GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Alex Brown has no interest in second-guessing his coaches. But, if he been in charge during last year's game against Tennessee, his butt would have been sent to the bench.

That's how miserable, how embarrassing Brown felt he played. One year after his own personal coming out party, in which he sacked Vols quarterback Tee Martin five times, batted down two passes and intercepted another, Brown was virtually invisible.

	Florida DE Alex Brown is ready for one more battle with Tennessee.

Sure, you may have seen him overrun a play here or vacate his defensive line gap there, but actual contributions were absent. Of greater embarrassment was that Brown had run his mouth off all week, hyping his play the year previous and promising an even better performance.

And then he went on the field and laid an egg.

"Just to watch the tape now, it hurts to know that I actually played a game -- or didn't play for that matter -- like that," Brown said. "I played horrible. I stunk up the place. I'm lucky I had ten teammates out there because I wasn't helping the team at all. And if you're not helping the team, they should give somebody else a shot."

Even though Florida won the game, on a controversial last-second touchdown reception by Jabar Gaffney, Brown felt empty. He called it the worst game of his life. And don't think that game didn't pop into his mind this offseason, when Brown turned his back on the NFL's millions and returned to Florida for his senior season.

Sure, he wants an NCAA championship. Sure he wants revenge for a late-season loss to Florida State. But he also wants to make personal amends with Tennessee. He says he's a different man now, ditching the Checkers and Pizza Hut for Subway and cold salads. More importantly, he says, he's in better shape upstairs, where it's less about him and more about his team.

It's a transformation that defensive coordinator John Hoke has found promising.

"I think he's a year older, a year more mature and he understands the big picture a bit more," Hoke said. "He understands it's not always about Alex and I think at times he had that mentality."

In Florida's first two games this season, Brown has tallied six tackles and two quarterback sacks. Though the numbers aren't overly impressive, the discipline with which Brown has played is. Last season, especially against Tennessee, Brown frequently left his defensive assignment, leaving his defensive end position vulnerable.

It's part of the reason that in this year's Sports Illustrated college football preview issue, an anonymous coach tabbed him "a lazy dog." Hoke experienced those aggravations first-hand.

"You would get frustrated in games when he would play plays he shouldn't and would guess things he shouldn't," Hoke said. "He didn't do it a lot, but when he did it was aggravating. This year, so far, he's done what's been asked of him on a pretty consistent basis. Now it's a big game and hopefully he'll continue that. I don't see any reason why he won't. But Saturday will be the telling point a little bit."

Interestingly enough, Brown doesn't need to be here. He could be in some an NFL rookie, bumping down the street in a loaded Escalade, flashing his millions to anyone who will watch. That's what his parents wanted. That's what teammates Kenyatta Walker and Gerard Warren did.

But it isn't what Brown wanted. Despite his mother's voice ringing in his ear that she was struggling pay bills back home in White Springs, Brown felt he owed something to Florida. To himself.

So he took out an insurance policy and temporarily postponed his childhood NFL dreams.

"If I don't get hurt, I'm going to be in the NFL," said Brown, who is currently three sacks shy of the Florida record. "That's going to come. But once I leave Florida, I can't come back to play. I don't want to miss out on winning a championship with this team."

He's lost 11 pounds, trimming his 6-foot-3 frame to 254 pounds by eliminating sweets and grease.

"Anything you can think of that tastes horrible," Brown said of his new diet. "It doesn't taste good, but once you get it into your body, you're fine. And it really does help."

The true benchmark will come Saturday against Tennessee. After all, that's the opponent against which he created his legend and then saw it crumble. But as he puts it -- there's still one chapter to be written.

"Last year -- I ain't lying -- I went into the game thinking I was going to do the same things as the year before, that I was going to dominate," Brown said. "I told the press that I expected a different game plan, but I really didn't think it would happen. But now I've learned my lesson. And I can't wait to get out there."

Wayne Drehs is a staff writer at ESPN.com. He can be reached at wayne.drehs@espn.com.