With one minute to go in the biggest game in any of their lives, every single Vol jumped or danced or waved his arms -- except one.
As bedlam surrounded him, senior DT John Henderson just sat on the Tennessee bench and looked skyward with a yearbook smile of glee.
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| Tennessee's John Henderson sacks Rex Grossman in UT's win over Florida. |
"This is biiiiiig!" Henderson would say after the clock had expired.
And how. The 6'7", 290-pounder totally outplayed Florida DE Alex Brown and kept Florida Heisman hopeful QB Rex Grossman on the run all night. The Vols batted down three straight Grossman throws at one point in the first quarter -- Henderson having two. "After that," Henderson said. "He didn't throw to the middle no more." In all, the Vols combined for four tackles for loss, three sacks and five pass breakups.
"We rushed a lot of different guys," said DE Will Overstreet. "They didn't know who was coming or going. It was the same package we've always done, but different looks."
One different look was the zone blitz. That enabled the Vols secondary to hold the middle of the field and force Grossman to stay outside. "A lot of teams didn't pressure them this season," said DB Andre Lott. "We did."
Super Soph
Don't look now, but Casey Clausen is undefeated at the Swamp. The soph moved to 16-2 as a Vols starter and 12-1 in the SEC. Tonight he passed Heath Shuler in the Tennessee record books with 168 yards (with a touchdown and two interceptions) and he became only the fifth UT quarterback to throw for more than 4,000 yards.
Record breaking receivers
The Gators' top-flight receiving duo of Reche Caldwell and Jabar Gaffney had a night for the record books. Caldwell's 115 yards allowed him to join Gaffney in the 1,000-yard club for the season. Only one other pair has done that: Chris Doering and Ike Hilliard for Florida in '95.
Same fast start, different finish
No one expected Tennessee to shoot out to a 14-0 first quarter lead, but folks at The Swamp have seen it before. Last year -- also on Senior Day -- South Carolina scored three first quarter touchdowns for a 21-3 lead. Final score: Florida 41, South Carolina 21. It was the biggest comeback of the Steve Spurrier era.
BCS staying
Love it or hate it (or really hate it), looks like you'll see the BCS again next season. So says Roy Kramer, who believes the system has accomplished all its goals this year. "The advantages are even more evident," Kramer said before kickoff at The Swamp. "We wanted to enhance the regular season, attendance is good, and the TV ratings are solid. The backbone of college football is the regular season, not the post-season. We wanted to pick a consensus No. 1 and No. 2, and by and large we've done that." And what about all these one-loss teams? "There would be one-loss teams even in an eight-team playoff," Kramer said. "We have to keep 20-win teams out of a 64-team field in basketball." Kramer and the BCS powers that be will meet as usual sometime this spring for their annual evaluation of the bowl system.