ATLANTA -- With less than a minute left in Saturday's SEC Championship Game, LSU backup placekicker Kris Kessler couldn't resist the cruelest form of celebration.

He couldn't resist taking a red long stem rose and dangling it in front of the eyes of the game's ballboy who happened to be a wearing a Tennessee hat. Some thirty minutes later, LSU coach Nick Saban would say that he didn't care at all about the endless row of BCS dominoes his team had knocked over.

Kessler's rose spoke otherwise. While the ballboy kicked, swatted and yelled trying to get the rose out of Kessler's hands, he couldn't. So he walked away, circled the field and made his way to the Tennessee bench.

By then, the final buzzer had sounded and half the stadium was starting its own indoor January Mardi Gras. On the Tennessee sidelines, dozens of players sat, stood, kneeled and laid in complete shock.

Junior receiver Donte Stallworth, whose fourth quarter fumble led to LSU's final touchdown, sobbed uncontrollably. A host of teammates -- including fellow receiver Kelley Washington -- tried to console him.

"He took it hard," Washington said. "Real hard. He's a guy who's been here awhile, who wanted this real bad. So I just told him that everything was going to be OK. That it wasn't his fault. That we wouldn't have even gotten to this place if it weren't for him. But man did he take it hard."

While Tennessee and its throng of fans who made the three-hour trek from Knoxville were utterly depressed, fans of Nebraska, Colorado and even Oregon -- all teams who now have a chance at a national title -- were ecstatic.

Just last Thursday, Nebraska quarterback Eric Crouch told reporters he was headed out that night to buy an LSU hat. And on the same night that Crouch won the Heisman Trophy, the door to a national championship was re-opened.

Tennessee, meanwhile, which entered the game No. 2 in the BCS standings, will most likely play in the Citrus Bowl.

"I am very disappointed that we aren't going to the Rose Bowl," Vols coach Phillip Fulmer said. "We had a chance to get there, but just came up short. We picked a bad time to play our worst game of the year."

On the other side, Saban said he could have cared less about what his team's victory did to the national standings.

"I guess I'm self absorbed and don't care," Saban said. "Because I honestly didn't think about it once this week. Nobody could understand that, but it didn't make a difference once way or another. I'm just glad for what this means and what this will do to our program."

Kicking fancy
LSU junior placekicker John Corbello entered Saturday's SEC Championship having made just 11-of-19 field goal attempts on the year. Good numbers for a jump shooter, terrible numbers for a kicker.

His first attempt Saturday, from 43 yards away, sailed neither left or right. Instead, it wobbled side to side and fell short of the goal post. Put simply: It was ugly.

"I just missed it, just missed the ball," Corbello said. "Plain and simple."

Lucky for LSU, he didn't let it get to him, as Corbello connected on his next three field goal attempts, including a career-long 47-yarder. He was also successful on two extra points.

"I was a little nervous on that second one, after what happened on the first, but I tried to think back and couldn't remember the last time I had really missed two in a row," Corbello said. "I have a pretty strong leg, especially inside, so I fixed what I was doing wrong and tried to stay confident.

It worked. Said Saban: "He made some absolutely big kicks. He really came through for us."

Washington again shine
Nobody can say Tennessee receiver Kelley Washington didn't do his part to avoid the LSU upset here Saturday.

Ten weeks after torching LSU for 256 yards on 11 catches, Washington again preyed on the Tigers secondary in this one, grabbing nine passes for 140 yards and a touchdown.

"There's nothing particular about playing LSU or anything," Washington said. "It just so happens that in these two games I got the opportunity to show what I can do and to play my game."

On the touchdown, a perfectly-timed 31-yard fly pattern from quarterback Casey Clausen, Washington ran right into the ball just as he crossed the goal line.

On the next possession, he caught a 47-yard strike from Clausen on virtually the same pattern, this time on the opposite side of the field.

"We've tried to work on the timing the whole season," Washington said. "It's one of those things where if they are going to play up close to me like that, I'm going to go right at them. I'm going to attack them and challenge them to stay with me. That's when it's time to go one-on-one."

Penalty problems
As costly as its two fumbles and countless missed tackles were Saturday, few things hurt the Vols as much as penalties.

On LSU's first scoring drive, Tennessee committed two defensive offsides and a pass interference. When the touchdown was finally scored, LSU had earned only 17 of the drive's 41 yards.

All in all, Tennessee was penalized 10 times for 78 yards.

"You cannot expect to win a championship with all the mistakes we had and opportunities we missed," Fulmer said. "We played good all year, but did not finish well."

Wayne Drehs is a staff writer at ESPN.com.