Tennessee head coach, Derek Dooley, joked that last season his team finished 6-7, but 8-7 in post-game handshakes.
The two heartbreaking losses the Volunteers experienced to both LSU and North Carolina, came after penalties allowed the opposition another chance as time ran out.
In the Music City bowl, North Carolina was allowed another chance at a field goal after they were flagged for too many men on the field. Against the Tigers, Tennessee put 13 men on the field during LSU's first failed attempt at a touchdown.
Since then the NCAA has changed the rule and implemented a 10-second penalty in addition to loss of yardage in the final minute of the game.
"There are lessons in everything," Dooley said. "I told our team, once I was able together my emotions, that when things don't go your way in life or in football, before you start pointing fingers, you better look in the mirror. There was a time where were we could have done better."
Dooley returns for his second year with Tennessee with what he calls one of the youngest teams he has ever coached. The Volunteer roster is made up primarily freshman and sophomores.
"We enter this year with probably the youngest football team I've been apart of," Dooley said. "I looked at our roster before we came down here we have 57 freshman and sophomores and 24 juniors and seniors, that represents about 70 percent underclassmen."
Dooley said despite being one of the SEC's youngest schools, the Volunteers will not use youth as an excuse in the upcoming season.
"We came down to a decision as a football team that we weren't going to allow youth to be an excuse for failure," Dooley said. "I feel very good about the talent level of our young players and how quickly they have become every down dependable players in the SEC."
