 | | James Wilhoit kicked the game-winning field goal against Florida as the Vols won 30-28. | SERIES HISTORY
The Vols and Bulldogs will be meeting for the second time with the Vols winning the first game, 50-0, to open the 1993 season. It was the first shutout of the Phillip Fulmer era. Louisiana Tech was a first-year member of the Big West Conference in 1993. It joined the Western Athletic Conference 2001. Tennessee owns a 14-1 record against teams that currently comprise the WAC, having last faced a team from the league in the 2003 season opener against Fresno State. UT is 2-0 vs. Hawaii, 5-0 vs. Tulsa, 2-1 vs. Rice, 1-0 vs. Louisiana Tech, 2-0 vs. UTEP, 1-0 vs. SMU, 1-0 vs. Fresno State. HOMECOMING
UT owns a 61-16-3 record in Homecoming games. This is the first September Homecoming game since 2000 when the Vols routed Louisiana-Monroe, 70-3, and only the fifth ever. In the other September contests, Tennessee blanked Cincinnati 40-0 in 1992, shut out Oklahoma State 31-0 in 1995 and edged Memphis 17-16 in 1999. The Volunteers had won 18 consecutive Homecoming games between 1984-2001 before a loss to No. 1 Miami in 2002. The Vols defeated Duke, 23-6, in last year's Homecoming contest. This is the eighth consecutive year that the Homecoming opponent is a non-conference foe. The last SEC opponent for Homecoming was Arkansas in 1996. UP NEXT
Tennessee returns to SEC action when it plays host to the Auburn Tigers for its second league game. Game time is set for 7:45 p.m. ET and will be televised nationally on ESPN. It is also the final game of a four-game home stand. Auburn leads the closely contested series 23-21-3. The Vols, however, own an impressive 14-7-2 mark in Knoxville against the Tigers. UT is 4-0-1 against Auburn in Knoxville since 1985. The teams have a long history, having played 36 consecutive years between 1956-91. Since the conference split into divisions in 1992, the teams have met just four times with UT winning three, including the 1997 SEC Championship. Auburn's 28-21victory in last year's game snapped UT's four-game winning streak in the series. The Tigers have not won back-to-back games against Tennessee since winning three straight from 1982-84. DEAN OF SEC COACHES
With the retirement of Mississippi State's Jackie Sherrill at the end of last season, Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer became the dean of the league coaches as he works his 13th season with the Volunteers. 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
Head coach Phillip Fulmer needs only one victory to pass former Tennessee coach Johnny Majors and longtime Alabama coach Frank Thomas for 11th place on the SEC's all-time coaching victories list. Fulmer, who has 115 wins, has a shot to move into ninth place past Steve Spurrier (Florida) and Mike Donahue (Auburn/LSU), who recorded 122 wins apiece. Charlie McClendon (LSU) is eighth with 137 victories. The Dean of SEC coaches has 75 wins over league teams (including SEC Championship games), which ranks sixth on the conference's chart. DIALING LONG DISTANCE
Through two contests this season, Tennessee has posted 10 scoring drives of at least 80 yards. In fact, the Vols' only scoring drive this year that covered less than 80 yards was the final drive vs. Florida, which was capped off by James Wilhoit's dramatic 50-yard game-winning field goal. The Vols had 13 such scoring drives last season. In the season opener vs. UNLV, all six of UT's scores were on drives of 80 or more yards. Prior to the win over the Rebels, the best showing for a Fulmer-coached team was three scoring drives of 80 yards or more, which has happened seven times (including last year in a 9-21 win over Mississippi State). Oddly, UT's only starting possession inside its opponents' territory this season resulted in a missed field goal vs. UNLV -- and that possession would not have happened if not for a penalty that disallowed a punt return touchdown by freshman Jonathan Hefney. A ROCKY TOP RECORD CROWD
Tennessee's dramatic upset victory over Florida last weekend was witnessed by the largest crowd in the history of Neyland Stadium. The record crowd of 109,061 surpassed the old mark of 108,768, which was also set against Florida, Sept. 16, 2000. NON-CONFERENCE SUCCESS
Since 1989, Tennessee has a 57-12-1 (.821) record in non-conference games. Coach PhillipFulmer owns a 40-9 non-conference record, including a 28-1 mark at home. Only four of those defeats have been in the regular season (Notre Dame 1990, at UCLA 1994, at Memphis 1996, Miami 2002) with the other eight coming in the post season (SEC Championship and bowl games). BURNETT, WILHOIT EARN SEC HONORS
A pair of Vols who helped lead Tennessee to a dramatic upset win over Florida garnered SEC Player of the Week honors for their respective performances. Senior linebacker Kevin Burnett was named Defensive POW after notching a career-high 16stops vs. the Gators. Burnett's stat line included 10 solo tackles and one tackle for loss. Sophomore kicker James Wilhoit propelled the Vols to victory with a 50-yard field goal with only six seconds remaining on the clock. That field goal, along with three extra points, gave Wilhoit six points in the contest and led to his being named SEC Special Teams Player of the Week. COLQUITT LEADS SEC IN PUNTING
All-America punter Dustin Colquitt currently stands atop the SEC's punting statistics. The senior has averaged 48.8 yards per punt and has placed three kicks inside the opponent's 20 yard line. The two-time Ray Guy Award finalist led the SEC and ranked sixth nationally with a 45.3-yard punting average in 2003.He ranks second on UT's punting list with a 43.3-yard average that trails his cousin JimmyColquitt (43.9) and ahead of his third-place father, Craig (42.5). Colquitt ranks third in career punts (189) and yards (8178). Craig holds the record with 204 punts and Jimmy has the yardage mark at 8816.Tennessee's current Colquitt has 47 career punts of 50 yards or more and has placed 31.2percent of his punts inside the opponent's 20-yard line. TENNESSEE LEADS NATION IN NET PUNTING
Thanks to the powerful left foot of senior punter Dustin Colquitt, Tennessee is leading the NCAA in net punting with a mark of 50.4 yards. Colquitt's five punts this season have all beenreturned, with the combined yardage total netting a daunting -8 yards. BURNETT AMONG SEC'S TACKLES LEADERS
Senior linebacker Kevin Burnett's 16-tackle outing last weekend vs. Florida propelled the two-year captain into second place on the SEC's tackles list with 12.0 stops per game (trailing Vandy DB Kelechi Ohanaja, who averages 12.5). Burnett ranks first among SEC linebackers. SHARING THE WEALTH
Tennessee has scored 10 touchdowns through its first two games this season. Surprisingly however, no player has scored more than one touchdown, as four players have reached the end zone via the ground (Brent Schaeffer, Gerald Riggs and Corey Larkins vs. UNLV and Jabari Davis vs. Florida) and six different Vols have caught touchdown passes (C.J. Fayton, Tony Brown and Robert Meachem vs. UNLV and Justin Reed, Bret Smith and Jayson Swain vs. Florida). Last season, it took seven games for 10 different players post touchdowns (Derrick Tinsley became the 10th Vol to score a touchdown that year when he found the end zone at Alabama). QUARTERBACKS
Co-starting quarterbacks Brent Schaeffer and Erik Ainge led Tennessee to its second consecutive victory last weekend, a 30-28 upset win over Florida ... Schaeffer (2-0) started the game, directed four drive and accounted for 78 yards of total offense (40 pass, 38 rush) ... He completed 3-of-4 passes while rushing seven times ... Ainge completed 16-of-24 passes for 192 yards and three touchdowns, including touchdown strikes to Justin Reed (16 yards) Bret Smith (23 yards) and Jayson Swain (13 yards) ... Ainge led the final four of UT's five scoring drives, including the drive that ended with James Wilhoit's game-winning 50-yard field goal with six seconds remaining ... Ainge now ranks third in the SEC and 11th nationally with a 162.3 passing efficiency rating ... He also ranks eighth in the league and 89th nationally in total offense with 154.5 yards per game. RUNNING BACKS
Four Vols tailbacks touched the ball out of the backfield against Florida ... Starting tailback Cedric Houston rushed for 59 yards on nine carries ... He is now averaging 7.1 yards per carry and 75.0 yards per game this season ... Houston needs 21 yards to become the 14th UT rusher with 1,800 yards ... Gerald Riggs netted 63 yards on 15 carries vs. the Gators and owns a season rushing average of 5.1 yards per rush ... Jabari Davis netted 11 yards on six carries and also scored his first touchdown of the season (the 21st of his career) ... Corey Larkins also added 13 yards on four carries vs. Florida ... In addition to paving the way for the tailbacks, fullbacks Cory Anderson and David Holbert each had one catch vs. UF. WIDE RECEIVERS
After three receivers hauled in touchdown passes in the Vols' season opener vs. UNLV, three different wideouts caught scores last weekend against Florida ... Justin Reed's first career catch as a Vol was good for a 16-yard touchdown ... Bret Smith and Jayson Swain also caught touchdowns ... Junior Chris Hannon leads the Vols with 11 catches on the year after he hauled in eight passes for 89 yards against Florida ... Starting wideouts Tony Brown six catches for 82 yards. OFFENSIVE LINE
The offensive line has been impressive this season as the Vols have averaged 221.5 rushing yards in the first two games ... Against Florida, LT Michael Munoz made his 39th career start in 39 games ... C Jason Respert made his second start at center after 10 starts at guard the previous three seasons ... RG Cody Douglas made his 11th start ... RT Arron Sears made his third start and LG Rob Smith his second. DEFENSIVE LINE
Jesse Mahelona continued his fine play this season when he totaled four stops, including two for loss, against Florida ... Mahelona also posted his second sack in as many games when he dragged down Florida's Chris Leak for a nine-yard loss ... Justin Harrell make their second career start at defensive tackle, while ends Parys Haralson and Karlton Neal made their 12th and ninth respective starts ... Haralson added a pair of QB hurries and a tackle for loss (2-yard loss) vs. the Gators ... Sophomore Turk McBride posted a tackle and two assists while taking snaps at both end and tackle. LINEBACKERS
Tennessee's veteran linebacking corps took a hit when junior Kevin Simon (UT's leading tackler with 115 in 2003) was forced to leave the Florida game with a knee injury ... Simon is listed as out indefinitely and will not play against La. Tech ... Kevin Burnett set a new career high for tackles with 16 vs. the Gators, earning him SEC Defensive Player of the Week honors ... Junior starter Jason Mitchell, who had four hits against Florida, boasts 10 tackles, including two for loss, on the season ... Junior Jon Poe notched seven tackles while filling in for Simon at the middle linebacker position ... The starting assignments for the La. Tech contest are still in question, and could involve possible position shifts by either Mitchell, Poe and/or junior Omar Gaither. SECONDARY
A reorganization of UT's defensive secondary resulted in Jason Allen's move to the free safety position, where he posted a career high 14 tackles against Florida ... Allen also nabbed an interception when he picked off UF's Chris Leak ... Brandon Johnson remained the starter at strong safety and made five stops vs. the Gators ... Sophomore Jonathan Wade made his first career start as a cornerback and tallied six tackles, while freshman Jonathan Hefney (also making his first collegiate start) added seven stops. SPECIAL TEAMS
Placekicker James Wilhoit took the record crowd at Neyland Stadium for an emotional roller coaster ride last weekend against Florida ... Wilhoit missed what would have been a game-tying extra point late in the fourth quarter, but redeemed himself 90 seconds later by nailing a game-winning 50-yard field goal with only six seconds remaining ... He was named SEC Special Teams Player of the Week after his six-point outing vs. the Gators ... Wilhoit was also impressive on his kickoffs, booting three of his six into the end zone for touchbacks ... All-America punter Dustin Colquitt averaged 45.0 yards on two punts, with a long of 50 and one downed inside the opponent's 20-yard line ... True freshman Jonathan Hefney returned two punts for 11 yards ... Corey Larkins gained 17 yards on his only kickoff return. LARKINS CHASES KICKOFF RETURN MARK
Senior Corey Larkins has quietly etched his name in UT's record book as he ranks third in career kickoff returns with 51 and fourth in return yardage with 1096. He is averaging 19.0 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. HOUSTON POISED FOR RUN AT 2000 YARDS
Cedric Houston is poised to make a run at 2,000 career rushing yards and possibly a shot at the all-time Tennessee rushing mark. With 1,779 yards he sits 14th, just 221 yards shy of becoming the 11th Vol to reach 2,000 yards in a career. Travis Henry sits atop the rushing list with 3,078 yards, 1,299 ahead of Houston. The 2003 second team All-SEC selection has seven 100-yard rushing games in his career. He has rushed for more than 700 yards in each of the last two seasons and is averaging 5.8 yards per carry in his career. Houston has 341 rushing attempts, 59 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
James Wilhoit, who garnered Freshman All-America honors last season, returns to anchor the placekicking duties. He has made 18-of-26 career field goal placements while connecting on 50-of-51 PATs in a row (His streak of 50 consecutive PATs was snapped when he misfired last week vs. Florida). He has made 13 of his last 16 FG placements, with his most recent kickcoming in the closing seconds of Tennessee's upset win over the Gators. WORKING OVERTIME
Since the NCAA established a tiebreaker system for Division I in 1996, Tennessee is 4-1 overtime contests. The Vols have won the coin toss three times and chosen to play defense twice. The only time UT chose offense after winning the toss was against Florida in 1998. Tennessee has played the second and third-longest overtime games in NCAA history at six (Arkansas 2002) and five periods (Alabama 2003). | Date | Opponent | OTs | Coin Toss | Game Winning Play | Final Score | | 9/19/1998 | Florida | 1 | W (off) | Hall 41 field goal | 20-17 W | | 9/30/2000 | at LSU | 1 | W (def) | Royal 25 pass from Davey | 31-38 L | | 10/5/2002 | Arkansas | 6 | L (off) | Witten 25 pass from Clausen | 41-38 W | | 9/27/2003 | S. Carolina | 1 | W (def) | Banks 4 pass from Clausen | 23-20 W | | 10/25/2003 | at Alabama | 5 | L (off) | Clausen 1 run (2pt conv.) | 51-43 W | QUARTERBACK EXCELLENCE UNDER FULMER
Three regular starting quarterbacks under head coach Phillip Fulmer -- Heath Shuler (1992-93), Peyton Manning (1994-97) and Tee Martin (1998-99) -- have all proceeded to play in the National Football League. 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) | Name (years lettered) | at Neyland
Stadium | Neutral | Road | Overall | Pct. | | Peyton Manning (1994-97) | 22-2-0 | 4-1-0 | 13-3-0 | 39-6-0 | .867 | | Casey Clausen (2000-03) | 18-5-0 | 2-4-0 | 14-1-0 | 34-10 | .773 | | Andy Kelly (1988-91) | 14-2-0 | 2-1-1 | 8-2-1 | 24-5-2 | .790 | | Condredge Holloway (1972-74) | 13-3-1 | 4-1-0 | 6-5-1 | 23-9-2 | .705 | | Tee Martin (1996-99) | 13-0-0 | 2-1-0 | 7-2-0 | 22-3-0 | .880 | | Bobby Scott (1968-70) | 11-0-0 | 2-1-0 | 7-2-0 | 20-3-0 | .869 | | Jeff Francis (1985-88) | 10-7-1 | 3-0-0 | 7-5-0 | 20-12-1 | .621 | | Heath Shuler (1991-93) | 11-2-0 | 1-1-0 | 7-2-0 | 19-5-0 | .792 | | Dewey Warren (1965-67) | 9-2-0 | 4-1-0 | 6-3-0 | 19-6-0 | .760 | | Tony Robinson (1983-85) | 6-2-1 | 0-1-0 | 4-2-0 | 10-5-1 | .656 | | Alan Cockrell (1981-83) | 11-4-0 | 2-1-0 | 4-3-1 | 17-8-1 | .673 | | Jimmy Streater (1977-79) | 11-5-1 | 0-1-0 | 2-7-0 | 13-12-2 | .646 | | Randy Wallace (1974-76) | 8-6-0 | 0-0-0 | 4-4-0 | 12-10-0 | .545 | | Bubba Wyche (1967-68) | 6-0-1 | 0-1-0 | 4-1-0 | 10-2-1 | .807 | | 
