Adams: Outcome outweighs unusual methods

Photo by Amy Smotherman Burgess

Tennessee linebacker Rico McCoy stops South Carolina tailback Mike Davis at the goal line.

Is this any way to win a football game?

You blow a 21-0 lead and fall behind 24-21 with 1:24 to play. On your final drive, you fumble twice and get called for a false start on a game-tying field-goal attempt.

Then, after making enough mistakes to lose two games, your kicker (Daniel Lincoln, in this case) nails a career-long 48-yard field goal to send the game into overtime. One Lincoln field goal later, Tennessee had a 27-24 overtime victory over the South Carolina Gamecocks on Saturday night in Neyland Stadium.

Call the Vols lucky. Or call them clutch.

But be sure to call them in control of their own destiny in the SEC East.

Funny how that phrase keeps popping up this October. It's as though the division favorite changes by the hour.

It changed by the half in Neyland Stadium.

UT's 21-0 first-half lead coupled with Florida's loss to Georgia might have convinced a few Vol fans to make reservations in Atlanta for the SEC championship game. One half later, Gamecocks easily could have envisioned themselves in Atlanta after Ryan Succop hit a 49-yard field goal to give the Gamecocks a three-point lead with 1:24 to play.

Then came UT's clutch but clumsy drive to tie the game. When Succop couldn't match Lincoln's field goal in overtime, UT was tied in the loss column for the SEC East lead with Georgia, and it has the head-to-head tiebreaker advantage on the Bulldogs.

It's fair to say the Vols fell into the division driver's seat. In fact, they looked as bad in the second half as they did in losing to Alabama 41-17 a week earlier.

But they had that first-half cushion to fall back on. And it was a huge cushion.

The Vols capitalized on South Carolina turnovers in building a 21-0 lead. They needed every bit of that in the second half.

UT knows what to expect from coach Steve Spurrier, who tormented them when he was the head coach at Florida and even upset them as Duke's coach in 1988. But they might have forgotten the threat he poses after that first half.

In the second half, South Carolina's offense finally looked like Spurrier's offense. Quarterback Blake Mitchell was throwing like former Florida quarterback Danny Wuerffel. Cory Boyd was running like former Florida tailback Fred Taylor. And Kenny McKinley could have passed for any one of the many Florida receivers who ran freely through the UT secondary in the 1990s.

Sure, you could say UT won the game in the first half. But you also could say South Carolina lost before the first half.

UT fans don't want to think about what would have happened if Mitchell had started at quarterback. After starter Chris Smelley opened the second quarter with an interception, Spurrier turned to Mitchell, who has had an up-and-down career. In the second half, he was "up." So was the entire South Carolina offense.

After halftime, Mitchell completed 24 of 36 passes for 234 yards; South Carolina had 22 first downs and 355 yards. After halftime, UT had four first downs and 112 yards.

Is that any way to win a football game?

UT's answer: Who cares?

With all that has gone wrong in this UT season, the Vols don't have to apologize for winning. Never mind that they lost the lead and the momentum.

They were resilient and tough enough to regain them both with the game hanging in the balance.

Sports editor John Adams may be reached at 865-342-6284 or adamsj@knews.com.

© 2007, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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