Vols won everything but the final score

KNOXVILLE -- UCLA quarterback Kevin Prince hardly looked like he came out on the winning side of Saturday's football game against Tennessee.

There were welts and bruises all over his 6-foot-2, 219-pound frame. He often limped off the Neyland Stadium field after being sacked three times and continually harassed. Then there was the tooth that became cracked on his final carry of the afternoon, which ended roughly with a safety after he was crushed by UT defensive back Dennis Rogan at the Bruins goal line.

"I've never heard it so loud," Prince said inside the Bruins' cramped locker rooms beneath Neyland's south stands. "I've never been hit so hard."

And that was the impression the Big Orange desperately wanted to leave on UCLA after last season's bitter overtime defeat inside the Rose Bowl.

Instead, the Bruins left with a win and this thought from Bruins defensive back Rahim Moore: "They're never going to forget this win. We did what we wanted to do: We made it real quite out there."

Some would say this was a self-inflicted wound, one mostly opened by UT quarterback Jonathan Crompton's three interceptions and one fumble. It erased a Big Orange defensive performance that held UCLA to 186 total yards, one touchdown and four field goals, despite four drives starting in UT territory.

Even winning coach Rick Neuheisel pulled back from questioning Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin's decision to run rather than pass on a late fourth-and-goal from the UCLA 2, noting: "I'm never one to second-guess play calling. I've been second-guessed enough myself."

Still, UCLA linebacker Reggie Carter, who led the Bruins with 14 tackles, said of that Montario Hardesty run to the 1, "We expected it. They're a run team. That's what they do."

What the Bruins did was get the best of both worlds in an early-season nonconference game.

"When they say this is hallowed ground, it is," Neuheisel said. "It's really a privilege to play in this environment. The crowd was amazing. When you see all this orange, it's not like they called each other up asking what they were going to wear. They bleed this stuff."

But no one probably bled more than the battered Prince of Bel Air.

"He's got blood all over his face, and maybe a tooth out," the UCLA coach said of his quarterback. "The good news is his dad's a dentist, so he should be able to get his tooth fixed at a low cost."

E-mail Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com