2001 Tennessee Volunteers football team The 2001 Tennessee Volunteers football team represented the University of Tennessee in the 2001 college football season . The team was coached by Phillip Fulmer . The Vols played their home games in Neyland Stadium and competed in the Eastern Division of the SEC . The Vols finished the season 10 – 2 , 7 – 1 in SEC play and won the Citrus Bowl 45 – 17 to Michigan . Game notes . Syracuse . KNOXVILLE , Tenn . ( AP ) – Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer thought the Volunteers might have gotten off to too good of a start for their own good with a touchdown on their first offensive play . " Sometimes that ' s a blessing and sometimes that ' s a curse to get off to that kind of start , " Fulmer said . Casey Clausen connected with Donte Stallworth on a 37 - yard touchdown pass less than two minutes into game , but the No . 8 Vols ' offense struggled for most of the game en route to a 33 – 9 season - opening victory over Syracuse on Saturday . " Seven points I guess is a blessing , " Fulmer said " But we lost some of what we were trying to do focus - wise there for a little bit . Execution wasn ' t good for 2 quarters . " John Henderson , Tennessee ' s star defensive tackle who chose another year of college instead of an early trip to the NFL , gave the Vols a much needed boost in the third quarter . With Tennessee ahead 12 – 3 despite an anemic offense , Syracuse ( 0 – 2 ) turned the ball over when the snap sailed over the head of Troy Nunes , who chased it 31 yards toward the Vols ' end zone . Henderson was right behind him and recovered it at the Syracuse 5 . Travis Stephens , a fifth - year senior and last year ' s backup to Travis Henry , pushed through the line from 4 yards out for the touchdown to put Tennessee ahead 19 – 3 with 5 : 53 to go in the quarter . Stephens , who has been plagued with injuries and lost starting jobs to Jamal Lewis and Henry , finished with a career - high 111 yards on 14 carries , including long runs of 40 and 34 yards . It was the most he had handled the ball since rushing for 107 yards against Georgia in 1998 . " I just want to make the best of my opportunities , " he said . " Travis won ' t say much , " Fulmer interrupted . " But this kid worked in practice for a purpose to prove he can play every down at this level . I ' m really proud of him . " With Tennessee ahead 19 – 3 with 6 : 35 to go and the game pretty much decided , the teams scored three touchdowns in 30 seconds . Stephens ' backup , Corey Larkins , scored twice on TD runs of 38 and 16 yards . Johnnie Morant caught a 74 - yard touchdown pass from Syracuse backup quarterback , R . J . Anderson . Clausen looked anything but spectacular in his second season after taking over in mid - season last year and leading the Vols to sixth straight wins in the regular season . He was 14 - of - 27 for 136 yards and connected with Stallworth just two more times after the TD . " If we have games like this all year with that part of the offense , I ' ll be bald before the end of the season , " Fulmer said . " I couldn ' t believe some of the things that happened . " Aside from the late offensive spurt , defense ruled the day for both teams . " I don ' t think the score is indicative of how well our defense played , " Syracuse coach Paul Pasqualoni said . " Coming in here , we knew we had to play a nearly mistake - free game . " Quentin Harris intercepted Clausen on the Vols ' third possession in the game . Tennessee ' s Rashad Baker returned the favor , picking off Nunes three plays later . Neither offense could cash in those turnovers for points . Syracuse defensive end Dwight Freeney extended his sack streak to 10 games , getting at Clausen twice . " I thought we came out focused and the crowd was out of the game , " Freeney said . " We have the whole season ahead of us , and who ' s to say we can ' t win them all ? " Nunes had just as tough a day as Clausen . Constantin Ritzman gave Tennessee a 9 – 0 lead when he tackled Nunes in the end zone for a safety . Alex Walls ' 24 - yard field goal put Tennessee ahead 12 – 0 before halftime . Nunes , who is right - handed , left the field at the beginning of the fourth quarter , after chipping his left wrist bone when he was tackled . He returned to the field with the arm heavily wrapped but didn ' t play the rest of the game . Syracuse ' s defense gave its offense a chance at the beginning of the second half to cut the lead . Will Hunter batted the ball away from Clausen , and Freeney recovered it at the Tennessee 5 . On fourth down , the Orangemen settled for Justin Sujansky ' s 22 - yard field goal to make it 12 – 3 with 8 : 22 to go in the third quarter . The Vols have won six straight home openers by at least 24 points . The Orangemen started the season with two losses for the first time since 1996 . Syracuse went on to go and finish in the Big East Conference . 2002 NFL Draft . The 2002 NFL Draft was held on April 20 – 21 , 2002 at the theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City . The following University of Tennessee players were selected :