Some offseason training exercises are easier than others.

This was anything but for the Tennessee football team.

Brian Rice of UTSports.com chronicled the last 48 grueling hours for the Vols, culminating in Wednesday’s completion of Small Boat Judgment Day, one of the components of ‘The Program’, on the banks of The Cove at Concord Marina.

The Program is a Marine-based training exercise meant to separate Tennessee’s leaders from the followers over the course of an intense physical training regiment including, but not limited to, carrying heavy oars around campus.

“It’s part of our leadership development program, leadership through shared adversity,” coach Butch Jones said. “We’ve had a great experience with The Program and the team-building that is associated with it. It’s been very rewarding to sit back and really see the progress that all of our players have made in the football program.”

According to Marine veteran Eric Kapitulik who led the exercise, players were broken into teams with ‘leaders’ and given precise instructions on how to conquer certain objectives. If those guidelines weren’t met, the entire team was forced to repeat the exercise.

The two-day event involved players leaning on one another and understanding teamwork to achieve goals.

“It’s called leadership development for a reason,” Kapitulik said according to UTSports.com “I founded and run a leadership development company and I get better as a teammate and a team leader every time I spend time around Coach Jones. If I have to develop my leadership, of course Joshua Dobbs has to. Of course Jalen Reeves-Maybin does, of course Jalen Hurd does. They have to develop it, the great thing about it is, they want to develop it, they have a care factor.

“It’s not just about Jalen Hurd, he has a care factor about Tennessee football, about the warriors to his left and right. Because of that, he wants to get better, that’s all we need. Now we have to teach him how to get better.”

After two days of carrying oars, players used them to swiftly navigate boats through a series of races on Wednesday to end the competition.

“There is a standard and an expectation that we abide by every single day in our football program,” Jones said according to UTSports.com. “It’s mentorship, a leader had to be able to do three things. They have to be able to command, they have to be able to coach and they have to be able to mentor. The great leaders have the ability to do all three. You can see our older players really following that roadmap to excellence and being a great leader.”