Tennessee Has ‘Outstanding’ Time With Webb : Cotton Bowl: Redshirt freshmen step forward as Volunteers defeat Arkansas, 31-27.

To Tennessee Coach Johnny Majors, everything is “outstanding”--his administration, his offensive line, his bowl courtesy car, etc., etc.

Majors can apply his favorite word to some of the athletes on a Tennessee team that beat Arkansas, 31-27, Monday in the Cotton Bowl and provided a glimpse of what could be a wondrous future for the Volunteers.

Specifically, Majors can gush over tailback Chuck Webb and free safety-wide receiver Carl Pickens, two redshirt freshmen who made the biggest plays in Tennessee’s victory. With Webb rushing for 250 yards in 26 carries, and Pickens making a pivotal end zone interception, the Volunteers were able to beat an Arkansas team that cranked out 568 yards of total offense, 98 more than the Volunteers.

The Razorbacks played nothing like they did a year ago when they gained only 42 yards in a 17-3 Cotton Bowl loss to UCLA. Against Tennessee, however, Arkansas was its own worst enemy, turning the ball over three times deep in its end of the field--twice inside the 10-yard line. Two of those turnovers led to touchdowns.

Despite mistakes, the Razorbacks kept coming back to keep the game close, and Tennessee didn’t have it locked until an Arkansas on-sides kick with 1:23 remaining was unsuccessful.

“Not a dull moment,” Majors said.

For the eighth-ranked Volunteers (11-1), the moments to savor were the weaving cut-back runs of Webb, second only to the 265 yards gained by Dicky Maegle of Rice in 1954 in the Cotton Bowl record book. Webb scored on a 78-yard sprint (third longest in Cotton Bowl history) and a one-yard dive and also had runs of 42 and 36 yards.

Webb became the Volunteers’ starting tailback for the sixth game of the season--the Alabama game--after Reggie Cobb was dismissed from the team for disciplinary reasons. Still, Webb gained 1,236 yards during a regular season that included a 294-yard game against Mississippi. He has been something of a controversial figure in Knoxville, shunning the media and causing a minor stir by going home to Toledo, Ohio, when he was sidelined by an ankle injury the week of Tennessee’s game with Vanderbilt.

Monday, Webb revealed that he felt the Volunteers had been slighted by the 10th-ranked Razorbacks (10-2).

“Arkansas took us lightly,” he said. “They didn’t practice very much. We practiced hard. We wanted it more. It showed today.”

Asked how the Razorbacks might fare in the Southeastern Conference, Webb took another swipe. “I don’t think they could beat Alabama or Auburn,” he said. “They’d be an 8-3 team, I think.”

Webb could afford to get on his soap box in large measure because Arkansas played a Keystone Kops kind of game. The Razorbacks lost only four fumbles during the regular season, but in the Cotton Bowl they lost two. Quarterback Quinn Grovey was intercepted twice. And, even though they ran for 361 yards against Tennessee, fullback Barry Foster couldn’t grind out the one yard the Razorbacks needed on fourth-and-one at the Tennessee nine with 8:29 left in the game and the Volunteers clinging to a 31-21 lead.

Arkansas displayed a misleading dominance from the start. Leading 6-3, the Razorbacks drove 73 yards to the Tennessee 14 early in the second quarter. On second-and-nine, sophomore fullback Kerwin Price got his first carry of the day and pushed to the nine but fumbled to Tennessee’s Tracy Hayworth.

The Razorbacks got the ball back after a Tennessee series went nowhere and went on another long drive, 55 yards to the Tennessee two.

A carry by Foster on first down was stopped, and on the next play, Grovey tried to pass to tight end Billy Winston in the end zone. The ball floated, and Pickens, who plays both wide receiver and free safety for the Volunteers, reached out and intercepted.

“They (Tennessee) had jammed up inside,” Arkansas Coach Ken Hatfield said. “It (the pass to Winston) was open. Quinn just didn’t get the ball to him.”

The play is characteristic of Pickens, who played only the final five games of the season on defense for the Volunteers and intercepted a pass in each.

“He made a great play,” Grovey said. “I just laid the ball up too high. I really don’t know where he came from, but he made a ‘superman’ play.”

The end zone interception loomed even larger when, on the second snap of the next series, Tennessee quarterback Andy Kelly teamed with wide receiver Anthony Morgan for an 84-yard scoring pass play. With the Arkansas defense biting on Kelly’s play fake, Morgan got behind the secondary and took the pass in stride to give the Volunteers a 10-6 lead with 6:12 left before halftime. It was a lead they would never give up.

“They had us reeling,” Majors said. “We got the interception, the long touchdown pass, and that got us back in the ball game.”

Tennessee followed another Arkansas gift--Foster’s fumble at the Volunteer 32--with another touchdown, a one-yard pass from Kelly to fullback Greg Amsler, to lead, 24-6, 4:17 into the third quarter. Arkansas came back to make it a 24-13 game, but with 3:55 left in the quarter, Webb ripped off his 78-yard touchdown run, a play on which he blew up the middle, cut to the left sideline and then cut back into the middle.

“He rarely makes a bad cut,” Majors said. “His strength is to run inside, and he has great vision of the field. But he has a little hitch in his step--the ability to cut outside, stop on a dime and beat you.”

The long run didn’t bury the Razorbacks. They scored again, converted a two-point conversion and were within 10 points and driving again midway through the fourth quarter. But on fourth-and-one at the Tennessee nine with 8:29 left, Foster’s dive was stopped for no gain by linebacker Kacy Rogers. Another wasted opportunity.

Even with that, Arkansas was in position to pull the game out. Grovey and Winston connected on a 67-yard scoring play with 1:25 remaining, Winston fumbling inside the five but recovering in the end zone. But, when the on-sides kick try was recovered by Tennessee’s Alvin Harper, the Razorbacks ran out of time.

“Certainly our goal all season was to win the Cotton Bowl,” Hatfield said, “and we got within three plays of doing it, so we didn’t achieve our goal.”

Tennessee has a different story. The Volunteers started the 1988 season 0-6, and even though they came back to win their last five games of that season, they were unranked going into 1989. Now, in 1990, they should be force to be dealt with in the national championship picture. They have eight offensive and eight defensive starters coming back, and, of course, they include Webb and Pickens.

Said quarterback Kelly: “I hope this has given us a little taste of what’s to come.”