KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Tennessee's humiliating 26-3 defeat at the hands of the best team in the country Saturday started with so much promise. It took only two plays for the Volunteers to exploit the weakness that had been dissected for most of the last month.

When Volunteers tailback Cedric Houston broke through the left side of the line, all he saw before him was 78 yards of green grass. The Hurricanes surrendered nearly 800 yards on the ground in their last three games, and as a result, surrendered their place among the top two in the BCS ranking as well. Tennessee needed only two snaps to start it all over again.

	Antrel Rolle and the Miami defense just wouldn't let Tennessee have any room to run.

The Vols caught the 'Canes in a blitz, and strong safety Maurice Sikes rushed from the outside instead of remaining inside where he should have been. A minor mistake, yes, but the kind of mistake that has plagued the defense for the last month.

"The thing is, it has been real little things," defensive tackle Matt Walters said. "A guy peeking out of his gap and he can't quite make the play. We were trying to do a little too much. I know when I watch the film, it's going to be something real small. It's the little things that make the big difference."

Houston angled toward the right sideline. To his left, Miami cornerback Kelly Jennings shed the receiver trying to block him and gave chase. Houston ran a sub-4.4 40 at Clarendon (Ark.) High. Jennings has run a 4.34.

"I knew I had an angle on him," Jennings said. "I was just hoping I could catch him. I saw the way he was running. He looked fast."

Had Tennessee been playing virtually any other school, Houston would still be running. But that one play, which began with all the promise of a Tennessee upset, instead illustrated the gap in talent between the Vols and the 'Canes. Jennings dragged Houston down at the 4-yard-line. "I've never got caught from behind," Houston said.

As the defense huddled, Sikes started telling his teammates that he had blown the assignment. Sometimes the most difficult lesson for a gifted athlete to learn is that his teammates are gifted, too.

"Do your job," defensive coordinator Randy Shannon counseled his team last week. "The biggest thing that hurt us was that when something happens, guys never say, 'My fault.' If somebody blows an assignment, admit it so that nobody else starts jumping around. Nobody would say that. Now, they're asking, 'Was it me?'"

On the next play, defensive end Cornelius Green stuffed 232-pound tailback Jabari Davis at the line of scrimmage. Two plays later, Alex Walls kicked a 21-yard field goal. It had been imperative for Tennessee to start quickly, to get the 107,745 fans, the fifth-largest crowd in the history of Neyland Stadium, screaming and yelling for their Vols. The surge of emotion that rushed through the crowd as Houston sprinted downfield shifted quickly to the Miami sideline.

"The crowd was never in it after that," Walters said. "It was to our advantage that they got that big run and we kept them out of the end zone. It was a great feeling."

The Miami defense returned to the sideline and Sikes walked up and down the bench, telling his teammates that Houston's 74-yard run had been his responsibility. The defensive coaches explained what had happened, and the Hurricanes went back to work.

In the rest of the first quarter, Tennessee rushed the ball seven times for 15 yards. In the second quarter, Tennessee rushed the ball eight times and gained 11 yards. It took the better part of a month, but Miami's vice -- poor run defense -- appears to be fixed.

"I was looking at ESPN last night," Jennings said Saturday after the game. "I heard a lot of stuff. I got kind of ticked off. I know how good we can be. Do your job. Trust that the man next to you is going to take care of his."

Tennessee finished with 141 rushing yards, more than half of which came on Houston's run. That does not bode well for Virginia Tech, which suddenly has a two-game losing streak. For that matter, it doesn't bode well for Ohio State, either. Miami's presumed opponent in the Fiesta Bowl, the last remaining unbeaten team north of Coral Gables, rushed for 94 yards Saturday at Purdue.

"This team plays better when it's challenged," Hurricanes' defensive line coach Greg Mark said. "We challenged them as coaches. The exterior things (questions about stopping the run, for instance) might have given them more of a challenge. (The Vols) finished with 218 total yards. Take away that run and it makes it look good."

Take away that run, and we may never have seen the Miami defense mature before our eyes.

Ivan Maisel is a senior writer at ESPN.com. E-mail him at ivan.maisel@espn3.com.