University of Tennessee Athletics
BOUNCING BACK
October 27, 2006 | Football
Oct. 27, 2006
By Austin Ward, UT Sports Information
Make no mistake, Erik Ainge is a numbers guy.
The Tennessee quarterback just doesn't care about his stats.
6-1.
16-13.
No. 8.
Ainge certainly cares about numbers - even if he doesn't know who leads the SEC in total offense or passing yards per game.
For the record, that would be the Vols junior signal-caller, but Ainge has more on his mind this season than individual accolades.
He could likely end up as a first-team All-SEC selection during his bounce-back year from a frightful sophomore campaign, but Ainge is more concerned about leading the Rocky Top resurgence and getting the Vols back into a major bowl game.
He's been mentioned as a possible dark horse Heisman candidate - if not this season, surely as a senior - but Ainge has his sights set on hardware engraved only with a team name.
Sure, Ainge is a numbers guy.
How else are you going to count up the victories?
It wouldn't hurt anything to peek.
The stats do present a compelling case for Ainge's dramatic improvement under center.
He's thrown for nearly 2,000 yards through seven games - his 1,959 yards have already eclipsed his previous season best by more than 500 yards - and his 14 touchdown passes are the second-most in the SEC.
Ainge has thrown for at least 300 yards three times this season, most recently in the annual defensive slugfest with Alabama.
The 16-13 win over the Crimson Tide provided the best evidence so far this season that Ainge has been right all along - the only numbers that matter are in lights high above the south end zone.
"Anytime you can beat Alabama it means a lot," Ainge said. "Whether you were 2-for-30 throwing or whatever, if you win, you win, and that's what's important in the Third Week in October."
He wasn't quite 2-for-30, but it wasn't exactly Ainge's finest performance this season.
But even after a first half that looked much more like 2005 than anything he has done this season - 8-for-21 with three interceptions - Ainge responded by going 17-for-25 after intermission and engineering the game-winning drive in the fourth-quarter.
"Honestly, I don't know if he would have been able to do that (last season)," wide receiver Robert Meachem said.
With the Vols quarterback rotation last year, he might not have even had the chance.
But Ainge is solidly the man now, an unquestioned field general, and when he needed a number - say, about six points - he wouldn't be denied.
Ainge was 5-for-7 for 63 yards on the Vols' final scoring drive, completing his last pass of the day to Bret Smith at the 1-yard line to set up Arian Foster's dive onto the checkerboard.
"He's been bouncing back ever since he got here," Fulmer said. "The greatest thing is when you don't play well and can still win in the end, he helps us win the ballgame."
As the starter, he wins more often that not.
The come-from-behind win over Alabama was the 14th victory in 18 starts for Ainge - numbers that aren't too far behind a guy named Manning
Ainge and Peyton Manning have shared an offensive coordinator, and while the current UT quarterback has plenty of work before the school names a street after him, David Cutcliffe has the 6-6 gunslinger back on track.
"We've had really good quarterbacks here, and he's very talented like those guys," Cutcliffe said. "He's a work-in-progress, and he's learning the intensity level in practice, learning the work ethic off the field that it's going to take, and I would call that still a work-in-progress.
"We're new into this thing even though he's a junior, and I think that we have a long way to get to the top, and that's exciting. And that should be exciting to him, and he should remain very hungry because he's got a lot of improvement yet to do."
Those numbers are still somewhat deceiving, having played as half of a signal-calling couple during both seasons at Rocky Top. There are some games - like another fourth-quarter comeback as a freshman against Florida - that were wins that didn't count in Ainge's record book.
Which is just fine with Ainge - you know, as long as the team numbers are right.
"You have to give him great credit," Fulmer said. "I'm really proud of the maturity that he's had.
"Sometimes, like all of us in all walks of life, you really don't appreciate the peaks until you have a valley. You really have to fight for something, and he's done all of those things."
And it certainly wasn't always easy.
Nor has Ainge always make it look easy.
But it's not exactly simple to play the most important position on the field while looking over your shoulder.
After battling with Brent Schaeffer and then Rick Clausen, Ainge has emerged as a better quarterback and person - one who will be the first to say that his work against Alabama might not have been possible just one season ago or without his trials and tribulations along the way.
"Probably not," he says quickly.
Which Ainge said makes this year's revenge tour all the sweeter.
"It means more (after going through last season)," he said. "It makes it easier when you know you're going back in there, even after you throw an interception or do something else, and you're going right back in to make an impact.
"You have no choice but to forget about it, otherwise you won't be successful. When you go off and have to stand and watch, it's kind of hard not to sit there and think about the pick you just threw."
Right now, he's not thinking about them at all. Cutcliffe has helped him develop that short-term memory that's a prerequisite for quarterbacks and closers - which has effectively made Ainge a bit of both.
"It's hard, particularly after a year ago," Cutcliffe said. "When he faltered, he faltered in a big way.
"You don't want to put yourself in that position too often, but he responded in the right way, had the right attitude, said the right things on the phone, I thought he responded well at halftime to being challenged. It wasn't easy, but he did make plays when he had to make them."
Whatever it takes to get those numbers.
