On a campus where football players are the big men on campus, Tennessee defensive end Karlton Neal wanted to be a regular guy.

"I have a feeling a lot of people don't know me as a football player," Neal says. "Most females I approach don't know me as a football player. I try to act as regular as I can. ... I just enjoy having fun with regular students on campus.

"I don't even live with football players right now. I live with three average Joes. One of them really is named Joe. That's a good thing too. I just like being as regular as possible."

It isn't possible all the time.

Not when you wear UT's No. 46 jersey on Saturdays.

Neal is hard to miss -- 6-foot-4, 260 pounds. He has started every game at right end this season.

He does not consider starting for a high-profile program his No. 1 college accomplishment.

Graduating in December is atop that list.

"If you'd have asked me five years ago before I got a scholarship, how was I going to pay for college, I wouldn't even be able to tell you," Neal said.

"Just the fact that I'm here, about to graduate, coach (Phillip) Fulmer gave me that opportunity and I'm thankful for it, that's probably my greatest accomplishment."

Neal was rated among the top linebacker prospects in the nation by USA Today as a senior at Chicago's Morgan Park High School.

He started four games as a UT sophomore in 2002 and started three games last year.

When he gets a call from home, though, football is not the first topic of conversation.

"My mother doesn't want to know how I'm going to make it in football," Neal said. "She wants to know how am I doing in school. I have talked to her about football and all that, about where I'm going to go after here. I don't know whether pro football is out there for me. "

Neal would like a shot at pro football, but he is not counting on it. He will have a degree in sports management and plans to attend graduate school after giving pro football a try.

"I feel that now that I'll graduate, football is a secondary thing for me," he said. "That's something that I like to do. If I continue on with it, then I'm going to continue on with it.

"I'm going to play till it's over with, but I'm not going to have no regrets.

"If nobody wants me on their team, I'm not going to be mad about it. I'm not going to cry about it, cause I like being as regular as possible."

This regular guy can be funny and witty. He is a self-proclaimed social guy.

On campus, he does not try to draw attention to himself. Sometimes, it just happens.

"Since last year, I don't go out as much. I ain't trying to be the life of the party, but when I step in the spot, it's just something happens," Neal says, laughing.

Neal will run through the T at Neyland Stadium for the last time Saturday when the Vols play Kentucky.

He doesn't know what emotions he will experience, nor is he worried about it.

He will have no regrets about his college life.

"I wouldn't take nothing back," he said. "I can ultimately say I have lived the college experience that everyone would want to. I've done it. If anybody says they want to have fun in college, I have done that.

"I will get my degree. Every aspect of college you'd want to do, I've done it. I would take nothing back. It's been a great experience."