KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- The Tennessee Volunteers began the 2002 season as a top-five team on the cusp of a national championship, just as they had been in 2001. Instead, thanks to a run of injuries that forced 18 starters to miss a cumulative 65 regular-season games and a largely rudderless locker room -- never so evident as in the 30-3 loss to Maryland in the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl -- the Vols finished 8-5.

The might-have-beens make head coach Phillip Fulmer shudder, and not because of any unrealized dreams of a second ring.

"We could have just as easily been 4-8," Fulmer said. "Maybe that's being overly optimistic. Our kids had to fight their rears off."

The injuries can't be minimized. Their effects continue to be seen during this spring's workouts. For the last half-hour of one recent practice, linebacker Kevin Burnett and defensive end Constantin Ritzmann stood on the sideline with ice bags wrapped around their legs. Ritzmann tore an ACL during preseason practice last August, and Burnett suffered a knee injury in the first quarter of the first game against Wyoming.

	Casey Clausen is working hard this spring to erase the memory of last season.

"They keep me away from the team," said Ritzmann of the team trainers. He has just begun to feel as if he can cut and plant without pain. "No shoving. No contact. Nothing where someone could shove me. I can't really tackle, block or have a full-speed pass rush."

However, what ailed Tennessee last season went beyond the physical. In his first nine seasons as head coach, Fulmer made work ethic as much of a trademark of Volunteer football as beating Alabama. Tennessee played hard and didn't beat itself. Last year, both trademarks appeared to expire. Not only did Tennessee lose to Alabama, 34-14, the first loss to the Crimson Tide since 1994, but the Vols lost four games by at least 17 points.

"It was the toughest, most frustrating year I've ever been a part of," said quarterback Casey Clausen, who played through ankle and shoulder injuries because the Vols had no alternative.

Tennessee never challenged Miami in a 26-3 loss, which is hardly a crime, given the Hurricanes' dominance. However, the Vols had no such alibi for their lack of performance in the bowl game. The one-sided loss spoke in drill-sergeant volume to what ailed Tennessee. Faced with playing in a non-New Year's Day bowl game for the first time in their careers, the Volunteers pouted.

Maybe 4-8 wasn't so far off after all.

"Maryland was extremely excited about playing and we weren't as excited," Fulmer said, "That's my responsibility."

Yes, and no. For all the wounds that the Volunteers suffered in 2002, the biggest void in the locker room had nothing to do with body. Tennessee had a spirit injury.

"Leadership," center Scott Wells said, "was something we lacked."

"That group of guys we lost from 2001, the group that went to the edge of the national championship game, they were great leaders," Fulmer said. "These guys (last season) didn't have that personality. That doesn't mean they were bad kids. They just didn't have that."

The leaders from the 2001 team, players such as John Henderson, Will Overstreet, Andre Lott and Travis Stephens, had been in Knoxville in 1998, when Tennessee finished No. 1. They had seen first-hand the dedication that it took to win. A year ago, the Volunteers didn't have that dedication. Instead, they had players such as wide receiver Kelley Washington. The former minor-league player promised great things with his performance in 2001 (64 receptions, 1,010 yards, five touchdowns) and with his hype in 2002. Washington, possessed by a self-regard unshared by his teammates, contributed sparingly (23-443-1) because of a hamstring injury before a severe concussion curtailed his season.

"We had players who looked at this as a launching ramp to the NFL rather than as the Tennessee program, anxious to succeed as a team," Fulmer said, without mentioning Washington or anyone else. "The launching ramp is not a bad thing. It can't be the total focus of why you're in college. You need to enjoy the experience. The best way to enjoy it is to win."

It may have been a lack of dedication, or it may have been a lack of discipline, which Fulmer referred to in describing the 30-13 loss to archrival Florida, a game in which Tennessee fumbled seven times in the second quarter. Wells said that discipline had been missing off the field since the previous winter.

"We had guys not going to class, missing workouts," Wells said. "Coaches can only do so much. The team has to take it upon itself. It just escalates. When you let one thing slide, you let two things slide. It keeps multiplying."

Ritzmann recalled that the player-led summer throwing sessions, which usually began in May, didn't get underway until July. "Maybe because we had such a good year the year before, we thought, 'We're good. We're OK,'" he said.

Within a week after the Vols returned to campus after the bowl game, Wells, Ritzmann, Clausen and other returning veterans called a meeting. They vowed that the 2003 season would be different. They discussed rules for the coming year.

"We drew up things on the board and figured out how to fix them," Wells said. "One, doing the simple things right, such as class attendance, workouts. Two, being positive on the field, not pointing the finger. We made up team rules. Seventeen juniors and seniors left their phone numbers at the bottom and we sent a copy to every player. If they had a problem with the rules, they could contact us."

Alongside the rules, the upperclassmen wrote the consequences for breaking one. "If you miss a workout," Wells said. "The whole team had to run on a Wednesday at 6 a.m."

The senior-led workouts progressed well, right up to the eve of the early-morning, four-days-a-week training sessions led by the coaches. One player, who remains unidentified, had a class that conflicted with a team workout. "He didn't call in time," Wells said. On the last morning that the players could have slept in before the coaches' workouts commenced, they awoke and ran at 6 a.m.

"We ran eight full gassers," Ritzmann said. "He (the culprit) ran 12 full gassers and he had to roll 1,000 yards." Yes, that's rolling up and down a football field 10 times.

"There's a whole different mindset," Ritzmann said. "Everybody knows we need to be a team. We know we have talent. We have to be a team. We went 8-5 last year and people want to erase that feeling."

"They aren't waiting for the coaches," running backs coach Woody McCorvey said of the players. "They've been very business-like in how they've approached the weight room and early-morning workouts and a lot of workouts and a lot of competitions. As a coach, you feel the 'team.' Last year, the Kelley thing showed some of the individualism."

Tennessee has plenty of issues on the field. Injuries and inexperience hampered the tailbacks throughout last season. Cedric Houston led the Vols with 779 yards, the lowest total to lead the team since the 1988 team that lost its first six games and won its last five. This spring, Houston has been more consistent in running between the tackles, while his junior classmate, Jabari Davis, has lost 13 pounds, and at 6-feet, 225 pounds, "his quickness is coming back," McCorvey said.

On a team where the leading receiver was departed tight end Jason Witten, the need for a wide receiver who will stretch the field is conspicuous. "The safeties were five, seven yards deep," Clausen said. "We could move the ball from our 20 to the other team's 30. Once teams started pressing and making us get rid of the ball quicker, that's when we struggled. We didn't have anybody one-on-one making a play."

Even if the Vols had found that receiver, Clausen might not have been able to get him the ball. He missed the Georgia game, and was ineffective in the losses to Alabama and Miami, because of his shoulder injury. This spring, Clausen has looked sharp. At one recent practice, he deposited hike-and-go fades without making his receivers break stride or stretch out their arms.

That's great, except for the fact that behind Clausen, there's no one. Sophomore James Banks hasn't mastered the offense yet, and Fulmer showed last season that he has no confidence in senior C.J. Leak. Fulmer, asked if he had a capable backup, said, "Not right now. We're searching. If there are any young quarterbacks out there who want to play at a high level, they need to look at Tennessee."

Midway through spring practice, Fulmer has liked the attitude he has seen from his team. So far.

"It's an ongoing process," he said. "You can talk about it. You might can do it for a little while. The true test is, can you do it for the year?"

As true tests go, Tennessee will be performing graduate-level work. Tennessee plays five road games. Four of them are at Florida, Auburn, Alabama and Miami. The coaches like the attitude that they have witnessed.

"We have a lot to prove," Clausen said.

Ivan Maisel is a senior writer at ESPN.com. He can be reached at ivan.maisel@espn3.com.