University of Tennessee Athletics
Vols Conclude Work in Knoxville
December 21, 2007 | Football
The Tennessee football team had its final on-campus bowl practice Thursday morning and was dismissed for the Christmas holiday break shortly thereafter. The Volunteers conducted seven practices in Knoxville in preparation for their New Year???s Day Outback Bowl matchup against Wisconsin and will resume practice on Wednesday, Dec. 26 at the University of Tampa at 1:15 p.m. ET.
???The kids have had a good attitude,??? UT head coach Phillip Fulmer said following Wednesday???s workout. ???We changed up our pre-bowl practice enough that it hasn???t been boring for the players. We had a full-speed scrimmage, which was great work for us. We spent time on our fundamentals, and have put in a lot of development time for our young players.
???You have to prepare for these games, and our guys have had a good, serious attitude about it.???
With the fall semester having recently concluded, Fulmer addressed the team???s academic standing Friday as well. A total of 12 football student-athletes earned their bachelor???s degrees earlier this month and one earned a master???s degree. In addition, Tennessee had 40 players earn a spot on the Thornton Center Honor Roll with a semester GPA of 3.0 or better, and while 15 of the group earned a GPA of 3.5 or better.
The Vols, however, were not without some academic casualties, as six scholarship players were declared ineligible for the bowl game after failing to meet NCAA and SEC eligibility requirements for bowl competition. Those players were Demonte Bolden, DE; Chris Donald, LB:; Ricardo Kemp, DB; Rico McCoy, LB,: Kenny O???Neal, WR and Lucas Taylor, WR..
???I am proud of the young men that did a job well done,??? Fulmer said. ???We had 40 athletes earn a spot on the Thornton Center Honor Roll with a 3.0 or better, including 15 that earned a 3.5 or better. I???m also very proud of the 13 graduates this past semester.???
Fulmer added, ???We have every resource available through our academic center for academic success by our athletes in all of our sports. In most of these cases, it was simply the student-athlete not being accountable and doing their work. In Lucas??? case; however, he passed enough hours but a new NCAA policy that went into affect this fall made him ineligible. One bright spot is the fact that all of these athletes will be in school spring semester.???
The new policy requires all student-athletes to pass six hours within the specified grade requirements of each individual major.
The Vols are set to make their third all-time appearance in the Outback Bowl. Tennessee???s first win in the Tampa event came against Boston College following the 1992 season and was Fulmer???s first bowl game as UT???s head coach. The Vols fell to Penn State by a score of 20-10 in the 2007 Outback Bowl.
Tennessee has faced Wisconsin just once previously on the gridiron, defeating the Badgers 28-21 in the 1981 Garden State Bowl at The Meadowlands in East Rutherford, N.J.
Kickoff for the 2008 Outback Bowl is 11 a.m. ET. The game will be aired on the Vol Network and televised nationally on ESPN.
OUTBACK BOWL PREVIEW SPECIAL TO AIR ON ESPN NETWORKS
The Outback Bowl will highlight the Tampa Bay area to an international audience on New Year???s Day, but the area will also be highlighted numerous times next week as the Outback Bowl Preview Special will be televised throughout the nation on multiple ESPN television networks.
The first airing will appear on ESPN2 on Friday, Dec. 28 at 2:30 p.m. ET. The half-hour show is produced by the bowl and looks at the Tennessee-Wisconsin matchup while highlighting numerous amenities of the Tampa, St Pete and Clearwater area.
Amenities highlighted in this year???s show include such items as the award-winning beaches of Pinellas County, Busch Gardens, the numerous museums in St Petersburg, the Florida Aquarium, Channelside Bay Plaza, historic Ybor City, GameWorks and the many fun events surrounding the bowl. ESPN???s Rob Stone, who will be the sideline reporter for this year???s game, hosts the show.
Complete schedule for the special:
| Dec. 28 | 2:30 p.m. ET | ESPN2 |
| Dec. 29 | 2:30 a.m. ET/11:30 p.m. PT | ESPN Classic |
| Dec. 29 | 5:30 a.m. ET | ESPNU |
| Dec. 30 | 1:30 p.m. ET | WFTS TV 28 (Tampa) |
| Dec. 31 | 12:30 a.m. ET/9:30 p.m. PT | ESPN Classic |
| Dec. 31 | 3:30 p.m. ET | ESPNU |
| Jan. 1 | 2:30 a.m. ET | WFTS TV 28 (Tampa) |
