Resilient Volunteers win away from unlikely SEC East crown

LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY - Who says college football doesn't have playoff games?

The way Tennessee quarterback Erik Ainge looks at it, the 19th-ranked Volunteers have been in the playoffs for weeks.

To Ainge and the rest of the Volunteers (8-3, 5-2 SEC), Saturday's game against Kentucky (7-4, 3-4) is just another step in a playoff march that began more than a month ago.

``I don't think this weekend will be any different from a pressure standpoint because we've been playing 'have to win' the last month and a half,'' Ainge said.

It's been that way almost all season for the Volunteers, who have spent most of the year climbing into and then deftly back out of hole after hole.

Humbling losses to Florida and the Alabama seemed to have Tennessee out of the thick of the SEC East race before the leaves changed color.

But perhaps it's only fitting that in this topsy turvy season a win over the similarly up-and-down Wildcats would land Tennessee in the SEC title game against No. 1 LSU.

Tennessee would finish tied with Georgia atop the SEC East with a win, and earn the berth to the title game because of its victory over the Bulldogs in October.

Coach Phillip Fulmer said the Volunteers aren't the same team that lost to Alabama 41-17 five weeks ago. Maybe, but the Volunteers haven't exactly been dominant during their four-game winning streak. They needed overtime to beat South Carolina last month and survived a yearly scare by Vanderbilt when they rallied from a 16-point fourth quarter deficit to edge the Commodores.

Tennessee isn't much on style points, but it won't matter if they can beat the Wildcats for the 23rd straight time. They don't care how they get to Atlanta for the title game, just so long as they're invited.

``The biggest thing we have done is stick together, believe in each other and continue to fight,'' Fulmer said. ``We've pushed ourselves to where we are at this point. There is a group of hardworking, tough-minded young men on this team that absolutely wouldn't let go during the season.''

It's the kind of resiliency Kentucky will need if it wants to follow through on its promise to make an impact in the SEC race this year.

The Wildcats have struggled since upsetting LSU on Oct. 13, losing three of four and tumbling out of the Top 25. A win over the Volunteers would likely guarantee the Wildcats could pack some shorts to their bowl game destination, and validate the work of a senior class that has tried to lift the program from its perennial spot near the bottom of the conference.

``We feel like we need to win at least one more game than we did last year,'' said linebacker Braxton Kelley. ``We have let this season slip out of our hands a little. We had a great season in our grasp, but now we can only settle for a good season, but that's only if we win this game.''

To do it and send Georgia to the title game rather than the Volunteers, Kentucky will need to rediscover the offensive firepower that led them to upsets of Louisville and LSU. The Wildcats averaged 42 points during their first eight games, a number that has dropped to 18 points a game in their last three contests.

Part of the blame lies on a running game that has struggled to get going. Injuries have been part of the problem, forcing fourth-stringer Derrick Locke to play a prominent role. While Locke has played well, he hasn't made opponents pay for focusing on quarterback Andre Woodson and one of the SEC's most potent passing attacks.

``We need balance,'' said Kentucky coach Rich Brooks.

More importantly, the Wildcats need to believe they can do something that no Kentucky team good or bad has done since before most of the current Wildcats were born.

The Volunteers have owned the series for years. The Wildcats would like to make it a rivalry. Ruining Tennessee's shot at a conference title and a Bowl Championship Series berth would give the series some much-needed spice.

``When you have lost that many games, the rivalry kind of dies out,'' Kelley said. ``Losing 22 games, with the longest losing streak in the NCAA right now is not cool. It's not fun to be known as a team that has lost to another team 22 straight times.''

If the Volunteers can make it 23 straight, the disappointments of the early fall will fade away.

``Our team certainly has been tough and resilient during the course of the season,'' Fulmer said. ``We had a couple of disappointing losses early where we didn't play well, some injuries we had to fight though and certainly some youth in spots, but here we are in the last week of the regular season playing for the SEC Eastern Division Championship. I think it's a great compliment to the coaches, a great compliment to the players and their toughness.''