In the darkest hour his program has seen in years, could Tyler Bray ride in to save Tennessee's season?It's still very much to-be-determined. But the first step in that direction has been taken, as Derek Dooley confirmed Monday that doctors have cleared Bray to return to practice. The true sophomore has missed the Vols' last five games with a broken thumb, five games in which his team has gone 1-4 and not once scored more than 7 points against SEC opposition.
That kind of despair is why Dooley made no secret of the fact that he's hoping Bray will be able to make a gof of it Saturday in the Vols' make-or-break game against Vanderbilt. A loss would drop Tennessee to 0-7 in the SEC and eliminate the Vols from postseason consideration.
"The reality is, if he's ready to go, we'd be crazy not to give him a shot," Dooley said.
But will he be ready to go? Dooley described Bray's status as "questionable" and said the quality of his reps in practice this week -- Bray is reportedly in line for the first-team snaps in Tuesday's practice -- would go a long way towards determining if the California gunslinger got the call against the Commordores.
I really won't know until we start practicing to see how he can take a snap, how accurately he can throw it, and then he's going to have a learning curve because he's been out of ball for five, six weeks. That's a long time, so we'll see," Dooley said. "We've still got to get the other guys ready to play and we'll just kind of take it day by day."
With all due respect to "the other guys," since Bray's injury those other guys -- Matt Simms and true freshman Justin Worley -- have combined to complete just 43 percent of their passes against SEC teams, for all of 5.2 yards an attempt and a 0-to-6 touchdown-to-interception ratio. If Bray can't take the field Saturday, a dangerous 'Dore secondary could easily ensure the Vols stay home for the holidays.
In short: this week is as a big a week of practice for Dooley since his arrival in early 2010, and it all rests on how well that thumb responds.
