University of Tennessee Athletics
Vols Executing in Practice, Must Perform on Road
September 17, 2009 | Football
Sept. 17, 2009
Tennessee head coach Lane Kiffin watched his Vols finish practice on a high note for the second day in a row as Saturday's showdown at Florida creeps closer.
"It was a little bit like (Tuesday) in that we had some issues early on," Kiffin said. "We're just trying to get our game plan in and get it finalized. But like yesterday, I thought the guys finished better than they started.
"We've still got a lot of work to do; the game's a long time away. It's our first road game, our first time traveling together. We're going to have to do a really good job of keeping our guys focused on what we need to do."
Tennessee (1-1) is trying to rebound from Saturday's 19-15 loss to UCLA in which the Vols committed four turnovers. And this weekend's opponent is the defending national champion and consensus No. 1-ranked team in the polls.
"It doesn't matter who we're playing or where we're playing," Kiffin said. "We want practice -- especially Thursday's practice -- to be perfect, so we had to re-do a few things today. But that's why we keep working, that's why we keep grinding on our guys."
UT added crowd noise to Thursday's workout amid light showers at Haslam Field. Saturday's forecast in Gainesville calls for it to be hot, humid -- and very loud.
"I thought they did well for the most part," Kiffin said of handling the noise. "We did it as loud as we could, as much as we could. You'll never simulate exactly what it is because of the emotion that goes into it and how the game speeds up. But we tried to make it as game-like of a road atmosphere as we could.
"The line of scrimmage, especially, has been very good in the first two games. But now we've got to go on the road."
Saturday doesn't expect to be a friendly place for the Vols, at least at kickoff. But Kiffin says his team is looking forward to the challenge of winning its SEC opener.
"I could be wrong, but I don't think they really realize the hype of the game. We don't talk about it. It's just a Thursday practice and we've got to have a really good practice and a really good meeting. Then we've got to come back Friday and have a really good walk-through.
"So I don't think it has anything to do with the opponent."
Kickoff is set for 3:30 p.m., with the Vol Network and CBS providing the coverage.
CBS SPORTS TO STREAM ENTIRE 2009 SEC FOOTBALL SCHEDULE LIVE ON CBSSPORTS.COM & CBS SPORTS MOBILE
CBS Sports, the exclusive national over-the-air broadcaster of Southeastern Conference home football games, will stream its entire 2009 SEC college football schedule live on CBSSports.com and CBS Sports Mobile. The SEC ON CBS kicks off Saturday (3:30 p.m. Eastern) with Tennessee at Florida.
The SEC ON CBS game of the week will be offered free of charge on CBSSports.com and allow viewers the ability to access a scoreboard feature with in-game statistics as well as track college football scores and standings from around the country. Additional options include a live chat feature, video preview segments and on-demand highlights as the game progresses.
The video player (640x360) on CBSSports.com will stream all the action in 16x9 ratio and allow viewers the option to access a high-quality stream for an enhanced viewing experience.
Additionally, CBS Sports Mobile will offer an application for the iPhone and iPod touch that will provide fans live streaming video from the entire 2009 SEC ON CBS college football schedule. During live game action, the CBS Sports: College application will provide users in-game box scores and player stats, even as an overlay on top of the video, in addition to a full Division FBS college football scoreboard, individual gamecenters for top 25 matchups, polls, headlines and standings.
As part of its offering, the CBS Sports: College application will also stream select games from CBS Sports' 2009-10 SEC College Basketball schedule. Developed in partnership with MobiTV, the CBS Sports: College application is now available for $9.99 from Apple's App Store on iPhone and iPod touch.
"Following up on our success last season streaming the SEC on CBSSports.com, we are excited to extend coverage to the mobile platform to better serve college fans by delivering the SEC on CBS to them when, where and how they want it," said Mike Aresco, Executive Vice President, CBS Sports.
"We're proud to able to provide live video from the best college football conference in the land and feel it further separates CBSSports.com from the competition in terms of offering live video from major sports events," said Jason Kint, Senior Vice President and General Manager, CBSSports.com. "Taking the live video from CBS Sports' game coverage and extending it to the mobile platform was a natural next step and we're happy to provide fans of SEC football the ability to watch no matter where they are."
A total of 15 SEC contests will be streamed live on CBSSports.com and CBS Sports Mobile concluding with the SEC Championship Game on Dec. 5 (4 p.m. Eastern).
CBS Sports begins its first year of its historic 15-year contract extension with the Southeastern Conference to broadcast its football and basketball games In addition to broadcast rights, the new deal includes digital, internet, wireless, video-on-demand and enhanced highlight rights across all CBS Sports properties.
