Vols football commentary

Commentary by David Climer, The Tennessean
 

It's nice to know that even in the high-profile, high-pressure world of college football, there's still a little room for Rudy.

Neyland Stadium was a case in point Saturday night.

When the Vols lined up for the extra-point attempt after their first http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Avis=DN&Dato=20091122&Kategori=SPORTS0601&Lopenr=911220801&Ref=PH&Profile=1035">touchdown against Vanderbilt, No. 93 stood front and center.

A quick check of the Vols' roster indicated that No. 93 was defensive tackle Montori Hughes.

But a quick check of the kicker's physique indicated that No. 93 was not 6-foot-4 and 312 pounds.

Where was Daniel Lincoln? What happened to Chad Cunningham? There was no entry for another kicker on the UT roster.

Who is that guy?

As it turned out, this No. 93 jersey belonged to Devin Mathis - all 5-10 and 180 pounds of him.

Yes, even amid the conspicuous consumption of the SEC, where every whimper and whim is covered in the media and on fan message boards, there occasionally is still the element of surprise.

Further study found that Mathis had been an all-state soccer player for Baylor School in Chattanooga in 2006. He tried out as a walk-on kicker at UT that fall and stuck around on the practice squad for a couple of years. His high point was kicking a field goal in an Orange & White Game.

Then he spent the '09 spring semester in Mexico as a part of an immersion-study program where he learned to speak Spanish fluently.

That, of course, didn't leave any time for him to make an impression on UT Coach Lane Kiffin, who spent part of his first spring practice at UT fretting over the place-kicker spot.

But over the past few weeks, Mathis couldn't help but notice that the UT kicking game still had not exactly taken flight. Lincoln's quadriceps injury worsened. Cunningham was dependable on kickoffs and punts, but field goals were far from a sure thing.

At one point, Lincoln and Cunningham combined to have three straight field-goal attempts blocked. Nobody knows if that is a conference record, but it certainly smacked of utter futility.

"There was an opening, and I'd been here before so I thought maybe I'd see if I could take another crack at it and I went for it again," Mathis said after the game.

So he came by the football complex and asked for a tryout. Assistant coach Eddie Gran, who coaches special teams, took a look at him. One thing led to another and on Saturday afternoon, Gran suggested to Kiffin that Mathis might be up to the challenge.

"I said, 'Has this guy ever kicked in college?' and he said, 'No, he's never kicked anywhere,' " Kiffin recalled.

That exchange tells you a thing or two about the state of the Vols' kicking game. But Mathis kicked well in pre-game warmups. He managed to follow the prescribed route through the "T" prior to kickoff without getting lost.

Then, with 12:02 showing on the clock in the first quarter, this bilingual soccer player delivered his first point for the Vols.

"I was blown away," he said.

Sounds like an orange-edged Rudy.