Tennessee’s Jones ‘welcomes’ criticism for recent collapses

Much like last season, the Volunteers have been stingy on third down in 2015. Howard missed the Vols’ 28-27 loss to Florida last week with an injury that hasn’t been specified.

“We’ll see, we’ll see how it goes this week in practice”, McElwain said. He gets better each and every day. In 2014, the Vols finished 16th nationally in third-down defense with a success rate of almost 66 percent.

The Arkansas Razorbacks (1-3) travel to meet the Tennessee Volunteers (2-2) looking to snap their three-game losing streak.

The longest fourth-down conversion Tennessee allowed this season prior to Saturday’s game was 4 yards, but the Gators converted on fourth down when they had to pick up 7, 8 and 14 yards in the fourth quarter. For coaches, this isn’t just a game, it’s a livelihood and you put every ounce of yourself into it so it’s going to hurt but I think we’ve responded well. (Florida) didn’t do anything different.

That support is vital to the football team’s efforts on the field, with the imposing atmosphere of Neyland Stadium a key part in helping make opposing teams uneasy about having to play at UT. We’re going to really challenge our guys.

The Vols also somehow only managed four offensive plays on their final possession despite a minute and a half and two timeouts. Certainly, poll voters might have been guilty of overrating one team or another, but their ballots were based on documentation such as the 2014 season and starters returning. “He is hard to tackle right now”.

Arkansas at least rediscovered its identity last week, relying on the run and playing better defense to push Texas A&M to the brink before falling in overtime. Whichever team loses this game might as well consider this year a wash.

The interest of our student body in attending football games this season has been overwhelming, with the games against Oklahoma as a sell out and Western Carolina selling all but 175 tickets. Can’t let clutter or distraction creep in. We have to find a way to get it done. Tennessee’s coaches and players know there is no margin for error when facing Bielema’s physical brand of football.

Coach Butch Jones was taking questions for the weekly Vol Calls radio show ahead of Saturday’s important game against Arkansas.

Based exclusively on preseason expectations, Auburn leads the competition for the most disappointing team in the league while Arkansas and Tennessee are in a dead heat for second.

“At this point, our motto this week is ‘every play is 4th-and-1, ‘” Stripling said. “This is fourth down”.

Jones opened by saying that the players played well enough in Gainesville to get a win.

“You have to be dialed into the splits of the receivers”. “You can’t panic when you’re standing on the sidelines”. After a number of discombobulated timer regulation along with a punishment, Tennessee was required to dial its last timeout three secs quit to steer clear of a 10-second extra that might are over this game therefore it could use a 55-yard sector goal and objective.