University of Tennessee Athletics
Clausen Tabbed SEC Offensive Player of the Week
October 22, 2001 | Football
Oct. 22, 2001
Tennessee quarterback Casey Clausen was named the Southeastern Conference Offensive Player of the Week Monday after leading the Vols to a 35-24 victory at Alabama Saturday.
Clausen completed 21-of-28 passes for 293 yards and two touchdowns and no interceptions against the Crimson Tide. He also rushed for a touchdown, scoring on a one-yard bootleg play to put UT up for good at 28-24 with 6:06 remaining. Clausen and the Vol offense controlled the ball for 13:35 seconds in the fourth quarter, scoring on drives of 85 and 72 yards to clinch the Vols' seventh consecutive victory over Alabama.
"I think Casey had an outstanding performance against Alabama," head coach Phillip Fulmer said. "He continues to develop and mature in our offense and he has shown that he can handle some success and has shown that he can handle adversity. Now it is important that he continues on that track of being able to handle even more success well. I would expect anything else from Casey."
The Northridge, Calif., sophomore, who has led Tennessee to a 10-2 mark as a starting quarterback, is averaging 299 yards passing the past three games. He has now engineered two four-quarter comebacks this season (at Arkansas, at Alabama) and four in his career (2000: at South Carolina, at Memphis).
Clausen is the third UT player to be honored this season as the SEC's Offensive Player of the Week. Running back Travis Stephens won the award following his 206-yard rushing effort at Arkansas and wide receiver Kelley Washington after a school receiving record 256 yards against LSU.
