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Seniors excited about future of Vols football program

Tennessee’s 31-13 victory over South Carolina on Halloween night was a watershed mark in the Volunteers’ rebuilding project helmed by Lane Kiffin.

Even though it gave Kiffin his first victory over a ranked opponent, the youngest coach currently in the Football Bowl Subdivision left Neyland Stadium wanting more.

“I want to make sure that our players know we expect to win by 19, 20 points when we’re at home and a Top 25 team comes in,” Kiffin said this week. “I had to remind them that we’ve got high standards, and we have a long ways to go.”

It’s those sort of standards that have seniors on this year’s Tennessee team excited about the future of the program.

Even if they won’t be around to see it.

“He won’t settle for anything but the best and I think that’s a credit to how this program’s going to run from here on out,” offensive guard Cory Sullins said. “I think it’s definiely championship caliber coaches and will lead to championship caliber teams. He won’t settle for anything less.”

Fellow offensive lineman Jacques McClendon noted that the coaching staff’s expectations aren’t restricted to the football field.

“They’re demanding everything academically also,” he said. “You’ve got to make sure you go to class, get good grades. He’s not taking any favoritism.

McClendon cited freshman walk-on Cory Eichholtz, who’s worked his way onto the kickoff coverage team and tallied a pair of brising tackles, as an example.

“He competes everyday,” McClendon said. “They recognize that.”

And observers around the nation are recognizing the improvement by Tennessee since the start of the season. A team that looked lost in early October, with a sputtering passing offense and a defense reeling from Nick Reveiz’s season-ending knee injury, now is receiving votes in every major college football poll.

Tennessee (4-4) has yielded only one touchdown on defense in the past three ballgames, but it’s the offense that made the biggest strides in the month of October.

Quarterback Jonathan Crompton is much improved, completing 60.9 percent of his passes in the past three games and racking up half of his 14 TD strikes for the season.

The Vols also are the least penalized team in the league (37.4 yards per game), the fifth-best average in the entire Football Bowl Subdivision.

“I think we’ve come a long way. We’ve bought in, we’ve put in more time and more effort as a team,” Crompton said. “We know what we’re capable of doing. We’ve got to go out and keep pushing even if we’re tired or what not.”

It’s not over yet. If the Vols win out, they’ll finish the first season under Kiffin’s watch with an 8-4 record and likely be rewarded with a bid to a significant bowl game.

“My role as a senior is to make sure this senior class, we’re not going to be quitters,” McClendon said. “We’re going to go hard and work every day and that’s what we’ve done.

“Two years from now when we’re watching games and see how hard these kids are working, we’re going to take satisfaction. This team’s going to be rolling in two years. It’s going to be fun to watch.”

For the second consecutive season, Tennessee safety Eric Berry has been named a semifinalist for both the Jim Thorpe Award and the Chuck Bednarik Award.

The Thorpe award goes to the top defensive back in the country and the Bednarik award goes to the top overall defensive player.

Berry has 57 tackles and a team-high seven stops on special teams. He also leads the Vols with seven passes deflected, and has five tackles for loss and three quarterback hurries.

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