Instant Analysis: Outback Bowl

Yes, the SEC defeated the Big Ten in a bowl game, and yes, it’s always better to be the victor than the loser, but after a New Year’s nightmare of a football game, no college football fan should view Tennessee’s triumph over Wisconsin as any kind of definitive statement.

Oh, you can already hear the talk shows revving up in the immediate aftermath of this miscue-filled mess, in which the Vols vanquished Bucky Badger’s boys. You can hear the predictable refrains about SEC supremacy and Big Ten futility. To a certain extent, these familiar choruses are true. However, arguments become excessive and tired when they’re used too frequently and reflexively. There is a time to tout the SEC and bash the Big Ten, but the 2008 Outback Bowl would not be one of those occasions. Rocky Top toppled Wisconsin only because the Badgers were worse, not because the Children of the Checkerboard displayed gloriously ascendant gridiron greatness.

This sloppy slugfest, which featured delightfully vigorous competition but dreadfully vexing coaching performances, was ultimately decided when the Vols picked off Wisconsin quarterback Tyler Donovan at the goal line with 28 seconds left in regulation. However, a slew of slip-ups backed the Badgers into a corner before their last-ditch drive ended in failure. With better coaching in the realms of both play calling and sideline communication, Wisconsin might not have had to gamble on its last drive… if it needed a last drive at all.

The biggest reason why Wisconsin stole defeat from Tennessee’s grasp came several minutes before the frantic fight against the final seconds. Just past the midway point of the fourth quarter, the Badgers cracked the Tennessee red zone behind the power running of P.J. Hill. But as soon as Wisconsin found down-Hill momentum on the ground, head coach Bret Bielema and offensive coordinator Paul Chryst abandoned their prized and powerful pigskin pulverizer. A gimmick run from a wide receiver blunted the momentum of the drive, and on a 4th and 2 just inside the Tennessee 10, a bizarre rollout pass with Donovan resulted in an incomplete pass forced by the hustle of the Vols’ all-world defensive standout, linebacker Jerod Mayo. A run by Hill would have made sense, but the truly baffling element of the call was that it didn’t even use play action to make the Tennessee defense bite on the threat of a run. When that opportunity went by the boards, Wisconsin lost its best chance to steal a victory.

The other big reason why the Badgers scrambled at the end instead of taking a victory knee or, at the very least, matriculating the ball downfield in search of a mere field goal, was that Wisconsin couldn’t line up properly. Two simple gaffes on offense cost the Badgers two timeouts that loomed large at game’s end. While Tennessee was unable to put Wisconsin away on the scoreboard, the Vols were at least able to strip the Badgers of all remaining timeouts when Donovan got his hands on the ball at his own 12 with 1:26 left in the game. With better attention to detail, the final phase of this football fight could have been substantially different. But the little things came back to haunt the Badgers on a day when Tennessee did its own share of fumbling and floundering.

Volunteer head coach Philip Fulmer had his team ready to play, a welcome change from last year’s Outback Bowl, in which the somnambulant squad suffered a smackdown at the hands of Penn State. But while Fulmer motivated his troops on the first day of 2008, his decision making left a lot to be desired.

Much as Bielema abandoned P.J. Hill at crunch time, Fulmer shockingly snubbed his best player, quarterback Erik Ainge, in money situations. With the Vols up by four and driving deep in Wisconsin territory with roughly ten minutes left in regulation, Fulmer suddenly pulled Ainge despite the fact that the signal caller had converted a 3rd and 16, a 3rd and 8, and then a 4th and 3 on a long, championship-caliber drive that seemed set to bury the Badgers. Ainge’s last collegiate game witnessed the maximization of the young man’s talents, as a seasoned leader under center provided polish and precision for Fulmer and departing offensive coordinator David Cutcliffe, who now heads to Duke to coach the Blue Devils. But just when Ainge had the Vols on the verge of a victory-sealing touchdown, Fulmer yanked him out of the lineup in favor of running quarterback Gerald Jones.

Predictably, the Vols couldn’t keep up with the Joneses, as Wisconsin’s defense stuffed the change-of-pace ground game, and what looked like a likely touchdown turned into a blocked field goal just a few plays later. Instead of a 28-17 hammer-lock lead, the Vols maintained a precarious four-point advantage, giving Wisconsin every chance in the world to overcome a 14-point first-half deficit. But as everyone in Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium would soon find out, the Badgers weren’t able to avoid the same basic mistakes Tennessee made.

Talk radio hosts, show restraint here. The Children of the Checkerboard didn’t outclass the Badgers; the SEC didn’t flex its muscles with a decisive and dazzling display of awesome athletic excellence. No, this particular pigskin prizefight merely indicated that a Big Ten bunch did a better job of giving away a bowl victory. Tennessee wasn’t an impressive winner on a hazy afternoon in the Sunshine State; Wisconsin simply managed to be the better loser, the team that found a way to make mistakes even more damaging than the ones committed by the Vols.

Tennessee tried to lose, but Wisconsin succeeded. In the offseason to come, both of these programs will want to go Out Back to the practice field and correct a boatload of issues.