Newton a tough cookie

"When you see third down, we say to ourselves, 'Money down, money down,'' " the junior defensive end said. "We tell everybody to make sure we know it's our chance to get off the field."

If there's a key to defense it's keeping opponents from converting on third downs.

Early in the season, that was a problem for Tennessee, especially against Air Force.

The Falcons converted 9 of their 13 attempts. Florida did it six times in 13 tries.

Memphis only got one in nine tries. Georgia converted all four of its third downs on its way to a 24-14 halftime lead.

Since the second half of that game, though, opponents have converted just four of 21.

Defensive coordinator John Chavis attributes the improvement to players settling into their roles after injuries to cornerback Inky Johnson and defensive tackle Justin Harrell shuffled the lineup.

"You look around and you have your best years when you have the same 11 starting. We had to shuffle things up quite a bit," Chavis said. "I don't care how good you are, when shuffle things up as much as we had to, you're going to have some growing pains.

"I think we got our feet back on the ground and everybody understands what their role is right now."

Those roles might change a little bit when the Vols (6-1, 3-1 SEC) head to South Carolina (5-2, 3-2) for 7:45 p.m. kickoff Saturday (TV: ESPN).

Since Syvelle Newton took over at quarterback for the Gamecocks in their third game of the season, South Carolina has been a different team.

Newton has thrown for 1,010 yards and is completing 63 percent of his passes.

He's also second in the SEC in pass efficiency, trailing only LSU's JaMarcus Russell.

But perhaps the biggest difference Newton makes is on the money down.

With Blake Mitchell starting under center, the Gamecocks converted just 29.2 percent of the time on third downs.

With Newton, who began his career at quarterback before moving to wide receiver, Carolina is slightly better than 50 percent (32-for-63).

UT coach Phillip Fulmer has noticed the trend.

"Since he's been in there, they've done a better job of converting third down," he said. "It's a big deal."

And Newton is a big threat.

In his four years at South Carolina, the 6-foot, 218-pounder has passed for 2,168 yards, rushed for 686 and caught 60 passes for 666 yards.

All those yards led to 30 touchdowns.

According to South Carolina's sports information department, Newton is one of only four players to top 600 yards in all three categories.

The others? Georgia's Hines Ward, SMU's Kyle Rote and Ohio's Dave Juenger.

Mobile quarterbacks always present a problem, but that won't change UT's mentality, Mitchell said.

"I think we're going to pin our ears back and go," he said. "We just got to play smarter. When we got on the level of the quarterback, turn back underneath so he doesn't have a rush lane to step up in.

"(Tackles) Turk (McBride) and Matt (McGlothlin) are going to do a great job pushing up the middle. We're still going to do the best we can to get back there, we've just got to play smarter when we get back there."

Linebacker Marvin Mitchell has a more succinct explanation: "We've got to do a great job playing assignment football."

Air Force and its speedy quarterback Shaun Carney were the biggest test of the Vols' ability to handle a running quarterback this season.

The result was 281 rushing yards and a 31-30 victory.

While no one runs Air Force's version of the option, Newton still presents the biggest threat to run -- let alone pass -- since Tennessee faced the Falcons and Florida back to back.

"It gives you a whole set of problems," Chavis said, "you have to deal with in terms of him running the football and make plays."

On Saturday, Mitchell and the Vols will just hope to make a little money.