The Tennessee football team returned to practice Sunday with a light workout inside Neyland-Thompson Sports Center.The Vols fell to 3-5 overall and 1-4 in the Southeastern Conference with Saturday's 29-9 loss to Alabama, but there remain four games on the schedule for Phillip Fulmer and his charges to orchestrate a turnaround.
In order to do that, each opponent must be taken one at a time, and the first one is South Carolina.
"You have to give credit to this team for how hard they've played," Fulmer said. "They continue to play extremely hard. Right now, we're only worried about South Carolina. That's our goal, to lay a foundation for the next season. We can't be champions this year, but we sure as heck can have the heart of a champion and continue to improve. Those were the two things I asked them to do:?continue to improve and be accountable."
One area where Fulmer said the Vols need to be more accountable is in the Orange Zone. The Vols have scored just 13 touchdowns in 27 trips this season.
"When you get inside you like to have a big, tall receiver who can go up and get it," Fulmer said. "If not, you have to find a way to get it done. These guys were good enough to win 10 games last year and played really well. We may not be able to throw the fade, but we can throw the screen underneath like (Josh) Briscoe caught last night."
The Vols will have Orange Zone improvement as one of their areas of focus this week before heading to Columbia, S.C., for their 27th all-time meeting with the Gamecocks. Tennessee owns a 21-3-2 advantage in the series and has not lost in Columbia since 1992.
ESPN2 is televising the game nationally. Kickoff is set for Saturday at 7 p.m. ET.
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