ForumsFormer & Current Vols Impact Junior LB Herman Lathers
KNOXVILLE – There were times when junior linebacker Herman Lathers thought he’d never run through the ‘T’ or suit up in a Tennessee uniform again.
Lathers, who had shoulder surgery in January, missed all of spring practice but came back for the start of summer workouts as UT’s leading returning tackler. His return, however, was brief.
“It’s been frustrating,” Lathers said. “I said once I got my shoulder surgery that I was just going to push everybody in the off-season and then I end up breaking my (ankle) the first play of seven-on-seven, first day of off-season workouts. It’s been tough. It was a lot on me. I cried a lot for a couple days, but I thank my teammates, my roommate Tauren Poole and most of all Nick Reveiz for pulling me through it.
“He’s always been calling, checking on me and pulling me through it.”
Reveiz, the former UT linebacker, had seen this show before. Once a walk-on, Reveiz worked his way to being named a team captain and starter as a junior in 2009. Reveiz tore his ACL in the fourth game of the season after all of his hard work, but battled back to lead the team in tackles in 2010 with 108.
Having been through a similar experience, Reveiz just tried to relate to his former protégé.
“I don’t think he ever said to me, ‘Hey, I’m thinking about quitting,’ but I could see in his eyes after surgery just how down he was,” Reveiz said. “He was in so much pain. I’m sure he was thinking the same way I was thinking when I had surgery. ‘How am I ever going to walk again after surgery?’ I’m sure there were a lot of thoughts that ran through his mind.
From one linebacker to another, it was the classic case of “Actions speak louder than words.”
“Something I always tried to do was just be there for him,” Reveiz said. “That was the biggest thing. I don’t think it’s about words. It’s just about how we love people and change lives. Not that I’m some great guy, I just believe that God gave me an opportunity to serve Herman and that’s what I wanted to do. I’m glad I got the opportunity to do it.”
While the former Vol took advantage of his opportunity to make an impact on Lathers, the current Vols did the same.
“A lot of my teammates brought my through this tough situation, having a freak accident the way I did,” Lathers said. “It was tough on me because I was ready to quit and I was just wondering why it was always me that was getting injured. They brought me through a lot and I’m thankful for them.”
Although it’s unclear whether Lathers will return this season, he’s done his best to return the favor to his teammates.
“I keep myself updated on the plays, the installs and what they’re doing just so I can help the young guys,” Lathers said. “I’m always in the film room when they are, helping (those) guys and making sure they’re in all the right places and that they know what they have to do.”
Regardless of his status for 2011, he’s already peeking ahead to what he can do to improve in the off-season along with freshman linebackers A.J. Johnson and Curt Maggitt.
“I tell them a lot that this off-season when I get back we’re going to do a lot of drills,” Lathers said. “We’re going to spend a lot of time in the film and doing drills out in the complex. We just have to get better as a unit.”
Much like Reveiz gave back to Lathers, the junior linebacker is also ready to embody the “Vol For Life” spirit.
A CALMER WORLEY EXPECTED
Making your first start in a college football game can be nerve-racking. Throw in being an 18-year old freshman in a pivotal SEC division game against your homestate team and you have the plight of freshman quarterback Justin Worley.
The Rock Hill, S.C., native made his first start with Tennessee last Saturday and despite the tough evening, the coaching staff has confidence in the signal caller as he continues to gain experience.
Worley will make start number two this Saturday as the Vols step out of conference to host Middle Tennessee at 7 p.m. ET.
“Certainly (he will be calmer). I feel that way about every freshman that goes out there,” said offensive coordinator Jim Chaney. “The second game he’s calmer, the third game he’s more calm and you continue all that. You call that experience. You can’t manufacture it, you have to go out and play.”
Worley started slow against the Gamecocks, but gained more confidence as the game progressed as you could expect from any teenager under the spotlight at Neyland Stadium.
“I think he came out a little shaky, in the first quarter or two,” Chaney said. “He calmed down by the middle of the second quarter and threw some nice balls. If you could just take four or five of his passes out and say, ‘look at this’ I think when you do that, you see the talent that the kid has.
“I think the nervousness early on, he wasn’t as accurate as he would have liked to have been. I think that showed up throughout the ball game off and on. He struggled a little bit, but he’s worked harder this week. We have tidied down, try to tone down what he’s having to do. You know him a little bit more. It’s always the first game, with the younger quarterbacks, they think they know a lot and the nervousness hits them and they don’t know as much as they thought they did.”
Head coach Derek Dooley has the same mindset and knows that Worley will get better with time.
“The only way to really learn is through a lot of reps and a lot game reps,” said Dooley, who has started three quarterbacks in the Vols’ last four games. “Then, you find that place where you understand who he is. We’re still in the learning stages. The challenge is that you want to do enough to where you have a lot of good game plan material to give your players a chance to win, but you can’t do too much to where the quarterback is not thinking fast, reacting and performing the way he’s capable of. That’s a constant battle we struggle with as coaches. It just takes time working with the quarterbacks, evaluating them and each week trying to do a little better job with that.”
Chaney said the Vols didn’t make major play-call adjustments for Worley being a rookie, but that two continued to build trust, which is key for success.
“I don’t know that you call the game any differently,” Chaney said. “You set up the gameplan differently, you know a little more about what he knows. I think what ends up happening, inevitably, you have a little more honest dialogue, and I would think that in the fire, when you say in honest dialogue, what you know, it’s a little more honest now. … They know now what I’m talking about, when I say, ‘are you sure you know all the nuances of this play. Now I feel we are a lot closer to find that out.”
MIDDLE MOVES THE BALL
Entering Saturday’s showdown in Knoxville, the Middle Tennessee State offense is averaging 80.7 plays, 29.9 points and 462.4 yards per game. By comparison, the Vols average 64.0, 22.4 and 329.9 in those same per-game categories.
Don’t think those numbers haven’t caught the eye of Tennessee defensive coordinator Justin Wilcox.
“They’ve moved the ball on everybody and scored on everybody,” Wilcox said. “They get about 90 plays a game, they run a play about every 16 seconds. They don’t wait for anybody. They went down in their first game of the year against Purdue and moved the ball up and down the field. They move the ball on everybody. They have good speed outside, they can beat you deep and their quarterback is a playmaker. There is plenty to worry about.”
That quarterback is redshirt sophomore Logan Kilgore. In seven starts this season, the Rocklin, Calif., native has thrown for 1,869 yards and 16 touchdowns while completing almost 60 percent of his passes.
“I think he is a playmaker,” Wilcox said. “He has done a lot for them. He can beat you with his feet or he can beat you with his arm. He’s thrown for a lot of yards and been very productive. I think he is a good player.”
For Wilcox, the key to success against a high-tempo offense like the Blue Raiders’ is as much a mindset as physical preparation.
“It’s a matter of mental conditioning, being able to go four, five, six, seven, eight, nine plays back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back and be on point about your alignment, assignment and execution,” Wilcox said. “It’s not complicated to say they are going to go fast. What’s complicated and where it gets hard is when you have to do it nine plays in a row and they are going fast, their formations change and your call changes. That’s the hard part. It’s the mental intensity and that mental stamina. That’s what they test.”
QUOTABLE
Head coach Derek Dooley
(On Tennessee’s wide receivers)
“I think the key to overcoming your frustration is making sure you play as good as you can play. The important thing is to control what you can control. There are a lot of things that our wideouts can control without the quarterback that they can do a lot better. When they do their job a little bit better, things tend to start working out.”
(On Curt Maggitt)
“He’s been fine. He looks good to me. I’m glad to have him back. He made a lot of plays in the team periods.”
(On Malik Jackson)
“I think so. What hurts us a little bit with Malik is because we don’t have a lot of (defensive) tackles. I think we could probably do more with him if we had more guys in the middle that could hold up. We could up him at end and we could put him at five. He could probably have a lot more production than he’s having. We just don’t that luxury because we just don’t have a lot of guys in the middle right now.”
(On Justin Coleman)
“I think this week will be a good indicator. He’s going to play a little bit more this week. We kind of moved him up last week, but Prentiss was still at corner. We’re going to see how much he’s progressed. He’s doing some good things in practice. He did a couple good things in the Alabama game so we’ll see.”
Offensive coordinator Jim Chaney
(On what impressed him about Worley)
“Those four of five throws, that I mentioned. You saw him throw a very accurate ball to Da’Rick (Rogers) right down the sidelines. A couple of seem routes to DeAnthony (Arnett) and curl routes that were fine. There were times there, spotty as it was, but there were times out there you could see the talent that he has as a quarterback.”
(On the run game productions vs. South Carolina)
“It was disappointing. I thought we’d have more success in the run game. Hats off to South Carolina, I thought they did a nice job. We didn’t execute in the run game. We were unable to move the ball that way and that was very disappointing.”
Defensive coordinator Justin Wilcox
(On Malik Jackson)
“Malik has done some really good things. He’s played really at times in the last few weeks. There have been some times where he hasn’t played well, but he does have a good skill set. He is tall and long. He’s not the heaviest guy in the world, but he can play inside because he plays with really good leverage. He is guy that you can play at nine-technique, you can play him at five, we can play him at three, you can put him on the nose. He gives us a lot of flexibility that way and we need that. In a perfect world, he might be more of an outside guy, but we need him to play nose sometimes, we need him to play three sometimes and that’s what we’ve been doing.”
(On whether the team is playing faster now than early in the season)
“I think that is fair to say. I think we are playing a little more aggressive, a little faster, with a little more confidence, but that doesn’t mean we are always playing well. We are playing well at times, but not as consistently as we need to.”
(On the two turnovers the defense forced against South Carolina)
“Prentiss (Waggner) made a nice play on the ball and went up and got it when it was in the air. Brian Randolph put his hat on the football and we got in the pile and wrestled for it and got it out. He was playing aggressive. Prentiss made an aggressive break, Brian made an aggressive tackle and that is where you get those plays.”
(On generating pressure on the QB versus South Carolina)
“Malik (Jackson) had a really nice rush, we had some good coverage in the back end and at times we made the quarterback hold the ball. Those things really always work hand-in-hand to be honest with you. The guys did a good job of getting some pressure, but again we just need to play more consistently and that is the focus.”
Junior linebacker Herman Lathers
(On his status)
“I feel good. I’m not at 100 percent right now but it’s a part of my progress getting back at practice and getting back in the swing of things.”
(On the hardest part of this season)
“Watching and not being able to be out there at fall camp. Just being in the locker room before games and not being able to dress out and be in game mode with my team.”
(On whether he feels like he could’ve helped this team)
“I feel like in areas I could’ve helped sometimes in some games. It’s just hard being out and just knowing that you should be in there helping those guys. I feel like I let the seniors down, but I can’t help the accident that happened so I just have to bounce back from it.”
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