BATON ROUGE ? Tennessee is a touchdown underdog to LSU in the Southeastern Conference Championship Game Saturday, and it's OK you can go ahead and put some more points on top of that. Tennessee's players like being the dog. Their mascot is a Bluetick Hound after all, and they plan on riding it to the Georgia Dome in Atlanta for the 3 p.m. kickoff on CBS. The Vols, ranked No. 14 in the Bowl Championship Series rankings, are 9-3 after an up-and-down season. BCS No. 7 LSU is 10-2 after falling from No. 1 last week with a home loss to Arkansas. "We're not even supposed to be where we are right now," Tennessee linebacker Jerod Mayo said on a teleconference this week. "You know, we were supposed to lose two out of three these last three games. We've been the underdogs all year. It's a role I think this team relishes. We enjoy it, and hopefully we'll come out and play like we have been these last couple of weeks." Tennessee was a three-point underdog at Kentucky last week and won 52-50 in four overtimes to reach Saturday's title game. Arkansas was a slight favorite to beat Tennessee on Nov. 10 in Knoxville, Tenn., but lost 34-13. Unranked Tennessee was a slight favorite to beat No. 12 Georgia on Oct. 6 in Knoxville, but few gave the Vols a real chance because they were coming off recent 45-31 and 59-20 losses at California and at Florida. Fans were demanding that UT coach Phillip Fulmer be fired if he lost to Georgia. Tennessee shocked the world with a 35-14 victory. "I just think it's heart," Mayo said. "This team has shown character and heart, and it starts with coach Fulmer and his staff. They've been criticized all year from the media, from the fans and things like that. We've seen how they reacted and persevered through all of the talk, and it just trickles down to the players on the field. We've had a chip on our shoulder the whole year." One story before the Georgia game stated unnamed former Tennessee players wanted a coaching change, which particularly angered Fulmer. "I know what everybody thought and saw and everything," Fulmer said this week. "But I don't think I ever doubted our team or our staff. It was just a matter of how soon we could get back on course." The week after Georgia, Tennessee won at Mississippi State to improve to 4-2. Then it digressed in a 41-17 loss at Alabama. "A lot of people wrote us off again after the Alabama game," tight end Chris Brown said. "It's been a fun season for us." Tennessee has won five straight since leaving Alabama, including another one in overtime 27-24 over South Carolina. "I think we do still have a chip on our shoulder," Brown said. "A lot of people were sitting here counting us out. They can't count us out anymore because we've done what we've done and succeeded in winning the games that we needed to win." Yet, Georgia at 10-2 is a full 10 spots ahead of Tennessee in the BCS rankings at No. 4 and entertaining outside thoughts of reaching the BCS national championship game. "A lot of people don't realize we did beat Georgia," Brown said. "They are hot and they are playing extremely well right now, but we're hot and playing well, too. Fans are going to be fans and people are going to pick and choose who they want to pick and they want to see certain teams. We can't control that. All we can control is how Tennessee plays football." That was enough to win the SEC East despite three losses by a total of 77 points. "We know we're in the SEC championship for a reason," Brown said. "We beat the teams we needed to beat at the times we needed to beat them. People can say what they want to say, but it's all about us. We're looking forward to going out there and trying to win the SEC championship." Mayo added, "If we put two halves together, we can come out with a victory." Link To Original Article
