TENNESSEE POSTGAME NOTES
September 16, 2006 | Football
Sept. 16, 2006
Recap | Final Stats | Quotes | Photo Gallery
Noting Tennessee- Tennessee falls to 2-1 (0-1 SEC); Florida is now 3-0 (1-0 SEC).
- The Vols enter the game ranked No. 13 in the Associated Press poll and 17th in the USA Today rankings; Florida is ranked No. 6 by the Associated Press and 7th in the USA Today rankings.
Tennessee-Florida Series
- Tennessee now leads the all-time series vs. Florida 19-17, dating to 1916.
Phillip Fulmer's Record
- Tennessee head coach Phillip Fulmer's record now stands at 130-38 (.774) in 15 seasons with the Vols.
- Fulmer owns a 5-10 record against Florida, and is now 10-5 in SEC home openers.
Offensive Notes
- Junior quarterback Erik Ainge made the 14th start of his career and completed 17 of 32 passes for 183 yards and two interceptions.
- Thanks to a handful of firsts, UT took its first lead, 10-7, in the second quarter. Sophomore wide receiver Lucas Taylor attempted and completed his first career pass, taking a reverse and throwing a 42-yard strike to LaMarcus Coker for his first career touchdown pass. The trip to the end zone was also the first for the freshman Coker. Taylor is the first non-quarterback to throw a touchdown since Derrick Tinsley against Georgia in 2002. It was just the third time in the last 12 years that a non-quarterback has thrown a TD pass, dating back to James Stewart's toss to David Horn in 1994 at Mississippi State.
- Montario Hardesty's one-yard TD dive gave him a scoring rush in all three games this season. The freshman is the first UT running back with a three-game TD streak since Gerald Riggs picked up the hat trick in the last three games of 2004.
- Jayson Swain led the Vols in receiving with six catches for 77 yards. Bret Smith had the best game of his senior season with four catches for 35 yards. Hardesty's 16-yard reception was a career-long.
- Tennessee allowed its first sack of the season midway through the second quarter. Marcus Thomas collared Ainge for a nine-yard loss.
- The Vols could never going on the ground rushing 23 times for -11 yards. Hardesty's five-yard rush in the first half was the Vols' longest of the game.
Noting the Defense
- Senior Marvin Mitchell led the Vols with a career-high 15 tackles.
- Turk McBride set a new career-high with 10 tackles; Xavier Mitchell set a new career-high with eight tackles while Jerod Mayo tied his career high with 10 tackles.
- Also setting new career-highs for tackles were Rico McCoy (3) and Antonio Reynolds tied his career.
- J. Mayo, McBride and X. Mitchell all had one sack.
- J. Mayo and X. Mitchell each had two TFL's; Ayers and M. Mitchell also had one TFL each.
- Jonathan Wade had the third interception of his career when he picked off Chris Leak in the first quarter.
- Wade also had two PBU's in the game and Jonathan Hefney had one.
- DeShawn Wynn rushed 22 times for 104 yards; the first running back to rush for over 100 yards since Cadillac Williams rushed 100 yards in the 2004 SEC Championship Game.
- For the game, Florida rushed 41 times for 121 yards.
Miscellaneous Notes
- Saturday's attendance was 106,818. It was the largest crowd at Neyland Stadium since the redesign dropped the listed capacity of the venue to 102,038.
- Justin Harrell, Turk McBride, Matt McGlothlin, Arron Sears, Antwan Stewart and Jayson Swain were the game captains for the Vols.
- Hardesty and sophomore Demetrice Morley each made their first career starts.
- Senior place-kicker James Wilhoit - the SEC's active career scoring leader - converted his 11th-consecutive field goal attempt with a 51-yard kick in the fourth quarter. He raised his career point total to 249 with eight points today.
- Wilhoit matched his career-long with the 51-yard field goal. It was also the third made field goal of 50 yards or more for the senior against Florida and fourth of his career.
- With Harrell out for the rest of the season (biceps surgery), the No. 92 is now officially retired at UT. Harrell was the last Vol to wear the No. 92 jersey, which was retired in honor of Reggie White.
- Sophomore Austin Rogers left the game in the first half with a shoulder injury.
Vols Tabbed for 4:00 p.m. Start on PPV Next Saturday vs. Marshall
- Tennessee's game vs. Marshall next Saturday in Knoxville will be on Pay-per-view. Kickoff is set for 4:00 p.m. ET.
- The Vols lead the series with the Thundering Herd 1-0. Tennessee defeated Marshall 34-24 in 2004 in 2003.
FB | Cinematic Recap vs. Syracuse (8.30.25)
Tuesday, September 02
FB | Willie Martinez Press Conference (9.2.25)
Tuesday, September 02
FB | Joey Halzle Press Conference (9.2.25)
Tuesday, September 02
FB | Josh Heupel Press Conference (9.1.25)
Monday, September 01
