UT’s hopes for title season come down to wire against UAB

Those goals looked laughable at times and nearly became out of reach in Saturday’s opener against UAB before Tennessee escaped with a 17-10 win.

Coach Phillip Fulmer said Sunday the game should have left the team humbled.

“It could be exactly what we needed in the fact that we had to play hard for four quarters,” he said. “We’ll have to do that several times down the road.”

The good news is the Vols have a week off before back-to-back road games at Florida and LSU.

A loss would have been much worse. Just ask Oklahoma after losing to TCU on Saturday.

“It’s not the end of the world at all,” Fulmer said.

All the hype about Tennessee was based on talent, experience and depth on offense and defense.

Even UAB coach Watson Brown, who last faced the Vols in their undefeated and national championship season in 1998, said Tennessee was one of the best teams he’d seen.

“Great ability. They’ve got two big games coming up, and (Fulmer) will set the tone for their season,” Brown said.

The quarterback race between Clausen and sophomore Erik Ainge was not seen as a weakness because both started games last year and won.

Fulmer said Sunday he wanted to discuss the situation with his staff before making any decisions about which quarterback will take the first snap on Sept. 17 at The Swamp.

Ainge got the nod in the opener over Clausen, a senior and younger brother of former Vol QB Casey Clausen. But Ainge was intercepted twice and looked lost at times.

Fulmer said before the game both quarterbacks would play, and he had decided Clausen would come in for the third series. The rest of the rotation was based on the flow of the game, Fulmer said.

Clausen finished 17-of-24 for 217 yards with one interception and one touchdown, a 12-yarder to C.J. Fayton in the second quarter that was the Vols’ final score in the game.

Ainge went 5-of-14 with two interceptions — both by Brandon Register — and a 3-yard TD pass to Chris Hannon in the first quarter.

UAB’s Darrell Hackney proved to be the most impressive quarterback on the field. The Blazers (0-1) couldn’t get much going in the run game, but Hackney kept them in the game by dodging defenders and making incredible passes.

“Their quarterback played outstanding,” Fulmer said. “I hugged his neck after the game.”

Hackney nearly pulled off the upset in the waning minutes of the fourth quarter.

Register set up the Blazers’ final drive with his second interception at the Tennessee 45. Jesse Mahelona sacked Hackney for a loss of 8 yards on the first play of the drive, but Hackney drove UAB to the Vols 8.

Trey Chaney was stopped for a loss of 3 yards on the next play, and Hackney could not complete passes on third and fourth down. His final pass went over Lance Rhodes’ head in the end zone with less than four minutes to go.

“We were going for Lance Rhodes all the way because they left the middle open all game,” Hackney said. “I don’t expect him to make that play every time, but you have to make that play in big games.”

Hackney was 27-of-38 for 282 yards with one interception and one touchdown.

UAB’s hype looked well-deserved coming off the program’s first bowl trip. The Blazers have been talking about contending for the Conference USA title.

“We lost the game in the first half I thought. We didn’t have the poise and the confidence in the first half we had in the second half,” Brown said.

UAB’s defense shut out Tennessee in the second half and made the Vols’ running game look less than spectacular.

Although Gerald Riggs had 110 yards on 23 carries, his longest run of the day was 15 yards.

Fulmer said of the running game: “It looked like a bunch of mush at times.”