Tennessee Stays on Top of Situation

Shortly before 8 p.m. Eastern time, Fiesta Bowl executive director John Junker was in the process of watching the desired matchups for his Jan. 4 bowl vaporize.

Earlier in the day he was at the Orange Bowl in Miami. UCLA had a 17-point lead over Miami when Junker left to catch his plane for Atlanta. In a phone call during the flight, he found out that UCLA had lost by four. One less undefeated team on the board.

He arrived at the Georgia Dome, site of the Southeastern Conference championship, and immediately planted himself in front of a television set to catch the end of the Big 12 championship. More bad news. Texas A&M; was driving for the score that sent the game into overtime, where the Aggies knocked off Kansas State. There went another undefeated team.

“Who’s going to play in our game?” Junker wondered aloud.

It took almost four more hours, but finally Junker has at least half of the answer to his question, the same question that has gripped college football all season.

The Tennessee Volunteers can book a trip to Tempe, Ariz., after their 24-14 victory over Mississippi State before 74,795 fans Saturday night.

It turns out this berth in the closest thing college football has to a championship game wasn’t decided on strength of schedule or margin of victory. It was settled by attrition.

After UCLA and Kansas State lost, all Tennessee needed was a victory. For that, the Volunteers should be grateful, given the way they played Saturday. They almost wasted a superb defensive effort, and they needed two touchdown passes in a span of 30 seconds to overcome a fourth-quarter deficit.

The Volunteers (12-0), No. 1 in the bowl championship series rankings entering the day, are now the only undefeated team remaining--sorry, 11-0 Tulane, the only championship-caliber undefeated team remaining--and they don’t have to worry about what the poll voters and computers think about them.

“You just have to go out there and take care of business,” Tennessee receiver Peerless Price said. “The thing we told the guys at the beginning, when we came in after warmups, [was] that we’re not Kansas State and we darn sure ain’t UCLA, so we’ve got to go out there and take care of our business, and we’ll be playing for it all.”

Whom they will play isn’t known for sure. Florida State, which was fourth in the BCS rankings before Saturday, appears to be the top candidate. But this is the BCS, so . . .

“You can’t really tell who’s going to be in that game,” said Charles Bloom, media relations director for the BCS. “You can’t assume that the next-highest team is going to make it, because we don’t have all the numbers yet.”

If the BCS folks had entered some of the numbers from this SEC championship game into their computer it might have caused the system to crash.

Mississippi State (8-4) generated more yardage in punt returns (152 yards) than it did in offense from scrimmage (149 yards). Third-down conversions? One of 12.

Tennessee wasn’t much better for most of the game. And in the third quarter things really got ugly. The two teams combined for four first downs, 72 yards of offense and six punts.

Mississippi State kept things close by throwing a fierce rush at Tennessee quarterback Tee Martin. The Bulldogs sacked him four times and sent him to the ground on countless other rushes, one time even knocking his helmet off. Martin couldn’t get his rhythm and consistently threw passes too high or behind his receivers.

But the Mississippi State offense couldn’t do a thing, not even with tailback James Johnson in the lineup. Johnson, the SEC’s top rusher, had been questionable because of a groin muscle injury. He wound up carrying 14 times for 38 yards.

The Bulldogs’ first touchdown came on a 70-yard interception return by Robert Bean on the last play of the first quarter.

As the game went on, it became obvious that any other scores would have to come from the defense or special teams.

They finally got it with less than nine minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. Trailing, 10-7, Kevin Prentiss fielded a punt at his own 17. He went toward the left sideline, escaped a tackle, somehow managed to stay inbounds and took off for the remainder of the 83 yards to the end zone to make it 14-10.

The prospect of their championship hopes ending in 8 minutes and 43 seconds seemed to inspire the Volunteers.

For most of the game they had tried to capitalize on the big-play capabilities of Price with no success. Finally, he broke loose and hauled in a 41-yard pass from Martin in the left corner of the end zone.

“We knew the offense had to make a play sooner or later,” Price said, “and it just happened to come later.”

Mississippi State fumbled on its first play after the kickoff, and Martin hooked up with Cedrick Wilson for a 26-yard touchdown. Just like that it was 24-14, with 5:47 to play. It wasn’t long before the Volunteers were snacking on tortilla chips, the kind made by the Fiesta Bowl’s sponsor.

“They earned being No. 1 in the nation,” Mississippi State’s Bean said.

On this day, that meant they didn’t lose.