Foster, Hardesty help run Arkansas out of spotlight

Arian Foster was staring at the ceiling in his room when it hit him.

It was Monday night earlier this week and all the talk was about Arkansas running backs Darren McFadden and Felix Jones.

Forgotten and overlooked, Foster came up with an answer.

"Our motto as running backs all week was 'Steal the Show,' " Foster said after Tennessee's convincing 34-13 victory at Neyland Stadium on Saturday.

"I told Montario (Hardesty) about it and he loved it. Every time I saw him all week in practice and all day today, that's what we said to each other."

The Vols (7-3, 4-2 SEC) lived up to Foster's motto.

Certainly it was primarily a beleaguered UT defense truly stealing the show, but Foster and the offense did their share of the damage.

They controlled the clock in the first half, made a few necessary big plays in the second and the Vols ended up singing in the post-game locker room.

Foster may have been singing the loudest.

He had some pent-up energy to release.

UT quarterback Erik Ainge said he had never seen the junior running back so quiet and so focused as he was prior to the showdown with the Razorbacks.

"Arian never shuts up and I've never seen him quieter before a game," Ainge said. "He was that focused.

"When you're a quarterback, that's a good feeling to see how focused and into their jobs everybody was today."

Assistant coach Trooper Taylor wouldn't let Foster forget about the absence of UT hype this week.

"I called him every night and texted him to let him know they were talking about the Heisman Trophy coming through Knoxville and they weren't talking about him," Taylor said.

McFadden got his 117 yards for the Hogs, but never sniffed the end zone.

Jones had three carries for 3 yards before leaving the game early with a deep thigh bruise.

The Vols didn't set any yardage records with 151 on the ground, but Foster had a huge 59-yard touchdown jaunt on the first possession of the second half to make it 27-3 UT.

Memories of a near-fatal second-half collapse against South Carolina were instantly erased.

"I got it and I knew as soon as I went two yards nobody was going to catch me," Foster said. "I just had a very intense focus this game.

"It was a big stage because their running backs had so much hype. I think the running backs stepped up and the offensive line did a great job."

A crowd of 104,459 watched the Vols set the stage with an 11-play, 64-yard drive to score on their first possession.

Included in the drive was a statement-making fourth-down conversion on an Ainge sneak at UT's 45-yard line.

"The coaches told us before the game we would go for it on fourth-and-short and we had that mind-set all week," offensive guard Anthony Parker said. "That was huge. It gave us a lot of confidence that we could get it done."

Ainge eventually found Austin Rogers on a 16-yard slant for the TD. The Arkansas offense was sitting on the bench for the first four minutes, 45 seconds of the game.

"In the first half, we had it 21 minutes and they had it nine," Ainge said. "We couldn't ask for anything better than that."

Foster finished with 83 yards on 13 carries and Hardesty chipped in 65 on 20 attempts.

Ainge went 12-for-25 for 128 yards and two TDs, the other score going 14 yards to Josh Briscoe.

"We're Tennessee and we like being in the spotlight," Briscoe said. "When you come in and talk about what a team is going to do to us, especially in our home, we take that very seriously."

So Briscoe went back to his "time-to-eat" analogy.

"I told the team two weeks ago against South Carolina the table was set for us and it was time to eat," he said. "We ate today and now I'm ready to go home and barbecue some pig tonight."

The show had been stolen.

Now the Vols find themselves on the verge of stealing an SEC East championship.

"We know if we keep winning we're going to be in Atlanta," Ainge said. "That's how it has been and we were given a second chance.

"You don't always get second chances and we've got to make the most of it."

© 2007, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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