Mattingly: '94 Gator Bowl a sign of things to come for UT

There are good bowl games, and there are bad ones. Hang around long enough, and you'll see more than your share of each. Bowl games are hyped to the heavens, but you never know what you're going to get until you get there. Sometimes not even then.

There is often a surprise or two, a choice morsel that sticks in the memory banks. Every now and then, it's two games in one, each team dominating for a half. Last man standing wins.

One of the most intriguing Tennessee bowl games took place Dec. 30, 1994, at the much-beloved Florida Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville. The game didn't involve Tennessee versus Florida.

The 50th Gator Bowl contest, the finale of three "Outback Gator Bowls," matched Tennessee and Virginia Tech. The game was played in Gainesville because of renovations to the real Gator Bowl in Jacksonville.

It was quite a comeback for the Vols in 1994. Tennessee finished with an 8-4 record, winning seven of its last eight games after a 1-3 start. The Vols had lost quarterbacks Jerry Colquitt in the opener at UCLA and Todd Helton in the Mississippi State game, leaving leadership of the Vols' offense to freshmen Peyton Manning and Branndon Stewart. The Vols had concluded the regular season with decisive wins, 52-0 against Kentucky and 65-0 at Vanderbilt.

Virginia Tech started 7-1, but lost three of its last four games, including a regular season-ending 42-23 home loss to Virginia.

A crowd estimated at 67,000 showed up for the first meeting between the schools since 1937, only the eighth overall. Those who might have been worried about Tennessee not being ready to play had to have been impressed with the Vols' wire-to-wire effort.

Tennessee bolted to a 35-10 halftime lead, behind the running of Morristown's James "Little Man" Stewart, a senior who scored twice and tossed a 19-yard touchdown pass to Kendrick Jones for good measure.

Manning threw a 36-yard touchdown pass to fellow freshman Marcus Nash, and Jay Graham added another touchdown. The Vols were on cruise control from that point. The Vols scored 35 points in just 11:46 possession time.

Stewart scored a third touchdown in the fourth quarter. All-America placekicker John Becksvoort booted a 19-yard field goal and six extra points.

Tyrone Hines had an interception that led to the Vols' first score, while Shawn Summers had a long punt return to set up the fourth-quarter score. The final was 45-23.

Stewart carried 22 times for 85 yards. Manning, whose father, Archie, led a 34-17 Ole Miss win over Tech in the 1968 Liberty Bowl, completed 12 of 19 passes for 189 yards.

Joey Kent caught six passes for 116 yards, including a diving, all-out effort for 42 yards a play before Nash's TD catch.

"We're clicking on a lot of cylinders right now," Phillip Fulmer said afterwards. "We had a great game plan on both sides of the ball."

There were a couple of other aspects of the game that caught everybody's attention.

On their arrival at the stadium, fans were treated to the sight of Tennessee's trademark orange and white checkerboards in the north end zone.

The effect was surreal, something out of the old "Twilight Zone" television series. There were all kinds of Florida orange and blue around the stadium, but there also was Tennessee orange down on the field.

If that weren't enough, as the designated "home team," Tennessee also used Florida's dressing room.

As for the checkerboards in the end zone, former USC quarterback Pat Haden noted on the WTBS broadcast that Steve Spurrier had some thoughts about the trademark Vol squares being seen on the Florida greensward.

"I was talking to the groundskeeper before this game," Haden said.

Haden mentioned the unnamed groundskeeper quoting Spurrier as follows: "I don't mind it being in here for one game, but we have recruits coming in Jan. 13, and I want those checkerboards out of there."

The game catapulted the Vols to an amazing four-year run from 1995 through 1998 - 45-5 over that time frame. Stewart saw it coming.

"They're going to come back and start the season like we ended it," Stewart said.

He knew whereof he spoke. Tennessee was 11-1 in 1995 and won the Citrus Bowl, 20-14 over Ohio State. It was 10-2 in 1996, with a 48-28 Citrus Bowl win over Northwestern. It was 11-2, with the SEC title, in 1997. In 1998, there was another SEC title, a 13-0 record, and the national title coming to Knoxville after a 23-16 win over Florida State in Tempe, Ariz.

Bowl games often foretell the seasons to come. The 1994 Gator Bowl gave a provocative glimpse of the Tennessee success that would follow over the next four years.

Tom Mattingly is the author of "The Tennessee Football Vault: The Story of the Tennessee Volunteers, 1891-2006" (2006), to be published in second edition in 2008, and "Tennessee Football: The Peyton Manning Years" (1998). He may be reached at tjmshm@comcast.net. His News Sentinel blog is called "The Vol Historian."