TAMPA, Fla. -- Was Huckleberry Finn added to the coaching staff just prior to kickoff?

Between suspensions and injuries, Tennessee looked like the character from Mark Twain's novel on a raft floating aimlessly down the mighty Mississippi with some twigs and mud sewn and thrown together.

Tennessee linebacker Ryan Karl (39) attempts to bring down Wisconsin receiver David Gilbreath. (T-G Photo by Danny Parker) [Click to enlarge]

In the end, it was only fitting that third string safety Antonio Wardlow scraped off the rust to intercept his first pass of the year and cement the Volunteers' 21-17 win over Wisconsin in the Outback Bowl.

"This is so typical of our year," Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer said. "Ricardo Kemp's not here. He probably would have been playing that position. Somebody else steps up. Antonio's made some big plays here."

Kemp, along with Rico McCoy and Demonte Bolden, joined a group of six Vols declared academically ineligible for the New Year's Day game. That left Wardlow with a window to make his game-clinching snag and put the linebacker position in a state of flux.

Ask any linebacker how important it is for the big boys up front to command the blocking of one or two offensive lineman if they want to roam free and make plays. Imagine being an undersized guy like Ryan Karl and having All-Big Ten hog Kraig Urbik (who's only 6-foot-6, 332 pounds) coming at you like a freight train. That's where the absence of Bolden played a role.

Karl, Jerod Mayo and Ellix Wilson started the game at linebacker and were part of a defensive unit that held the Badgers to only three second-half points.

Luckily riding some logs down the river is but a comparison because the corps wouldn't have stayed above water long. They might have needed the twine to keep mend their bodies together.

Karl chipped his elbow in the SEC championship loss to LSU a month ago. He was wearing a protective brace that made him appear to be partially mechanical. The coaches and trainers kept an eye on the Franklin native, who simply refused to leave the field in the last hurrah of his senior campaign.

"There were a couple times where I fell on it wrong and put my arm down and it was pretty painful," he said. "It was my last time to put on the orange and there wasn't anything that was going to keep me out of this game."

Wilson hobbled around on numerous occasions after hurting his hamstring but continued to trot back onto the gridiron with a wrap keeping the leg together.

The glue of the second level of the Tennessee 'D' is and was Mayo. The All-SEC performer, playing on both the inside and the outside, led everybody with 13 tackles. Even though the numbers on the jerseys around him interchanged continuously, he never wavered on his confidence in their abilities.

"We're pretty deep at the linebacker position at the University of Tennessee," he said. "We have guys that come off the bench that really play good football. But, we're all able to play all the positions and then go out there and perform.

Ellix Wilson teams up with Jarod Parish to tackle Wisconsin tailback P.J. Hill (39). (T-G Photo by Danny Parker) [Click to enlarge]

"(Defensive tackle) J.T. Mapu and Ellix Wilson both had excellent games."

Wearing their hearts on their sleeves didn't keep some parts of Vol Nation from breathing down the throats of the defense early in the year following an embarrassing 1-2 start. They persevered and came through in the clutch as the season progressed.

"We stopped giving people plays," Fulmer said. "Some of it was youthfulness. Some of it was us just not doing a good enough job, quite frankly."

Karl's career on the field with the Vols is over and he now must find his place in the real world.

"I wish I had one more year to be a part of that defense. It's going to be exciting to watch them."

Mayo, on the other hand, is waiting to get his draft grade back to help him determine whether or not he will declare early for the NFL.

"This might be the last opportunity I get to wear the orange, but I'm not sure," he said. "It's a bittersweet-type thing."

Who knows what the future holds for the next graduate of 'Linebacker U' as senior safety Jonathan Hefney called it? Either way, Mayo and Co. are bound to float to success.

Danny Parker is sports editor of the Times-Gazette.