COLLEGE FOOTBALL : SOUTHEASTERN ROUNDUP : Tennessee Needs Late Score to Get Past Vanderbilt

It was a performance that left Tennessee Coach Phillip Fulmer looking for a bright side.

“I guess the bottom line is I’d rather play poorly and win than play well and lose,” Fulmer said after his No. 5-ranked Volunteers struggled to come from behind and defeat Vanderbilt, 12-7, Saturday at Knoxville, Tenn.

Tennessee was favored by 37 points and had beaten the Commodores, 65-0 and 62-14, the previous two years.

It was an entirely different story Saturday. Tennessee trailed until Jay Graham, who ran for a career-high 211 yards, scored on a one-yard run with three minutes left to rally the Volunteers, 10-1 overall and 7-1 in the Southeastern Conference, past their determined in-state rivals.

Vanderbilt (2-9, 1-7) marched 80 yards after receiving the opening kickoff to go ahead, 7-0. Tennessee got a one-yard scoring run by Chester Ford in the second quarter, but Vanderbilt’s James Manley blocked the extra-point attempt.

The Commodores clung to their 7-6 lead until Graham’s late touchdown. Graham bulled in on third down to cap a 69-yard drive.

“I believe we were out-coached at times today,” Fulmer said. “They had a very nice plan. . . . It wasn’t anything we hadn’t seen, but we didn’t get it done very well during the week so the kids could go do it in the ballgame.”

Tennessee’s Peyton Manning completed 26 of 42 passes for 265 yards to set school season records in all three categories. The sophomore finished the regular season 244 for 380 for 2,954 yards.

Graham’s 211 yards were a career high and helped him set a Tennessee season record of 1,438 yards, surpassing Johnnie Jones’ 1984 mark of 1,290.

Mississippi 13, Mississippi State 10--Dou Innocent set a school record with 242 yards rushing in 39 carries and scored a touchdown as Ole Miss (6-5, 3-5) capped its season with a victory over the Bulldogs (3-8, 1-7) at Starkville, Miss.

Paul Montz’s 29-yard field goal, his second of the game, with 7:32 left, was the only score of the second half. It was set up when Innocent had six consecutive carries for 44 yards to the Mississippi State 11.