A second wasn’t wasted.When Tennessee’s season-ending win at Kentucky concluded the 2013 schedule last November, the reset button was hit and the calendar was turned. Out with the old. In with the new.That ‘old’ was a Tennessee offensive line that needed no introduction – Ja’Wuan James, James Stone, Zach Fulton, Antonio ‘Tiny’ Richardson and Alex Bullard – after having spent the better part of the last four years building their resumes.The ‘new’ is the list of names – Mack Crowder, Kyler Kerbyson, Coleman Thomas, Marcus Jackson and either Jacob Gilliam or Dontavius Blair – expected to fill the suddenly vacated offensive front.”We looked at it as a new year,” Kerbyson told VolQuest after practice Thursday. “It changed from Team 117 to Team 118. And that was always in the back of our heads – the reason me, Mack and Marcus worked so hard over the spring.”We really wanted to get out there and show them that we can do something.”They wasted little time coming together, even if starting over meant going from four seniors and an NFL-bound junior to three redshirt juniors, a true freshman, a former walk-on and a junior college transfer.Thomas, at right tackle, joined the unit in the spring, when Gilliam earned his way into a still-undecided position battle at left tackle with Blair.The three redshirt juniors – Crowder, Kerbyson and Jackson, the most veteran of the group with five career starts – spearheaded the renovation of the offensive line starting with the final whistle in Lexington.It continued into the winter and spring when Coleman, a center in high school, filled the void at right tackle with the help of his new linemates.”They told me about the style of play, what it takes to be an offensive lineman in this program,” Thomas said Thursday. “Those three guys, I couldn’t thank them enough.”I wouldn’t be anywhere, where I am right now, if it wasn’t for them showing me the ropes and what it takes to be an offensive lineman.”The light bulb turned on – from tackle to tackle – when Jones put his team through ‘The Program,’ the Navy SEALS’ rigorous mental and physical tests, over the summer.”It was really inspiring and eye-opening,” Kerbyson said of the SEALS experience. “They said you go to the movies with your friends, but you go to battle with your teammates.”That’s how we approach it. We go to battle together. When we’re in those third-and-short periods, we’re all together in that. That really helps us connect as a unit.”As a unit, they’re trying to prove what it takes to be an offensive line in the Southeastern Conference, regardless of experience.”We see it as a big opportunity and challenge as well,” Crowder said last week. “We have to step up and meet that challenge head to head.”… It’s kind of odd to replace a whole offensive line, but we are ready to step up and take the role over.”Describing the challenge as an opportunity starts with the mindset instilled by Jones. Four of the new five up front have waited their turn. Now do something with it.”I think of it as a tremendous opportunity,” Jones said last week. “It is a tremendous opportunity for Mack Crowder. Mack Crowder has worked exceptionally hard. Now is your opportunity, go grab it, go take hold of it.”Marcus Jackson, we redshirted him because we knew this was going to happen,” he added. “Now is your opportunity, you have waited for this, you didn’t play last year. Go take advantage of it.”We talked about Dontavius Blair, you have paid your dues in junior college, now take advantage of your opportunity.”
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Mack Crowder 
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