Number one.

The Tennessee Volunteers (8-0, 5-0 SEC) laid claim to the top spot in the

land Saturday with a victory which wasn’t always pretty but was never in

doubt.

Minutes after the Vols completed their 37-13 triumph over

Alabama-Birmingham, Michigan State knocked No. 1 Ohio State out of the

national championship picture with a stunning 28-24 victory, much to the

delight of the 106,508 Homecoming crowd at Neyland Stadium as well as the

Vols.

“I’ll have to see it to believe it,” said UT wide receiver Peerless Price,

who caught six passes for 103 yards against UAB. “I thought those guys

would run the table.”

Tennessee head coach Phillip Fulmer was pleased with the Vols’ victory, but

afterward, he condemned college football’s reward system for running up the

score on overmatched opponents.

“It’s absolutely ridiculous to have to leave good players in when you’re up

a bunch of points in order to impress a computer or voters,” he said.

“But that’s the system they’ve created for us. I didn’t like it before and

I darn sure don’t like it now.”

The Vols came into Saturday’s game knowing everyone expected them to roll

to a comfortable victory against UAB (2-7).

At first, it looked as if the Vols would roll. It took Tennessee less than

two minutes to get on the scoreboard, courtesy of a 39-yard Jeff Hall field

goal.

But the Blazers, with their wishbone offense, were able to move the ball on

the ground against the nation’s 10th-ranked rushing defense, rolling up 211

yards on the ground and 282 total yards.

Lucious Foster led the UAB rushing attack with 83 yards on 12 carries.

It was the Tennessee running game, however, which produced the game’s first

touchdown.

Travis Henry’s 18-yard TD run with 4:39 left in the first quarter gave

Tennessee a 10-0 lead.

UAB answered after Vol quarterback Tee Martin was sacked and fumbled on his

own 48-yard line. The Blazers took it 45 yards on eight plays to set up a

20-yard Rhett Gallego field goal, which made it 10-3.

The Vols needed little more than three minutes to strike back and increase

their lead. Travis Stephens’ 11-yard run capped a nine-play, 65-yard drive

to give Tennessee a 17-3 lead.

After a UAB punt, the Vols were on the move again, going 46 yards on seven

plays, the last of which, a 1-yard TD sneak by Martin, made it 24-3 at

halftime.

Martin, who had a record-setting day in his last outing against South

Carolina, looked sharp again. The junior was 18-of-25 passing for 274 yards

and a touchdown.

He found Cedrick Wilson on a post route early in the third quarter for a

28-yard TD, his only touchdown pass of the game. The Vols, with a

commanding 31-3 lead at that point, cruised home, tacking on two more field

goals by Hall.

“You have to give UAB credit,” Fulmer said. “They played hard. They ran the

ball like they had to and shortened the game.”

The Blazers controlled the clock against Tennessee with their running game,

amassing over 35 minutes of possession time. The Vols knew they had to be

impressive, but it’s hard to score when the other team has the ball. The

main thing in the minds of the players, though, was that they got the

victory.

“A win is a win, no matter how much you win by,” said Stephens, who had 61

yards, but also lost two fumbles.

His backfield mate, Henry, had another fine game, rushing for 104 yards and

a touchdown on 17 carries, his second 100-yard game since replacing the

injured Jamal Lewis.

He said the UAB defense was better than it was given credit for.

“They had a pretty good defense,” Henry said. “They gave us problems the

whole game.”

Offensive coordinator David Cutcliffe was happy with the Vols’ offensive

performance, even though they might not have won by as wide a margin as

many had hoped.

“We did what we wanted to do when we wanted to do it,” he said.

But with a huge game coming up against unbeaten Arkansas, Wilson voiced a

few words of concern.

“I don’t think we played as well as we should have,” he said. “We can’t

have turnovers against a good team.”

Martin said it was a little disconcerting to have to sit on the sidelines

while UAB had the ball.

“It was frustrating,” he said. “(The offense) wants to be on the field and

make some things happen. They did a good job of keeping us off the

field.”

Martin, who is unbeaten as a starter, was also excited at the prospect of

the Vols assuming the No. 1 spot.

“We’ve been working for that all year,” he said. “We’ve been No. 3 and No.

2 and we’re ready to be No. 1. It’ll be a challenge for us to maintain (the

No. 1 ranking).

Tennessee, 8-0 for the first time since 1956, has now won 16 straight

regular season games and 13 in a row at home.

They will attempt to keep both of those streaks alive, not to mention their

SEC and national championship hopes, when No. 8 Arkansas rolls into

Knoxville for a titanic SEC showdown.

The game could be a dress rehearsal for the SEC Championship Game, but

there will be oh so much to play for Saturday at Neyland Stadium.