Peyton Manning threw for 317 yards and three scores in littlemore than a half and Peerless Price added a pair of longtouchdown receptions as ninth-ranked Tennessee kept its slimhopes for a bowl alliance berth alive with a 56-10 thrashing ofSoutheastern Conference foe Kentucky.
Manning bounced back from a sprained knee last week to complete16-of-23 passes. He became the first quarterback in schoolhistory to surpass 3,000 yards in one season and has posted four300-yard games this season.
“My knee feels ok,” said Manning. “I had no problems today. Wehad a lot of confidence coming in. We wanted to come out an puta lot of points on the board and accumulate a lot of yards. Wehad to quit stopping ourselves like we had done in past games.”
“I was proud of this team,” said Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer.”When we got on track offensively, we felt we could throw theball. I can’t say enough about the gutty performance byManning.”
Manning found Price on scoring tosses of 80 and 59 yards as theVolunteers improved to 8-2, 6-1 in the SEC East. Joey Kent addedfour catches for 64 yards, reaching 1,000 yards receiving forthe second consecutive season.
Kentucky (4-7, 3-5 SEC East) had won three straight but wasunable to contain Tennessee’s offense, which outgained theWildcats, 638-154. It was the first loss for Kentucky since theannouncement that coach Bill Curry would not return for the 1997season.
Curry’s final game at Kentucky saw his squad lose the “Battlefor the Beer Barrel” for the 12th straight season.
“I don’t know what will come next,” Curry said. “I will thinkabout it somewhere. Our preparation this week may have beenbetter. They knew what they wanted to do. We had been drivingourselves in practice. Our practices have been terrific. Thisteam has worked hard.
“I was numb after the game. It all seemed so difficult to takein. I walked on this field for the first time as a freshman in1960. I guess I started and finished here.”
Kentucky quarterback Billy Jack Haskins completed 8-of-18 passesfor 75 yards. Tennessee’s defense has held three straightopponents under 100 yards passing.
Kentucky jumped on top 3-0 just under seven minutes into thegame. But the Volunteers took the ensuing kickoff and Manningfound Price with an 80-yard scoring strike. Tennessee struckagain less than a minute later on a seven-yard scoring run byJay Graham for a 14-3 advantage.
The Wildcats answered on a 24-yard touchdown pass from Haskinsto Norman Mason with 2:22 left in the quarter but it was allTennessee from that point. Chester Ford plunged over from the 1and Manning hit Andy McCullough with a 38-yard touchdown tossfor a 28-10 halftime advantage.
Manning added a 59-yard touchdown pass to Price just after thehalf and sat the remainder of the game. Backup JeremaineCopeland stepped in and directed the offense to two moretouchdowns in the third quarter, including his own 30-yard run.
Team 1 2 3 4 F Kentucky Wildcats 10 0 0 0 10 Tennessee Volunteers 14 14 28 0 56 First Quarter Kentucky--6:40--Brian Johnson 23 yard field goal Tennessee--8:29--P Price 80 yard TD pass from Manning Tennessee--8:29--Jeff Hall extra point Tennessee--9:22--Tyrone Graham 7 yard TD run Tennessee--9:22--Jeff Hall extra point Kentucky--12:38--N Mason 24 yard TD pass from Haskins Kentucky--12:38--Brian Johnson extra point Second Quarter Tennessee--4:14--Chester Ford 1 yard TD run Tennessee--4:14--Jeff Hall extra point Tennessee--9:43--McCullough 38 yard TD pass from Manning Tennessee--9:43--Jeff Hall extra point Third Quarter Tennessee--1:48--P Price 59 yard TD pass from P Manning Tennessee--1:48--Jeff Hall extra point Tennessee--6:08--Jay Graham 35 yard TD run Tennessee--6:08--Jeff Hall extra point Tennessee--6:57--R Austin 26 yard interception return for TD Tennessee--6:57--Jeff Hall extra point Tennessee--12:19--Jeremaine Copeland 30 yard TD run Tennessee--12:19--Jeff Hall extra point Fourth Quarter No Scoring Wildcats Volunteers FIRST DOWNS 11 27 Rushing 5 13 Passing 5 13 Penalty 1 1 RUSHING ATTEMPTS 33 45 YARDS RUSHING 97 288 (YARDS LOST RUSHING) -39 -20 NET YARDS RUSHING 58 268 NET YARDS PASSING 96 370 Passes Attempted 25 31 Passes Completed 11 21 Had Intercepted 1 1 TOTAL OFFENSIVE PLAYS 58 76 TOTAL NET YARDS 154 638 Avg. Gain Per Play 2.7 8.4 RETURN YARDS 0 61 FUMBLES-FUMBLES LOST 2/ 1 3/ 2 PENALTIES:NUMBER-YARDS 6/ 58 9/ 78 INTERCEPTIONS:NUMBER-YARDS 1/ 0 1/ 26 PUNTS-YARDS 10/ 412 0/ 0 Avg. Per Punt 41.2 - PUNT RETURNS-YARDS 0- 0 4- 35 KICKOFF RETURNS-YARDS 4- 74 4- 97 POSSESSION TIME 28:13 31:47 THIRD-DOWN CONVERSIONS 2-15 10-14 SACKED-YARDS LOST 1/ -8 1/ -8 RUSHING-- Kentucky: Der.Logan 23-60, Jim.Haley 4-6, Bil.Haskins 6--8 Tennessee: Jay Graham 8-75, Jer.Copeland 7-60, Sha.Bryson 2-42, Tam.Martin 4-24, Bri.Darden 5-21, Mar.Levine 3-20, Pee.Price 1-12, Der.Edmonds 5-11, Che.Ford 4-8, Ron.Pillow 2-6, Eri.Lane 1-3, Pey.Manning 3--14 PASSING-- Kentucky: Bil.Haskins 8-18-1-75, Tim Couch 3-7-0-21 Tennessee: Pey.Manning 16-23-1-317, Jer.Copeland 4-6-0-40, Tam.Martin 1-2-0-13 RECEIVING-- Kentucky: Isa.Curtis, III 6-55, Der.Logan 2--7, Nor.Mason 1-24, Jay.Simms 1-17, Kev.Coleman 1-7 Tennessee: Mar.Nash 5-41, Joe.Kent 4-60, Pee.Price 3-143, And.McCullough 2-56, Tyr.Graham 1-19, Eri.Diogu 1-13, Tro.Pratt 1-13, Jer.Copeland 1-8, Dus.Moore 1-8, Joh.Sartelle 1-7, Eri.Lane 1-2
