Hogs, Vols seeking to salvage season beset by youth, injuries

SCOTT CAIN
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Perhaps the only person more disappointed with his record in Tennessee this season than Phillip Fulmer is Al Gore.
By Rocky Top standards, the Vols' three SEC losses are considered just short of a flop.
Across the Mississippi River, the Arkansas Razorbacks are struggling with a decline of their own. After two seasons of bliss and New Year's Day bowl games, the Hogs are on the verge of slipping below .500 for the first time under Coach Houston Nutt.
So excuse ESPN if it doesn't play the Hogs and Vols prominently tonight during SportsCenter. The teams meet at Neyland Stadium already eliminated from their respective SEC division races for the first time in three years.
In 1998, Tennessee was ranked No. 1 and Arkansas No. 10 entering the game. Last year, the Vols were ranked third and had just moved into the No. 2 spot in the Bowl Championship Series standings, and the Razorbacks were about to spring back into the polls.
This year, neither team is ranked.
"It's definitely not the highly publicized game it was the last two years," Arkansas nose guard Curt Davis said. "We don't have the same records. But it's still Arkansas and Tennessee and in our hearts and minds it's the same. It's been an all-out war the last two years and we don't expect anything different."
Blame the downturns on that broad paintbrush stroke called inexperience. Both teams knew going in that it would be a transition season. Injuries on both sides have only made the ride bumpier.
Still, both teams have plenty at stake.
Arkansas (4-4, 1-4 SEC) is trying to salvage a third consecutive bowl appearance. It needs to win at least two of the last three games to become bowl-eligible.
Tennessee (5-3, 2-3) can land a desirable postseason destination by winning its last games against the Hogs, Kentucky and Vanderbilt. Outback and Cotton bowl officials might end up arm-wrestling over a Vols team with eight victories.
Gone from last year's Tennessee team are nine players who went in the NFL Draft, including five who left school early. With a small senior class and lacking offensive firepower, the Vols rely on grinding tailback Travis Henry and an unruly defense that ranks 11th nationally.
Five Razorbacks players were drafted from the team that upset Tennessee 28-24 in Fayetteville last year. Many of their successors are young and injured, which helps explain why they have lost four consecutive conference games after beating Alabama on Sept. 23.
The Vols don't sound like they are taking the Hogs for granted with last year's memories still clear enough. Arkansas had lost handily to Ole Miss the week before, just like this season.
"A record is the past, basically," said Vols tackle Reggie Coleman of Jonesboro. "You never know what they're going to do against you."
The last three games in the series have been decided by an average of five points.
It's Arkansas' first trip back to Knoxville since its devastating loss in 1998. Leading 24-22, all Arkansas needed to do to win was run out the final two minutes. Quarterback Clint Stoerner fumbled without being touched with 1:43 to play, and Tennessee scored the winning touchdown with 28 seconds left.
"It's still hard to watch that film, especially the last 1:58," Arkansas Coach Houston Nutt said.
Neither team resembles the ones that played each other the last two years.
Both teams have just eight returning starters in the lineup this week. Arkansas has 14 freshmen and Tennessee 13 on their 44-man two-deep rosters.
Both teams have started a true freshman at quarterback.
"I think that if you look around the country the ones that are really winning have experience at the trigger man, the quarterback, they have a mailman or a type of back that has been there a long time and an experienced defense," Nutt said. "Those guys are winning."
Tennessee being Tennessee, voters in The Associated Press poll assumed it would be another reload-and-win year. They voted the Vols as high as 11th before LSU and Georgia knocked them out of the polls in late September.
"We said from the very beginning of the year that it was going to be an interesting and exciting year because of the youth on our team," Fulmer said. "Whoever ended up the quarterback, he was going to be a young guy and we had those juniors who left school early and left a lot of open spaces for young guys to fill. Then we had an injury or two along the way to some better players who were upperclassmen."
Tennessee only has one more victory than Arkansas by the slimmest of margins. Except for a 70-3 roasting of Louisiana-Monroe, the victories have come by an average of 4.5 points.
The Vols' losses have come by 4 points, 7 points in overtime and 10 points.
Arkansas has averaged just 17 points in SEC games and its losses have been by an average margin of 17 points.
The difference between the programs is that Tennessee has brought in better overall talent, but Nutt said Arkansas is narrowing the gap.
"I'll take my two defensive lineman against your two and I'll take my two tailbacks against your two," Nutt said. "In spots we're just as good, and we're coming."
In the meantime, both teams are trying to make the best of a down season.

This article was published on Saturday, November 11, 2000

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