Tennessee Wins Outback Bowl

If one game can epitomize a season, the 2008 Outback Bowl epitomized the Tennessee football Vols' season.

At one point in the first half, it looked like Tennessee was poised to blow out the Wisconsin Badgers as the offense was clicking, defense was steady and momentum was cloaked in orange. Then, suddenly, the Vols could not move the ball, could not stop the run and seemed to be staggering on the ropes against the Badger assault.

That, my friends, was the 2007-2008 Tennessee Vols.

The key play of the game was a weird 4th down call by Wisconsin that Tennessee ate up. With just a yard to go and a running game that was getting chunks at a time, the Badgers dialed up some type of quarterback roll-out that resulted in absolutely nothing besides another nearly lethal hit on Tyler Donovan. It was a odd play call in a game full of them (Cutcliffe - take that sneaky little run play with you to Duke).

Besides a few odd play call decisions, David Cutcliffe called an excellent game in his Vols finale. I am excited and anxious about what comes next after Cutcliffe. There is reason to be excited as the Vols will likely be more explosive and creative, but reason to be anxious as well after the Randy Sanders Experience.

Much was made this week about Cutcliffe and Ainge finally fessing up to injuries forcing the Vols offense to reel in much of what they wanted to do. Everyone knew about Ainge's finger problem, but a shoulder injury was kept secret (how does that happen in our age of internet information?) for the entire season. It apparently made it difficult for the Vols to go vertical, though the lack of experience among the receivers also played into that. Taken as a whole, I think this answers the major questions about the Vols offense this year - why no vertical game? Why so quick in the pocket? Why nothing more explosive?

Answer - an injured Ainge was better than a healthy Jonathan Crompton.

What does that mean for next year? Let's not worry about that yet.

Back to Ainge, he finished his college career with one of his best, most confident performances. There were still instances of throwing off his back foot, dumping the ball too early and occasionally being less than accurate, but he made the big throws (especially on 3rd down) and got the Vols down the field on multiple occasions. After the LSU fiasco, I'm happy for Ainge.

A few more Outback Bowl notes:

* Anybody miss Lucas Taylor? Not with Denarius Moore playing like he did today. He was a goat of the LSU game, but was huge against Wisconsin.

* Anybody miss Demonte Boldin? Big guy, if you want to call people out after losses, you deserve some major heat for not taking care of your grades. Our defensive line played pretty well all game, especially getting some heat on Donovan.

* Anybody miss Rico McCoy? Boy, I like Ellix Wilson.

* COME BACK JERROD MAYO!

* Are the Wisconsin coaches a bunch of wusses or what? Helmet-to-helmet hits? When? Since when can you not try to tackle a quarterback when he is about to score a touchdown? When did that become a cheap shot? I though the Big Ten was supposed to be the "tough" conference...

* Montario Hardesty had his best game as a Vol. He finally looked like something special in the backfield, breaking tackles and picking up tough yards. With Foster and Hardesty in the backfield next year, the Vols could get back to being a powerful running team.

I never get too excited about bowl games, but it sure feels better to win one that lose it. Time to get ready for UAB...