In the interest of fair play, let's hear it for the receivers and special teams.

You heard me correctly. Receivers and special teams, take a bow.

Tennessee's receivers and special teams have been hearing plenty this fall. Nearly all of it disparaging. Most of it deserved.

By this point in the season, neither group would have been on my list of likely candidates to get game balls on homecoming day.

And yet, Tennessee doesn't survive Memphis without them.

Jonathan Hefney's punt return was the jolt that jump-started the Vols' offense.

Both touchdowns in the 20-16 victory were tough catches, by Josh Briscoe and C.J. Fayton, respectively.

Let's pause to insert a disclaimer here.

A nice punt return and two tough catches shouldn't be occasion to hold a parade down Cumberland Avenue.

Good athletes on scholarship who practice five days a week should be expected to deliver the goods. It should be routine.

That said, this is 2005, a year of much whine and no roses. Or sugar. Or peaches, even.

The receivers and special teams simultaneously hit bottom at Notre Dame a week ago. The excellence of the Fighting Irish in both departments underscored UT's folly.

It was as straightforward as a demonstration in a health class back in fifth grade.

The teacher shows the Vols stumbling and bumbling around and says:

Don't do this.

Then she shows Notre Dame snatching passes and returning punts and says:

Do this.

Now I'm not going to assume that here in mid-November, Tennessee all of a sudden has ironed out its kinks.

As a famous coach once said, there's no magic dust to sprinkle on a broken-down football team.

But for one afternoon, the Vols played the kicking game like it wasn't a foreign language. For one afternoon, a couple of Vols went after a pass like it mattered.

"It was good to see some wide receivers make some plays,'' head coach Phillip Fulmer said Sunday night.

He was speaking not only for himself but for a Vol nation weary of wondering why so many catchable passes have not been caught this fall.

That Rick Clausen's 39-yard heave into the end zone was actually gathered in by a diving Briscoe was initially startling.

It wasn't a circus catch. No Espy nomination. But it was the kind of difficult catch that has been rare enough to rate the endangered-species list around these parts.

Clausen's other TD pass, a 15-yard strike to Fayton, was good execution on both ends.

That qualifies as doubly startling in a season when timing between dual quarterbacks and revolving-door receivers has been more elusive than Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.

As for the kicking game, Hefney's 36-yard return was the headliner. It provided field position for the first scoring drive.

Coverage teams were spot-on. Britton Colquitt averaged 41.5 yards on six punts and had the directional angle working.

James Wilhoit continues to put kickoffs in the end zone and has quietly gotten in a field-goal groove, hitting eight of his past nine.

The only obvious gaffe was Demetrice Morley's bobbling kickoff return that started the second half in poor field position.

At least he didn't lose the ball, which probably would have been all the opening Memphis needed.

A word of caution: Vanderbilt won't need much of an opening either.

Receivers making tough catches and special-teams execution shouldn't be the exception. They should be the rule.