University of Tennessee Athletics
UNLV Game Preview Story
August 27, 2004 | Football
Aug. 27, 2004
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| UNLV (0-0) at Tennessee (0-0)
RADIO TV LIVE STATS RANKINGS THE COACHES: UNLV Rebels | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| GAME NOTES | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
SERIES HISTORY UT, then ranked No. 2 in the nation, opened the 1996 season against the Rebels and rolled to a 62-3 victory. It was the largest season-opening win since 1914, when Tennessee outscored Carson-Newman 101-0. Tennessee scored 21 first quarter points led by two Jay Graham touchdown runs and a 63-yard Peyton Manning touchdown pass to Joey Kent. Following a UNLV 24-yard field goal to open the second quarter, Mark Levine and Manning each plunged over from 1-yard out to give UT a 35-3 lead at the break. Levine scored his second touchdown in the third quarter followed by a 47-yard fumble return by Terry Fair and a Jeremaine Copeland 10-yard run as the lead grew to 56-3. In the fourth, Mikki Allen caused a fumble that Eric Westmoreland returned for a score before the Rebels blocked the PAT. The Vols outgained the Rebels 473-184 while forcing four turnovers. Manning threw for 298 yards and Kent hauled in six passes for 151 yards. MISCELLANEOUS NOTES Since 1992, the Vols have been a successful road team posting a 37-11 (.771) mark away from Neyland Stadium. Tennessee has not had a losing road record (including neutral sites) since 1982. The Vols own the best interdivision record among SEC teams, going 27-8-1 (.764) against the Western Division since the league split in 1992. Did you know that at least one former Vol has played in each of the last 13 Super Bowls? UP NEXT The Vols and Gators will be meeting for the 34th time with the Vols holding an 18-15 series advantage. Tennessee has won two of the last three meetings with Florida, but has not won in Knoxville since 1998. This will be the eighth time in the last nine years that Tennessee has opened conference play with Florida. The exception was 2001 when the game was pushed back to the end of the season due to the September 11 tragedy in New York. DEAN OF SEC COACHES Auburn's Tommy Tubervile is next as he begins his 10th year in the league and his sixth at Auburn. Houston Nutt of Arkansas is third as he starts his seventh season, while South Carolina's Lou Holtz and Mississippi's David Cutcliffe embark on their sixth campaigns to round out the top five. FULMER MOVES UP SEC COACHING CHART The Dean of SEC coaches has 74 wins over league teams (including SEC Championship games) which ranks sixth on the conference's chart. FIRST SUNDAY GAME AT NEYLAND STADIUM Its most recent Sunday game was Jan. 2, 2000, against Nebraska in the Fiesta Bowl. Other Sunday outings were Aug. 29, 1990, in the Pigskin Classic in Anaheim, Calif., versus Colorado, Aug. 30, 1987, in the Kickoff Classic at the Meadowlands against Iowa and Dec. 13, 1981, against Wisconsin in the Garden State Bowl, also at the Meadowlands. HISTORY IN THE MAKING Since freshmen became eligible in 1973 Tennessee has had four quarterbacks start games during their true freshman seasons. Alan Cockrell (1981) - Went 2-0 as a starter. Vols finished 8-4. ALL-AMERICA COLQUITT RETURNS He ranks second on UT's punting list with a 43.1-yard average that trails his cousin Jimmy Colquitt (43.9) and ahead of his third-place father, Craig (42.5). Colquitt ranks third in career punts (184) and yards (7934). Craig holds the record with 204 punts and Jimmy has the yardage mark at 8816. He has 44 punts of 50 yards or more and has placed 30.4 percent of his punts inside the opponent's 20-yard line. HOUSTON POISED FOR RUN AT 2000 YARDS Travis Henry sits atop the rushing list with 3,078 yards, 1,449 ahead of Houston. The 2003 second team All-SEC selection has seven 100-yard rushing games in his career. He has rushed over over 700 yards in each of the last two seasons and is averaging 5.1 yards per carry in his career. Houston has 320 rushing attempts, 80 shy of cracking Tennessee's top 10. The Clarendon, Ark., native also is trying to be the first UT running back since Curt Watson (1969-71) to lead the Vols in rushing three consecutive seasons. WILHOIT ANCHORS KICKING GAME He finished 2003 strong by booting 12 of his last 14 and ranked second among freshmen and 27th overall in field goals per game with 1.31. He also handled kickoff duties, recording 29 touchbacks on 58 kickoffs. The dependable long-range kicker was 7-of-10 in kicks over 40 yards with a long of 51. SUSTAINED DOMINANCE Nationally, the Vols rank fourth behind Nebraska .837 (108-21), Florida State .828 (130-21-1) and Miami .793 (96-25) over the last decade. NON-CONFERENCE SUCCESS Only four of those defeats have been in the regular season (Notre Dame 1990, UCLA 1994, Memphis 1996, Miami 2002) with the other eight coming in the post season (SEC Championship and bowl games). LARKINS MOVES UP KICKOFF RETURN CHART
Senior Corey Larkins has quietly etched his name in UT's record book as he ranks third in career kickoff returns with 49 and fourth in return yardage with 1066. He is averaging 21.8 yards per return in his career. Larkins has led the team in kickoff returns the past two seasons and was just two returns shy of the school record 28 in 2002. SCORING STREAK UT's home scoring streak is at 63, while it has scored in 130 straight games away from Neyland Stadium. The last road shutout was handed down by Georgia in 1981, 44-0. The Vols had scored a touchdown in 104 straight games until the streak was snapped in a 26-3 loss to Miami, Nov. 9, 2002. WORKING OVERTIME Tennessee has played the second and third-longest overtime games in NCAA history at six (Arkansas 2002) and five periods (Alabama 2003).
VOLS ON TELEVISION Tennessee's first appearance on television came during the 1951 national championship season when the Vols defeated Alabama 27-13 at Birmingham. Since 1996, nearly 90 percent (89 of 101) of UT's games have been on television, including 60 national appearances. During that time, no fewer than 10 Tennessee games have been televised in any one season. The Vols own a 141-71-9 (.658) all-time record in front of the cameras, including marks of 10-1 on ESPN2 and 28-19 on CBS. QUARTERBACK EXCELLENCE UNDER FULMER Manning is the all-time Division I-A leader with 39 career victories as a starting signal-caller, and Clausen just moved into the top 10 with 34. Martin's 22-3 record -- including 13-0 all-time at Neyland Stadium -- marked the best winning percentage (.880) in UT history. And during Fulmer's days as UT offensive coordinator, Andy Kelly was 24-5-2 as a Vol starter and will conclude his pro playing days as one of arena football's all-time greats. Most Wins by UT Starting Quarterbacks Since 1964 (Quarterback not listed as position prior to 1964)
RETRO JERSEYS FOR UNLV GAME "The one uniform that stood out in uniqueness, was the road uniform we wore in the early 1970s, Hamilton said. "We've decided for one game only, we will wear our road whites and we've asked UNLV to wear red. I want to thank adidas for working with us on this project. The season opener against UNLV offers a one-game break in that tradition, as the Vols will come out in retro jerseys, the white shirts with the orange shoulder/collars, made famous in the 1971, 1972 and 1973 seasons. It began in 1971 in Gainesville, Fla., a 20-13 Vol win and continued until the 1974 Auburn game on the Plains, when the Vols came out in more vanilla white shirts, ones with no orange shoulder and collar. Hamilton said the season opener begins the process of having "family reunions" for different sports, beginning with football in 2004. All former UT football lettermen have been invited to the UNLV game for a reunion and will be recognized at halftime. "We're happy to report that between 375 to 400 former football lettermen will be a part of this weekend," Hamilton said. "The lettermen will be invited to the team's final walk-through Saturday afternoon, then have individual team dinners on Saturday night, then participate in Vol Walk to the stadium on Sunday with this year's team. It will be a great opportunity for the fans to say thank you for what their contribution has been to Tennessee football history." The whole issue of white jerseys is an intriguing part of Tennessee football history and lore. Up until 1971, Tennessee wore white shirts on the road only out of necessity. You went to a road game and the Vols were there decked out in orange. There were a few exceptions, however, that caused Vols fans to have the willies when white shirts were mentioned.
Faircloth, who received his UT law degree in 1968, was the last of the single-wing tailbacks. He is now a Magistrate in United States District Court, Middle District of Georgia, Columbus Division. He remembered that day nearly 41 years ago. "We had new orange jerseys that season and new white ones had just come in," he recalled. "They were the jerseys with stripes across the shoulder. I guess Coach McDonald wanted to change our luck. "He didn't discuss it with any of us. I think he told us that week we were wearing them. We were undermanned in the offensive line." The Vols recovered from their first three games in white to end up playing pretty well in the white shirts, assembling an 81-50-2 (.617) record over that time, all games obviously on the road. That's 61.7 percent as opposed to an overall winning percentage in the school's history of 69.8 (736-303-53) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
