University of Tennessee Athletics
Mentality Pays Off For Vols' Offensive Line
October 29, 2014 | Football
By Brian Rice KNOXVILLE, Tenn.
UTSports.com
Coming to work every day and bringing the confidence and effort to the practice field paid off on Saturday, despite missing a pair of starters.
"It gives us a lot of confidence," center Mack Crowder said of the performance against Alabama, which included a season-high 181 rushing yards. "But we just have to keep in mind our mindset that we went into that game with and bring that same mindset, same mentality into every game from now on."
Seeing the effort and repetition pay off on the game field helped reinforce the message that offensive line coach Don Mahoney has been driving home to his unit since fall camp began.
"It was huge," Mahoney said of the confidence boost. "It's been such a tough go, week-in and week-out with the things that have been happening, the results that have been taking place. Come to work every day and it's kind of a beat-down, come to practice every day and the feeling of keeping digging and clawing and some positive results are going to happen. For that reason, I was happy because I've been saying all along how hard they've been working and to see that work pay off was really good."
Having the best effort of the year against an Alabama team with the defensive resume that it brings to the table made the performance even sweeter for the line.
"Moving the ball against the defenses we've played in the past, obviously that gives us a lot of confidence just going forward because that's great competition, and we play great competition across the SEC," said senior tackle Jacob Gilliam. "But being able to move the ball against that front that was, coming into the game, pretty highly touted, it's a confidence boost for us O-Line guys."
Gilliam returned to full action against the Crimson, after seeing only limited action against Ole Miss in his comeback from a torn ACL suffered against Utah State. Just as he returned, the line was without two starters, Marcus Jackson and Coleman Thomas. The absence of the pair opened the door for redshirt freshman Brett Kendrick to see the most action of his UT career.
"Brett has improved for sure from Arkansas State to last weekend," Mahoney said. "I think he played a lot faster. He was not worried about making some mistakes, like some guys playing for the first time tend to do. He played at the level he's been practicing at, and that's pretty dang good."
The things Kendrick brought to the game were no surprise to Crowder who, like Mahoney, had seen the characteristics in practice.
"He's been just staying consistent," Crowder said. "Not getting beat very often, trying to be physical and being smart.
Of those things, the physical mentality may have been the most important, not just for the newcomer Kendrick, but for the entire offensive line.
"That's one of the things that we definitely pride ourselves on," Crowder said. "We're going to try to finish people off on every play and we're going to wear them down psychologically and physically. That's what Coach Jones teaches us, and that's what we kind of pride ourselves on as a program."
