Tennessee Is Fueled by Ground Chuck : College football: However, Webb may desert Volunteers for the NFL if he has a big sophomore season.

Chuck Webb is one Volunteer who would rather get paid.

He is a college football player who likes football but could do without college.

It is the admission, not the sentiment, that is rare.

“I wouldn’t lie to you and say I like going to college and going to school,” the sophomore running back said as Tennessee opened practice this month, admitting to reporters that his second season could be his last. “I don’t wake up with a smile on my face, saying, ‘I get to go to English class.’ ”

Webb was a redshirt freshman last year, but he ran for 1,236 yards, the second-best season total in school history, even though he did not start until the sixth game, after Reggie Cobb’s suspension because of a failed drug test.

After that, he averaged 180.5 yards a game and had a 294-yard day against Mississippi, breaking the school record set in 1983 by Johnnie Jones. Only three backs in the history of the Southeastern Conference have had bigger games.

Now that restrictions on underclassmen going through the NFL draft have been eased, more are likely to make the move early. As Webb prepares to take ninth-ranked Tennessee against No. 5 Colorado on Sunday in the first Disneyland Pigskin Classic at Anaheim Stadium, the 5-foot-10, 197-pound tailback is strongly suggesting that his sophomore season will be his last.

“If I have a good year, I’ll probably think about it,” Webb said this week. “It might be an 80% chance I will go. It depends on how the team does, also, and whether we have a chance to win the national title.”

There is little doubt about his ability.

“He’s great, flat-out great,” Colorado Coach Bill McCartney said. “He’s the best thing since Barry Sanders (Oklahoma State’s Heisman Trophy winner in 1988). He’s a 200-pounder who can flat-out do it. He’s a sure-fire great, great player of the highest order. They don’t get any better than this guy.”

If Webb decides to leave, he will be breaking his word to his mother, given when he left Toledo, Ohio, for Tennessee.

“I made a promise to my mom that I would get some kind of degree when I came here,” Webb said. “But if the money is there--a lot of money--then it could take care of me for the rest of my life. I told my mom before I came back to school this year that it might be one of those promises I couldn’t keep. There are a lot of people with degrees out there working at McDonald’s.”

It is hard to imagine that Webb will be a Volunteer for three more seasons. He and college have not been an easy mix during his first two years.

In 1988, Webb was arrested for forging a teammate’s signature on a scholarship check and was ordered to make restitution and perform community service.

He calls that simply a mistake.

Last year, after his spectacular season, Webb was accused of cheating in a class, and although he denies any wrongdoing, he was suspended from school for the spring semester. That caused him to miss spring practice and forced him to make up 20 hours to regain his eligibility for this season.

He earned six hours through correspondance courses during his suspension, returned to Knoxville and earned six more in a summer school mini-term and another eight during regular summer school.

“People are going to assume anyway, when they read Chuck Webb allegedly was caught cheating, that it’s true,” Webb said. “People remember things that are bad, not good about you. They remember when you lose a game more than when you win a game.”

Webb said the cheating accusation was the result of research similar to another student’s:

“If you get the same information from the library, how can you say that is cheating?”

In his occasional interviews, Webb maintains a stoic attitude.

“Nothing people wrote or said on TV really bothered me,” he said. “They really didn’t know me.”

Now people know him mostly from watching him carry the ball behind an offensive line that was called the Tennessee Valley Authority last year by Bill Curry, then Alabama’s coach, and now at Kentucky. This year’s line is strongest at tackle, with Charles McRae, 6-7 and 291 pounds, and Antone Davis, 6-4 and 310 pounds.

Webb’s success at Tennessee is no surprise, only its quick arrival. He came to Knoxville with a considerable reputation. As a high school player in Toledo, he averaged 10.7 yards a carry.

At Tennessee last year, he averaged 5.9 yards a carry.

“I think Chuck Webb has the talent to be as fine a running back as the country has,” Tennessee Coach Johnny Majors said.

The first indications of that were seen in the second game last season, against UCLA. Webb ran for 134 yards and two touchdowns, and Tennessee scored what then seemed an upset, 24-6. In the Cotton Bowl, he ran for 250 yards against Arkansas and scored two touchdowns, one on a 78-yardrun.

In the 294-yard performance against Mississippi, Webb had a quarter most running backs would have been proud to have for a game. Tennessee entered the fourth quarter trailing, 21-20. As the final 15 minutes ticked off, Webb ran for 142 yards and the go-ahead touchdown. Tennessee won, 33-21.

“They just started giving him the ball, and he started hammering on us,” Mississippi Coach Billy Brewer said. “We couldn’t take the ball away from ‘em.

Notes

Colorado, which is arriving today, will be without starting running back Eric Bieniemy of Bishop Amat High School in La Puente. Bieniemy was suspended for the game because of his arrest on charges of interfering with firemen during a fire at his parents’ home. Colorado Coach Bill McCartney has named Michael Simmons as the starting tailback.

Tennessee, which arrived Thursday night, might have some insight into Colorado’s option offense. Volunteer defensive coordinator Larry Lacewell coached for nine seasons at Oklahoma and knows something about defending against the option offenses in the Big Eight.

Jim Harper, from Valley College and Hart High in Newhall, won a three-way battle in camp and will be the starting kicker for Colorado.