KNOXVILLE - Outclassed in nearly every way, the team with about 60 healthy, eligible players - including its redshirt candidates - mustered up one big play in overtime to win a college football game it had practically no business winning.
Tennessee, typically a Southeastern Conference power, needed equal parts grit and luck to overcome UAB, a middle-of-the-road team from the middle-of-the-road Conference USA.
Matt Simms' 25-yard touchdown pass to Denarius Moore lifted the Volunteers to a 32-29 double-overtime win over the Blazers, who lost despite nearly doubling the home team in offensive yards.
"It's hard to play any worse than we played," UT coach Derek Dooley said after the game. "But the one thing I gave [players] credit for, they just went out there and kept swinging. They didn't get fazed. At some point, I'm sitting there wondering why they're not fazed. ... But they kept playing, like it wasn't even happening - which is good. That's what ultimately won us the game.
"We had a lot of luck. Their kicker really helped us. How many did he miss?"
UAB sophomore Josh Zahn missed all five of his field-goal tries in regulation time - from 41, 35, 49, 30 and 54 yards - before connecting twice from short range in overtime. But the Blazers needed a touchdown at that point, and the offense that outgained UT 544-287 in yards couldn't cross the goal line in extra time.
The teams swapped field goals in the first overtime - Daniel Lincoln connected from 40 yards before Zahn responded from 35 - and Zahn hit again from 21 yards in the second extra period to give the Blazers their first lead of the day.
"We're mighty disappointed," UAB coach Neil Callaway said. "It was obvious that our kids fought hard, played hard. It was also obvious that we self-destructed in several areas that cost us the ballgame, and that's nobody's fault but our own."
Callaway clarified those areas.
"Field goals, and we gave up a touchdown on a blown coverage," he said.
It's debatable whether UAB actually blew a coverage on the game's final play. Two Blazers were near Moore in the back of the end zone, but he ran under a well-placed toss from a pressured Simms and corralled it for the win.
"[Moore] was my first read on the play," Simms said. "I came off the play-action, the safety flat-footed there for a split-second, and that was all the time I needed to make my decision.
"I just tried to put it in a place where he could go up and get it and jump over the corner[back], and that's exactly what he did."
Moore's teammates carried him nearly 30 yards toward midfield in a wild celebration that would have seemed more fitting if the C-USA team had won.
"Man, it's just an awesome feeling," Moore said. "It's just something that as a little kid, it's in your dreams, and I was just blessed to be in that situation."
Every Vol was blessed to be in that situation. The Vols' offense gained 56 yards in the second half and earned first downs just twice in 15 third-down tries all afternoon.
UAB, meanwhile, went a combined 11-for-25 on third- and fourth-down conversion tries and made two two-point conversions while overcoming a 16-point halftime deficit.
"That looked like two equal teams out there," Dooley said. "Actually, it really didn't. It looked like one superior team (UAB). It's where we are right now."
The Blazers ran 92 plays to UT's 61. UAB held the ball nearly 13 more minutes than the Vols.
Even Dooley, who privately and publicly challenged his team to play hard for a full game after a second-half meltdown against fifth-ranked Oregon two weeks earlier, said he wasn't sure how his players kept their spirit.
"I think they had to pick me up one series, for me to keep fighting," Dooley said. "I appreciate the fans staying. There was a point there where I'm shocked anybody was in the stadium, with the way we were playing."
Dooley told the Vols to enjoy Saturday night - "I'm never not going to celebrate a win," he said - but the players know Monday's video review won't be a pleasant session.
"You got the 'W,' so you're going to celebrate no matter what," UT senior tight end Luke Stocker said. "Ugly or not, this will always be remembered as a win. We obviously have a ton of corrections to make. We obviously didn't meet all our objectives. We know we have to play a lot better than this to win most of our games.
"But, like I said, we won. We kept grinding and kept grinding, and we never lost confidence that we were going to make a big play. I kept feeling we were getting closer and closer to getting it, and we got it.
"It took two overtimes, but we finally came through and got it."
And the Blazers knew they lost it.
"We left too many points on the board," said David Isabelle, the more athletic half of UAB's quarterback tandem. "I probably won't get any sleep tonight. I'm just going to stay up thinking about everything that could've been done."
Isabelle's pocket-passing sidekick, Bryan Ellis, was equally downtrodden. He completed 29 of 55 passes for 373 yards and a touchdown but also had an interception that UT safety Prentiss Waggner returned for a touchdown late in the first half.
"We had it right there; we just had so many mistakes," Ellis said. "I really thought we were going to go down there to kick a field goal to win it. There are so many plays that could've been made that went this way or that way."
They ultimately went UT's way.
"I'm going to look back at this game, and I'm going to have a lot of good memories, as far as just how our guys competed," UT senior middle linebacker Nick Reveiz said. "Things weren't going right for the offense. Things weren't going right for the defense. But you know what? We won at the end of the day, and that's something that, as a competitor, you love that. You've got to cherish those hard wins, no matter who it's against.
"At the end of the day it was a win, and we're grateful for it."
Contact Wes Rucker at wrucker@timesfreepress.com or 865-851-9739. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/wesrucker or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/tfpvolsbeat.
