Kiffin Praises Hardesty's Work Ethic

Tennessee head coach Lane Kiffin said after practice Wednesday that Thursday would be an important practice for players coming off injuries as the Vols prepare for their first home Southeastern Conference game against Auburn at Neyland Stadium.

Saturday's kickoff is at 7:45 p.m. Eastern Time and will be broadcast on ESPN.

As has been the case in recent weeks, Kiffin addressed team injuries following practice.

"Chris Walker wasn't able to do much today, and neither was (Montario) Hardesty," Kiffin said. "Other than that, we're starting to get some guys back today. (Herman) Lathers was out there all day today, and Wes Brown did some stuff in practice, which was good. Tomorrow will be a big day for a lot of guys who either haven't been practicing or have only been practicing half days."

Kiffin said Hardesty had his knee drained earlier in the week, adding he did not want to rush Hardesty back to full contact too early.

Hardesty is coming off his second-career 100-yard rushing game, running for 120 yards against Ohio. He leads the SEC in rushing with 121.25 yards per game, and last week, he passed the 1,500-yard rushing mark for his career.

"I just told him that when he came out and did run throughs - which is a fast version of walk throughs at the end of practice - I was worried that he was going too fast on his knee," Kiffin said. "But that's the mentality you want. If you're around the sport long enough, you are going to find some players who are looking for a way out, trying to get out of practice by making their injuries look worse and just getting to game day."

"He's the exact opposite, which is why he's a leader on this team. He embodies exactly how we want to be as a team."

Hardesty, a senior and team captain, has done more than just run up the yardage this season. He has also scored a touchdown in each of the Vols' four games. Kiffin was pleased with the performance of the passing game in practice. "It was a good practice for the most part today," Kiffin said. "I thought Jonathan (Crompton) threw the ball really well, and the receivers had a good day." From www.utsports.com

Learning Mental Toughness in Little League

Mental toughness is a vital part to success in both sports and life. Yet, sadly enough, kids in today's world don't learn mental toughness at an early age. If you go to any little league park today you won't find very much mental toughness being taught to kids. We live in a world where no matter how a kid does his parents are always telling him how great he is. Growing up if I was 0-4 at the plate my dad didn't tell me how great I was, but rather drive home wasn't so pleasant. Now my father didn't just flat out yell at me. That's not the way to go about things either. But he did make sure I knew how and when I had messed up that day. It wasn’t something I always wanted to hear, but I knew my dad knew the game and knew much more than I did. Of course I was a kid so I let some things just go in one ear and out the other, but there were some things that stuck with me. By doing this my father was developing my mental toughness. If he had told me how well I did when I had done horrible then I wouldn't have learned anything about failure and perseverance. He didn't give me the ol' line, "Well you did your best and that's all I can ask for," because he knew I could do better. By him letting me know where I had messed up I then knew what I needed to fix. Now granted I didn't always fix it on the first try (actually it was very rare that I ever fixed it on the first try). Sometimes he would tell me things "till he was blue in the face," as he said, but I did learn what needed to be fixed. I truly believe that that helped prepare me for my future life. I learned that when I made a mistake it wasn't ok and I didn't deserve a pat on the back. I needed to sit down, reevaluate myself and fix the problem. Now I'm human and I can't say that I have fixed every mistake that I have ever made, but I feel that I have the tools to do so simply because I wasn't told good job when it wasn't due. I learned more from little league than you could imagine. I firmly believe that if we help develop a kids mental toughness at an early age then they will grow into much more capable adults. I thank my dad for giving me that gift. I didn't always enjoy the car rides home after a bad day at the ballpark, but what he told me I always needed to hear.