Ainge looks ahead to first bowl start

It?s a little belated considering Ainge is a junior. Injuries and the team?s losing record last season have kept him from getting the chance sooner.

He started off and on for two years and secured the spot this season.

Ainge missed the Cotton Bowl as a freshman because of a separated shoulder. He started six games in his first season, splitting time with fellow freshman Brent Schaeffer and junior Rick Clausen.

He and Clausen rotated as starters last season, but the Vols finished 5-6 and didn?t go to a bowl.

?It?s a lot fun. It?s an opportunity for us to keep practicing, so that?s what?s the most important,? Ainge said about being at a bowl with the anticipation of playing.

Ainge, who is having one of the most efficient seasons ever for a Tennessee QB, sprained his right ankle at South Carolina on Oct. 28. He started the next game against LSU but could not finish after tweaking his other ankle. Redshirt freshman Jonathan Crompton started in place of him at Arkansas.

The Vols lost both games. Ainge returned for the final two games against Vanderbilt and Kentucky.

Ainge says his ankle has been rested during the holidays and is feeling much better.

?My ankle is more than good enough to do everything I need to do,? he said.

?I?m not as fast as I would before. I can?t move quite as well as I could. I?m a step slower in just about everything, but there?s nothing I can or can?t do because of it.?

Ainge is starting to sound like offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach David Cutcliffe when talking about Tennessee?s practices for the bowl. Cutcliffe is known as a stickler for practicing until perfect and then practicing some more. The focus has been one of the biggest improvements for the Vols from last year to this season.

?I think we all understand how important practice is to our success. You play like you practice. I think if there?s any team that kind of would show that would be us,? Ainge said. ?Those first eight or nine weeks of the season we had great practices all week, and we kind of tapered off a little bit a couple of those weeks toward the end of the season and our play showed.?

Ainge has completed 66.9 or 208 of 311 passes so far this season, putting him on track to set the school?s record for single-season completion percentage by surpassing Daryl Dickey, Heath Shuler and Peyton Manning.

FRESH FROSH: The Vols will have two freshmen starting on the offensive line for the Outback Bowl. Center Josh McNeil debuted as a starter against Memphis on Sept. 30 and has started every game since.

Right guard Jacques McClendon is slated to get his first career start Monday when he replaces injured Anthony Parker.

McNeil redshirted last season to recover from a shoulder injury while McClendon was in high school a year ago.

Offensive line coach Greg Adkins says the bowl practice has helped the young players improve.

?I wish we had gotten them more game experience out of some of them this year,? he said. ?We look forward to the offseason with those guys and spring practice.?

McClendon played in every game this season except Florida.

?I expect him to play well. He?s playing against a very good football player. We?ll try to help him out some, as much as we can,? Adkins said.

Adkins described McNeil?s season as ?outstanding for a freshman? especially considering he could not build up his upper-body strength because of the injury.

Another young player Adkins hopes to see improve in the offseason is freshman Chris Scott, who lost 60 pounds last summer before arriving at Tennessee.

UNDER THE LIGHTS: Penn State?s Joe Paterno was the opposing coach in the Vols? first night game at Neyland Stadium in 1972. Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer was then playing for the Vols.

Paterno recalled this week how he had agreed to play in Knoxville that season but didn?t want to play in September because of the heat. The Nittany Lions had lost at Tennessee previous season, but the game was played in December.

Paterno told then-Tennessee athletic director Bob Woodruff his conditions.

?I said we?ll come down only if it?s a night game. This is in May. They don?t have any lights,? Paterno said. ?(So) we became the first night game in Tennessee history.?