It's an unusually warm Sunday afternoon in December and Cory Anderson is preparing to walk across the stage inside Thompson-Boling Arena.

He's wearing a black cap and gown, grinning.

Anderson, whose soft hands can be so good at catching a football, is about to make the most significant reception of his life: a college diploma.

"That's the main reason you come to school," he said. "Nobody can take that degree away from you. I don't think a lot of people thought I would be able to get that done."

One of five partial qualifiers to play for Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer, Anderson is the fifth to receive his degree.

About 20 members of his family are here. A few hours later, they'll throw him a surprise party at home.

Before they do, they'll watch as 6-feet, 3 inches and 260 pounds of potential walks across that stage.

The late-bloomer who was the same height in middle school as he is today.

The prep star who didn't play a varsity football game until his senior year at Austin-East High School.

The UT walk-on who became a starter. The starter who became a special teams player.

But on this Sunday a week ago, he is walking that stage as a college graduate with a degree in sociology, but he also is a teacher for his 5-year-old son.

He also is walking across that stage as a man.

"He's going to take away a degree that will open up a lot of doors for him in the future," Fulmer said. "I'm real proud of him from that standpoint. I know he's disappointed in the playing time and the reps and those kinds of things, but that's just where we were. But he didn't let the opportunity slip away to get his degree."

A big part of his potential has been realized, but there's still more to be tapped.

Flying Low

For Stanton Stevens, it was a tougher sell to get Cory Anderson onto the football field than it was to get him a scholarship with a national football power.

Stevens, in his first year as coach at Austin-East, taught Anderson geography and couldn't help but imagine this high school junior in pads and a helmet.

Only Anderson hadn't played football, except for one season as a freshman.

"He said, 'I'm a basketball player,' " Stevens said. "Basketball player? Once you see Cory, you automatically think football."

Seeing Anderson's quickness and athleticism on the basketball court that season only strengthened Stevens' belief that Anderson had a future on the football field.

For all of Anderson's junior year, Stevens would make his pitch for Anderson to join the football team.

By the time the Roadrunners began two-a-days, Stevens had all but given up. Anderson remained an imaginary star in Stevens' mind.

Until one day when Stevens walked down the hill from his office to practice.

"Lo and behold he's standing at the fence," Stevens said.

Had Anderson come out earlier in the summer or even for spring practice, the Roadrunners might have been a different team.

But it was August, and Austin-East didn't have time to retool its whole scheme for one player, although Stevens would have done it if he'd had the time.

Anderson was a game-changer who forced a pragmatic solution.

"We put him at middle linebacker and said, 'Go find the football,' " Stevens said. "He could do it. He was so athletic and so big and strong."

Because he started practice late, Anderson sat out for the first six quarters of his high school career.

Playing only the second half of his first varsity game, he finished with double-digit tackles and a pair of sacks.

The next week against eventual state champion Alcoa, Anderson stuffed a fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line by taking out both the fullback and tailback.

In that same game, he blew up a toss sweep by coming across the field and drilling a tailback in full-gallop for a 1-yard loss.

Next week, Chattanooga Howard was on the business end of 10 tackles and two more sacks from Stevens' new star.

"We were like, 'OK,' " Stevens said. "It was a man amongst boys."

In his fifth week as a football player, he was shaking hands with Fulmer.

Flying High

There's a little bit of Paul Bunyan to the game of football.

Coaches have been known to fudge an inch here or add a few pounds there to make a player more attractive to a college coach.

Stevens didn't have to. There was never any myth surrounding Anderson.

Only potential.

That's what Tennessee defensive line coach Dan Brooks saw when he popped a highlight tape of Anderson into his VCR.

"Just a lot of athletic ability and a guy who didn't know much about football," he said. "A big kid that can run."

Stevens' recommendation pulled a lot of weight with Brooks, also a former high school coach.

So Anderson, who at the time was being recruited by Lincoln Memorial University, Carson-Newman and Eastern Kentucky to play basketball, became a big-time Division I football recruit.

Anderson never imagined a future in college football until he met with Fulmer that fall.

"I really didn't even think about playing college football until that day," he said. "I still didn't think about it then. I didn't think they'd take me because I'd only played a couple games."

Brooks had his reservations about giving a scholarship to a player with just one year of varsity experience.

But the Vols had enough spots in their recruiting class, and Anderson had the rare mix of size and speed that couldn't be ignored.

"You just took a shot on ability," Brooks said. "A local guy, had a scholarship and gave him a chance."

In February of 2001, less than six months after his first real action on the football field, Anderson put on his favorite NFL jersey — Marshall Faulk's No. 28 with the St. Louis Rams — and signed his name in tiny letters on the dotted line, becoming A-E's first scholarship Vol since tight end Von Reeves in 1988.

But when the Vols opened the 2001 season against Wyoming in Nashville, Anderson wasn't with the team.

He wasn't even on the team.

Getting In

For most of Anderson's athletic life, two points were easy, a lay-up, a dunk, a putback.

On the ACT, however, those two points kept him from being admitted to Tennessee by the fall of 2001.

Stevens was surprised Anderson didn't qualify, but he wasn't concerned.

He even thought it might have been a blessing in disguise.

Because Anderson started football late, he'd never been part of any formal weight training program.

When he enrolled at Fork Union (Va.) Military Academy, Stevens thought the extra year would give Anderson a more solid foundation in football by playing against better players in addition to getting stronger and getting eligible.

If anything, Stevens thought, it might allow Anderson to get on the field faster at Tennessee.

After about a week of the up-at-6, lights-out-at-10 cadet life and the bare concrete floor in his dorm room, Anderson was back in Knoxville.

That's when Stevens began to worry.

"A lot of people did a lot of things to ensure he had a shot, and now that we've gotten him to that point, he's said, 'I don't want to do it like this,' " Stevens said. "I didn't think he was going to college after that. Not to play football anyway.

"His college career as a football player at UT, I thought was over."

Only it wasn't.

With the help of his English teacher at A-E, Anderson studied, raised his ACT score and was admitted to UT in January.

It was a lesson in Cory Anderson 101 for Stevens.

What should have been a pressure-filled time for Anderson wasn't.

"I didn't think about it because I didn't know," Anderson said. "I figured if I get my test done, I'll be fine.

"I guess if I would have known how hard it would be for people to get back on the field, I think I would have felt pressure. I didn't think it was a big deal."

The year without football helped show Anderson (and those like basketball coach Charles Mitchell, then-principal Marion Quinn and Stevens who pushed him into the sport) that he did indeed want to play football.

It showed Stevens something else, too.

"When Cory sets his mind to do something," Stevens said, "very rarely have I seen him not be successful at that."

Breaking Out

When Anderson enrolled at Tennessee in January of 2002, he was no longer a scholarship player.

His potential hadn't changed, but his status had.

At practice, he wore the opposing team's colors as a member of the scout team on his way to a redshirt.

He made the travel roster a year later when the Vols played Maryland in the Peach Bowl.

Coaches praised his effort. He made plays in scrimmages.

But little had changed since his initial recruitment: Coaches saw skill and potential, but they weren't sure where to play him.

"We didn't really know what he might be," Brooks said. "What would God do with his body? How big does he get? Could he be a linebacker? Could he be a fullback? Could he be a tight end? Could he be a defensive end?"

Even Anderson wasn't so sure.

"Once I moved to D-end, I thought, 'OK, I don't know how to play defensive end,' " he said. "I was improving and next thing you know I'm moving to D-tackle.

"It was kind of discouraging at first."

In August of 2003, things began to pick up.

Anderson earned a scholarship for the second time and moved off the scout team.

He played a few snaps at defensive end against Fresno State and made the 70-man travel roster for the Auburn trip.

In November, he made two tackles for loss against Mississippi State.

But when January and another Peach Bowl trip came around, his name was still down on the depth chart.

Then Will Revill quit the team before spring practice in 2004, leaving the Vols with a hole at fullback.

Fulmer had toyed with the idea of putting Anderson in the backfield, where he spent some time in high school.

At his new position, Anderson became the toast of spring practice.

Coaches raved about Anderson's talent, his potential.

The raw talent that Brooks first saw was starting to become polished. Their sleeper recruit was starting to wake up.

In fall camp, Anderson beat out highly touted freshman David Holbert for the starting job.

He went on to start 12 of UT's 13 games that season.

His first career touchdown came against Auburn on a 2-yard pass.

On his first career carry, which didn't come until the Vols' 11th game of the season against Kentucky, he went 22 yards up the middle untouched for a score.

He caught another touchdown pass again in the Cotton Bowl, and everyone could see big things from the big fullback with soft hands.

Anderson had put himself on the map, and he was only a sophomore.

Just two seasons removed from being a walk-on, Anderson had five carries for 53 yards and caught 17 passes for 157 yards.

He averaged 9.5 yards each time he touched the ball.

Big things were surely ahead.

Falling Down

Anderson doesn't really like talking about the play, just like none of his teammates or coaches is very fond of talking about the 2005 season.

After taking a pass from Rick Clausen on third-and-goal from the 15-yard line, he rumbles toward the goal line and an almost sure victory over rival Alabama.

All of a sudden, Tide safety Roman Harper bursts into the frame — receiver Robert Meachem later fessed up to missing a block — and puts his helmet on the ball.

That one-in-a-thousand play sent the ball spinning out of Anderson's hands and through the back of the end zone.

From there, Alabama drove for a game-winning field goal and Tennessee lost three of its next four games to finish 5-6.

"That's got to be the worst play I ever had in any kind of sport," Anderson said. "Even this year, a year later people still stay stuff about that. It's the first thing they'll say. It don't bother me, but it gets irritating at times."

Some blame Anderson for the loss. Others understand how impossibly difficult it is to hold on to a football when a helmet hits it just so.

"Some people will just come up and say, 'What happened in the Alabama game?' " he said. "I heard, 'It was just a good hit.' I heard, 'You should have held onto the ball, you lost the game.' "

Still, 2005 wasn't a lost cause for Anderson.

He still averaged 10.5 yards a catch on 14 receptions, although he didn't score a touchdown.

Like his teammates, Anderson let the season go, turning his focus to helping the team rebound from a nightmarish season.

Along with several teammates, Anderson submitted paperwork to the NFL's draft advisory board.

The response was he would be a late second-day pick, which meant Anderson would have one more year to play in his hometown.

So Anderson prepared by shedding 15 pounds from his 270-pound frame and working toward becoming the threat he was in high school.

"I was ready to do whatever it took to win," he said. "All I cared about was winning. I wanted to be a playmaker. I wanted to show everyone what I could really do.

"I was hoping this year I could make some more plays so they wouldn't remember that (the Alabama fumble) about me. But that didn't happen."

For the Vols' 35-17 season-opening victory over California on Sept. 2, Anderson was a captain and a starter.

Everything seemed possible, yet he finished without a catch or a carry.

Just as Tennessee's upset of Cal was a harbinger of the team's turnaround, Anderson's first game of the year foreshadowed his season.

After the Memphis game on Sept. 30, Anderson started just three of the Vols' final five games.

With the Vols using a two-tight end set, snaps were tough to come by for a fullback.

By the end of the season, Anderson played for a few snaps a game, the bulk of those coming on special teams.

He still isn't sure what happened.

"I never did feel like I was in the doghouse," he said. "I'd been a producer for the last couple years. I can't answer that question."

Said Fulmer: "I think it was more a product of the tight ends playing better than our fullbacks."

Anderson's numbers for his final season: 1 rush, 1 yard; 3 receptions, 11 yards. There's a chance he can add to it against Penn State in the Outback Bowl in Tampa, Fla., on New Year's Day.

Getting Up

Most days, Anderson gets a blast of perspective when he walks in the door.

His troubles melt away when his eyes land on his 5-year-old son, J'Coryian.

"Nothing else matters when you get home," he said. "He doesn't know what's going on. He doesn't care about what he hears. He just brightens up my day whenever I'm down."

Even with school and football to keep him busy, Anderson coached J'Coryian's basketball team.

"He's pretty good," Anderson says. "He's getting there."

So is Anderson.

Despite the down days this season — and there've been more than a few — there's been good ones, too. A lot of them happened in the classroom.

Fernandez West, an associate director of the Thornton Center who oversees the academic progress of the football team, has seen it.

For all the talk-radio callers and message-board posters who have piled on Anderson at times, there's that many more rooting for him.

West relays the good wishes he hears on Sunday mornings from his fellow parishioners at Mt. Olive Baptist Church.

Ask most anyone around the UT football program about Anderson, and they'll tell you he's a great story.

"He did what he had to do, he got himself admitted, he paid his own way for a period of time, earned a scholarship, bounced around to two or three different positions," Fulmer said. "He has made some contributions to our football team in his time here.

"He's had one of those tough years this year because we kind of went in another direction with using the tight ends more. But he's hung in there, and I'm proud of him for that."

That's Anderson's maturity. It's what allows him not to linger on the fumble at Alabama or the on-field struggles of his senior season.

"Just to see him mature throughout the past couple years has been really exciting for me," West said. "He's got a lot of potential — and I think he's got a lot more potential — and I think he's got to realize that."

Moving On

Anderson's cap went sailing into the air along with those of his fellow graduates a week ago.

In a few months, Anderson will go headlong into the unpredictable world of professional football.

Sometime thereafter, he'll be in the place Stevens always talks to his players about, the place where all the balls are put down and you begin the rest of your life.

When that day comes, he'd like to open a business or coach high school football or basketball.

For now, though, Anderson's plans involve training for his chance to play in the NFL.

Tennessee's pro timing day, when scouts from around the NFL will be on hand to watch UT's seniors go through a combine-like workout, is the goal.

Fulmer says Anderson has a shot to play in the pros.

"Perhaps if he caught on with the right team and learned how to exert his potential better," he said.

West, who played football at Clemson, hopes Anderson gets his chance to keep playing.

"Hopefully he gets a shot on Sundays," West said. "But I know he'll do good things. I think he'll get a shot at the NFL, but whatever he wants to do after that is up to him. And he'll do well at it."

If Anderson's history is any indication, he will do well.

In a way, it's not unlike the time he returned to Knoxville after leaving Fork Union, showing his high school coach and others the power of determination.

Transitions have been tough for Anderson, but for his whole life he's done well by the time it's over.

"Every time I start something new, I end up getting it right (by) the end," he says. "Once I'm determined to do something, most of the time I'm enthused to do it, whether it's homework or a paper, all the way to the football field.

"If I run a good time, I'll definitely get a shot at it. I'm real confident I'll get a shot at it."

The NFL is one more test to pass. Just as he worked hard then, he'll work even harder now.

No doubt those scouting reports filed from Knoxville will include the word potential.

It's a word Anderson never really heard until he got to Tennessee, and it's one that he wouldn't mind seeing fade into the past.

"After high school, that's where I heard it a lot. They always referred to me as a high-potential guy," he said. "I think I had reached my potential after this summer. I think I was ready to be a go-to player.

"Maybe I'll get to do it the future."