in 2017, a feat no other country song accomplished last year. “Small Town Boy” was also one of the Top 10 best-selling country songs of 2017, according to Nielsen Music.
âI always knew âSmall Town Boyâ was something special, but to be number one for four weeks is absolutely incredible,â said Dustin in 2017. âItâs been amazing to see people embrace this song and to have the continued support of country radio.â
The 2018 Farm Aid benefit concert will take place Saturday, Sept. 22, at the Xfinity Theatre in Hartford, Conn.
In addition to performances from founders Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Neil Young and board member Dave Matthews, the lineup includes Chris Stapleton, Sturgill Simpson, Kacey Musgraves, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Jamey Johnson, Margo Price and Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real.
Willie Nelson, Neil Young and John Mellencamp organized the first Farm Aid concert in 1985 to raise awareness about the loss of family farms and to raise funds to keep farm families on the land. Farm Aid, which has raised more than $53 million to promote a strong and resilient family farm system of agriculture, is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to keep family farmers on the land.
AXS TV will air a five-hour broadcast of the Farm Aid concert on Sept. 22 at 7 p.m. ET.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. â The Tennessee Volunteers football team is 11 practices into 2018 fall camp and head coach Jeremy Pruitt sees his running back unit bonding in the midst of competing every day.
Pruitt said Tennesseeâs tailbacks are all working hard following Wednesdayâs practice at Haslam Field.
âAll of these guys at running back, theyâve really done a good job kind of bonding together,â Pruitt said. âI see them competing out there every day and I see a closeness in that group that I likeâŚTheyâre trying to perfect their craft and theyâre doing a good job with ball security and a good job in protections â all of them.â
Tennesseeâs running back unit features returning sophomores Ty Chandler, Tim Jordan and Trey Coleman as well as newcomers Madre London, a graduate transfer from Michigan State, and true freshman Jeremy Banks.
Redshirt freshman Princeton Fant has also seen time at running back this fall in addition to practicing with the tight ends this week.
Chandler is the Volsâ leading returning rusher after totaling 305 yards and two touchdowns on the ground last fall. He captured SEC Freshman of the Week honors after taking the opening kickoff 91 yards for a touchdown against Indiana State. Chandler rushed for 120 yards and two touchdowns against Kentucky, as well.
Jordan played in all 12 games a year ago, showing he could excel on the ground (11 carries, 52 yards) and as a pass catcher (eight receptions for 65 yards). Coleman played in four games.
London brings the most experience to the unit after four years with the Spartans. Following a redshirt season in 2014, the Little Rock, Ark., native rushed for 924 yards and eight touchdowns on 230 carries from 2015-17.
âMadre is very mature,â Pruitt said. âHe really fits in nicely with these guys.
âWhen you see guys that are new in the program that werenât here in the spring that are picking things up, you know that theyâve had help from some of the guys that have been here before, and I think thatâs a good sign.â
Another newcomer expected to help contribute in a unit filled with solid options is junior tight end Dominick Wood-Anderson. The Spring Valley, Calif., native was the nationâs No. 1 junior college tight end prospect at Arizona Western Community College. He joins veterans Eli Wolf and Austin Pope in the tight end room.
âDom is a bigger body than the other guys weâve got,” Pruitt said. “Heâs got soft hands. Heâs learning whatâs going on. Heâs learning how to practice, how we want to do things, so heâs doing a good job.â
Head Coach Jeremy Pruitt Post-Practice Quotes
Opening Statement:
âWe went out there and had a good day in special teams today. I thought our guys kicked the ball well and I thought that our operations were a lot better, weâve been focusing on those a lot more over the past few weeks to try to clean some things up and get the guys in the right spots. We started off repping four teams in every group because we have so many new guys out there that didnât do much in the spring. After 10 days you start trying to reevaluate and see who you think would possibly be somebody that gets on the bus and get guys into the right spots. So I think our guys have done a really good job out there with that. Practice is still inconsistent. We have a lot of periods that are really competitive with guys trying to strain and doing exactly what we want them to do, and then we have some times in practices where itâs not so good. So we have to focus on being consistent. We have a lot of guys that have come a long ways as far as knowledge and figuring out exactly what theyâre supposed to do at their position. We have to continue to grow as a team and learn to play together, but thereâs a lot of positives out there.â
On what he learned from Sundayâs scrimmage after reviewing it:
âThereâs lots of things that you donât see live. On film, you get to see things from the back end, so you can watch the interior lineman and you get to see guys in their stances and how they finish. You start with sideline organization on both sides of the ball. Where are their eyes at? Do they line up correctly? Are they in the correct stance? Do they play with the right technique? And you get to see exactly what kind of competitive toughness did they play with. Were they relentless? Did they play hard all the time? You canât see all of that from just standing out there and watching practice. Sometimes you can feel some people playing that way, but you don’t know if they do it all the time until you watch the tape.â
On the Madre London and the running back position as a whole:Â
âMadre is very mature. He really fits in nicely with these guys. All of these guys at running back, theyâve really done a good job kind of bonding together. I see them competing out there every day and I see a closeness in that group that I like. You throw in Jeremy Banks and Trey Coleman along with Tim Jordan and Ty Chandler, and those guys work hard. Theyâre trying to perfect their craft and theyâre doing a good job with ball security and a good job in protections â all of them. When you see guys that are new in the program that werenât here in the spring that are picking things up, you know that theyâve had help from some of the guys that have been here before, and I think thatâs a good sign.â
On what Dominick Wood-Anderson has done to stand out in camp so far:
âDom is a bigger body than the other guys weâve got. Heâs got soft hands. Heâs learning whatâs going on. Heâs learning how to practice, how we want to do things, so heâs doing a good job.â
On Darrin Kirkland: Â
Darrin (Kirkland) had a knee injury in the fall so protocol after going so many days you want to give him a day off. He is not the only one we have had a couple guys that are like that and it is no different from any place that I have been. When you get guys in camp you want to make sure you have them for the start of the season and he just needed a day off.
On if the team has started preparing for West Virginia:
“I don’t think anybody works on an opponent this early. Everyone is working on themselves, so we are working on Tennessee. There will be a point later on in camp when we start focusing on West Virginia specifically. Every day, we take a period or two and focus on things that other teams are doing that maybe we don’t do just to familiarize our players with it.”
On identifying playmakers on offense:
“You see guys out there making plays, but the thing about it is are they making plays because they have talent or maybe the guy they’re going against didn’t know what to do or maybe had a mental error. I have seen some guys that have run with the ball well after the catch, but we are still working towards that. We need some other guys to step up.”
On the competition at secondary:
“Secondary is one of those positions that if you have guys that can play you aren’t wanting to take them out of the game because it only takes them one time to mess up and the other team could score points. We want to find the guys that know how we want them to play, can get lined up, make the calls, understands formations, play the ball and is a good tackler. There are lots of good competition out there, and every day, somebody else shows up and someone won’t perform like they need to. We need guys who are consistent.”
Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley of Florida Georgia Line took their talents to L.A. to perform their new single, âSimple,â on The Late Late Show With James Corden on Aug. 14.
“Simple,” which is the first offering from FGL’s upcoming fourth studio album, is currently No. 9 on Billboardâs Country Airplay chart after 11 weeks.
âThe song âSimpleâ was born on the road on the Tree Vibez Bus,â says Tyler. âThat was just a special song that was born out of an idea that I kinda hadâjust living in a world where things get so complicated and everybody seems to want to complicate things. Majority of the time, I just find that for us itâs just easy to keep it simple. Thereâs no need to complicate it, especially when it comes to love and [our] relationships with our wives and our families. Just a little reminder to simplify things every now and then and have a good time while you do it.â
Penned by Tyler, Brian, Michael Hardy and Mark Holman, âSimpleâ was produced by longtime studio collaborator Joey Moi.
Watch FGL’s performance on The Late Late Show below.
Keith Urban kicked off his Graffiti U World Tour with opener Kelsea Ballerini on June 15.
The 60-plus-date trek has already made stops in St. Louis, Indianapolis, Toronto, Salt Lake City, Denver, Philadelphia and more, with future dates in Chicago, Cincinnati, Nashville, Vancouver, Phoenix, New Orleans, Dallas and more.
While Kelsea has been part of some big tours over the last three yearsâincluding Lady Antebellum’s You Look Good World Tour (2107) and Rascal Faltts’ Rhythm and Roots Tour (2016âGraffiti U is the biggest in terms of number of performances and, most likely, attendance.
As Keith told Kix Brooks of American Country Countdown, he picked Kelsea to join him on tour because she has the “hunger,” in addition to an affinity for one of his Australian countrymen.
âShe married an Aussie, and I thought, âCool, thatâs good enough for me [laughing],ââ says Keith in reference to Kelsea’s husband Morgan Evans. “I like Kelsea. I like her spirit. I like people putting good in the world, you know? Sheâs just got a good light, got a good message, and sheâs a really good writer, and I think sheâs got that hunger as an artist to keep growing. I know when Miranda Lambert came out and opened for us many, many years ago, sheâd be at the front every night just watching like a hawk and learning. I was really taken by that. I always remember that. I love those kind of artists. I mean, thatâs what I did. Thatâs what I still do. Iâm still watching and learning all the time. Kelseaâs got that in her.â
Here’s some video from Tennessee football fall practice #10 in Knoxville on Tuesday. There is no audio with the OLs by design. That’s not an error. There was no viewing of any of Sunday’s 9th practice, which was a scrimmage at Neyland Stadium.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. â Tennessee redshirt senior quarterback Keller Chryst was named to the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Watch List, as announced by the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Educational Foundation on Tuesday.
The award is presented annually to the top senior or fourth-year junior quarterback set to graduate with their class by the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Educational Foundation, which encapsulates all that is positive in college sports.
Chryst is currently in a four-way battle to become the Volsâ starting quarterback this season after transferring from Stanford last spring. During his time with the Cardinal, Chryst started 13 games over the last two seasons and was a two-time Pac-12 Academic honorable mention selection. He completed 160 of 289 pass attempts for 1,926 yards and 19 touchdowns with six interceptions in 23 games. Chryst added 164 rushing yards and three scores on 66 carries.
Chryst holds an 11-2 record as a starting quarterback, going 5-2 in 2017 and 6-0 in 2016. He passed for 962 yards and eight touchdowns in 2017 and 905 yards and 10 touchdowns in 2016.
The Charlotte, N.C., native is one of five SEC quarterbacks to be named to the 48-person list, joining Missouriâs Drew Lock, South Carolinaâs Jake Bentley, Vanderbiltâs Kyle Shurmer and Auburnâs Jarrett Stidham.
