Tennessee quarterback Justin Worley is pleased with the fight he has seen from his teammates in practice this week, despite a heartbreaking 10-9 loss to Florida last Saturday. Worley had positive comments of his team’s outlook heading into Saturday’s matchup against Chattanooga, following Tuesday’s indoor practice.

“I’ve been very pleased,” Worley said following Tuesday’s indoor practice. “The guys have responded well to coach Jones beating us up in the team meeting yesterday, which I thought we needed. Some of these guys needed to hear some of the things he said.

“I thought we responded well. We came out yesterday with a good mental approach, like coach Jones always says, and today we got after it a little bit. There were some guys flying around, made some plays, caught some balls out wide. So I thought we responded well to the weekend we had.”

The senior quarterback struggled against Florida, thanks in part to a lack of protection from his offensive line. Worley was sacked six times and hurried three. However, he still has complete faith in his young o-line, and that the group has responded well to challenges made by both him and head coach Butch Jones.

“They’ve done a great job,” said Worley. “I told them before scout periods today that every rep counts, every rep matters, and we win games by the way we practice. I think they responded well. They responded to coach Mo’ getting on them, coach Jones getting on them, and they’ve come out and responded well.”

Despite allowing a season-worst in sack totals, Worley believes the offensive line is improving every day, and that their best days are ahead of them.

“I do (see growth). To the blind eye, you might not see it,” he said. “We could have hit some big, big runs on Saturday. One mis-fit here, one mis-fit there, the running back maybe not hitting the hole like he should have … and they’re things that we can correct, and are things that are easily corrected, so that’s encouraging to see.”