David Coulson

Tennessee's second-year coach Derek Dooley was spotted on the field before the game wearing Vol orange pants. Maybe the storm was intended to strike Dooley down for a fashion crime against nature.

Speaking of Vols, everyone should know that Vols are short for Volunteers, as in Tennessee is the Volunteer state. But I have often wondered if UT shouldn't adopt the little furry creature known as the Vole as its mascot instead of the traditional hound dog Smoky.

Of course, having a Volunteer as a mascot is better than the mascot at Virginia Tech, where I was hanging out earlier in the day. VT is known as the Hokies, some sort of wild turkey. Tech should have stuck with the nickname the Gobblers, which I remember from my childhood and when the school was still a member of the Southern Conference.

And the game is finally on at Neyland Stadium. Montana won the toss and deferred possession to the second half. The Griz defense held Tennessee to a three and out, but Peter Nguyen fumbled an ill-advised catch of the ensuing punt and the Vols recovered. One play later, a 47-yard flea flicker gave Tennessee a quick 7-0 lead at the 12:47 mark of the first period.

Montana moved the ball well and drove into Tennessee territory on its first offensive possession, but a dropped screen pass on third and seven ended the drive. The Griz missed an opportunity to quick punt with the Vol returnman running on the field late, but the punt did force Tennessee to start back at its own 15, anyway.

Tennessee struck for an 81-yard touchdown pass to dig out of that hole to go ahead 14-0 with 8:36 remaining in the first period. This is exactly the start Montana was hoping to avoid.

I received a pleasant surprise in the press box tonight when I found I was sitting a couple of seats away from the Johnson City Press' Tennessee beat writer Trey Williams, one of my favorite people in the newspaper business. For those who are not familiar with the early days of the College Sporting News, Williams and I were two of the first columnists for CSN back in 2001. At that time, Williams covered the East Tennessee State beat for the Press.

And we have our first FCS upset over an FBS (in this case, BCS) opponent. Sacramento State went for two points in overtime to beat Oregon State 29-28. Watch out for the Hornets in 2011 after Marshall Sperbeck's club closed with a rush in 2010. Some people wouldn't be surprised to see the Hornets challenge Eastern Washington, Montana State and Montana in the Big Sky Conference and Sacramento State could have a shot at its first-ever FCS playoff berth.

Strong safety Bob Tulley intercepted a pass in the end zone for Montana in the second minute of the second period, but was called for pass interference on the play to give Tennessee a first down at the Montana 14.

Tennessee has shown an ability to convert third downs and the pass interference call came back to haunt Montana as the Vols hit a nine-yard TD pass to make it 21-0 with 13:21 left in the half to cap off a 96-yard drive. Montana needs some serious work on its young secondary. Trumaine Johnson isn't getting much help back there.

Tennessee has had its share of luck thus far, fumbling four times and recovering all of the loose balls. Bob Tulley forced a fumble to give the Grizzlies a chance to end a long Vol drive, but Tennessee fell on the ball again and scored another touchdown on an eight-yard run on the very next play to go ahead 28-0 with 4:06 left in the half.

At least several other FCS teams, such as Northern Iowa (against Iowa State), Richmond (against Duke) and Eastern Washington (against Washington) are pushing their FBS opponents and could score upsets tonight.

Montana finally got on the board with an 80-yard strike from QB Jordan Johnson to one of my favorite FCS receivers, Jabin Sambrano. Sambrano ran a nice little curl and then spun around the defense to race about 50 yards after the catch. He even made a couple of jukes on the back judge as he was darting for the end zone. It is now 28-7 with 3:49 left in the half.

The thunderstorm may have scared off some fans. The announced attendance is 94,661 in a Neyland Stadium facility that seats 102,455.

Fumble No. 5 for Tennessee, on a punt that hit one of the Vols inadvertently, bounced out of bounds as the Vols avoided another turnover. That five fumbles and one interception that was negated by pass interference.

At halftime, it's Tennessee 28, Montana 7.

Montana downed a punt at the Tennessee one early in third period and one play later, the Griz tackled tailback Tauren Poole in the end zone for a safety to make it 28-9 at the 12:45 mark.

Just when it looked like Montana might be ready to climb back into this game, Jordan Johnson had a short pass intercepted by Art Evans and returned 37 yards for a touchdown to make it a 35-9 game.

For the second time tonight, Montana had an interception negated by a pass interference call. Strong safety Mike McCord made a nice pick deep in Tennessee territory, but middle linebacker Josh Stuberg set up the play by knocking off the receiver in the middle of the field.

It is Tennessee 35, Montana 9 at the end of the third period.

While I didn't get a chance to witness an FCS over FBS upset this weekend, a couple of other FCS teams have completed big wins. I told you about Sacramento State's 29-28 overtime victory at Oregon State. Now Richmond has held off Duke 23-21. It was Richmond's third win in six years against Duke, all on the road. Duke missed a 28-yard field goal late and a 60-yard field goal in the final seconds as Richmond held on. The Spiders won despite having their coach Latrell Scott resign less than two weeks ago after a drunk driving arrrest.

Tennessee added a touchdown with 9:10 left to extend its lead to 42-9, going 41 yards in six plays.

Jordan Canada just scored a rather remarkable TD for the Grizzlies. A bad snap bounced off the hands of Montana's quarterback and sailed over Canada's head before the running back caught it over his shoulder. Canada spun around, cut inside of several defenders and raced into the end zone for a seven-yard TD run to complete a nine-play, 82-yard drive that cut Tennessee's lead to 42-16 with 6:04 left in the fourth period.

Montana made a goal line stand in the final minutes, stopping Tennessee on fourth and one after the Vols called a shocking time out to set up a possible scoring play.

That left it as a 42-16 final for the Vols, who remarkably fumbled six times without losing any of them and also had two interceptions negated by pass interference penalties. Montana showed some grit on both sides of the ball, but was hurt by two lost fumbles and an interception that was returned for a touchdown.