And now the second unpublished blog entry and the final one completed:

When we last visited with Tennessee Volunteer freshman quarterback Benjamin Colby, he and his teammates had just booked a ticket to the Champs Sports Bowl on December 29th, 2011, despite a season where they struggled to a 6-6 record, 3-5 in the Southeastern Conference. Their opponents, the #17-ranked Miami Hurricanes, had a 9-3 record going into the game and were the unanimous pregame pick to take home the Bowl Game trophy.

EA SPORTS got an interviewer down to the Tennessee locker room immediately following the Champs Sports Bowl at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Florida, to visit with Benjamin after the game.


EA SPORTS Interviewer: Benjamin, first off: congratulations to you and your teammates for your surprising upset victory here tonight!

Benjamin Colby: Thank you! It seemed like the whole world picked against us before the game, and to be honest I can’t say I blamed them. That was a good Miami team that just didn’t have it together tonight.

EA: Compared to some of your games this season, your stat line wasn’t as strong as your fans have gotten used to. That said, you still ended up as the Champs Sports Bowl Most Valuable Player. What was it like to play on a bigger stage tonight?

BC: It was a great experience all around. The organizers down here were great at showing us around Orlando—this was actually my first time visiting the state of Florida—and I got to have my parents and some friends from back home in Alaska make the trip down as well. Even though it was a bigger stage, it’s still a game of football. I’m glad I made it worth the flight down here for all of them.

EA: Now I don’t know if you’re aware of this or not, but you actually set a new University of Tennessee record for passing yards in a single season with this performance tonight. The previous record from 1997 was 3,819 yards, and you surpassed it by 102 yards.


BC: Really? That’s great, man. I had no idea about that, I was just hoping to get out there and really represent the school colors, make everyone proud. I am really honored to know that my name is in the record book at school now, and hopefully we can keep improving as a whole team for the next three years.

EA: Back to tonight’s game; it really seemed as though nothing was going to stop you once you got into that second quarter. How did it feel on the field?

BC: Well, we got fortunate in some ways. It was obviously very rainy out there, and the ball was doing some strange things. I threw a tipped ball that Miami got their hands on early on, but then we were able to get everybody on the same page for those three touchdowns before halftime. It didn’t hurt that their quarterback was having trouble with turnovers either, and we definitely tried to take advantage of the field position our defense gave us.

EA: In the regular season, your rushing offense was ranked 116th out of 120 schools, while your passing offense was ranked 14th; what will your team need to do next year to improve upon a final record of 7-6 including this Bowl Game?

BC: Like you said, there’s a big difference in terms of the yards we gain on the ground versus through the air. Our defense showed that they’ve grown a lot with the near-shutout tonight, and I expect them to get even better with more time together and a full year under their belts. Hopefully our offense can be more balanced for the 2011 season and we’ll find ourselves playing in the SEC Championship Game.


EA: Benjamin, it’s been a pleasure covering your freshman season at Tennessee. Enjoy this win, celebrate it with your teammates, and we’ll see you in the fall.

BC: Thank you; I appreciate it, and I hope to be in a BCS Bowl Game at the end of next season with this team!

In his freshman season, Benjamin Colby set the school record for passing yards at the University of Tennessee, and he also set an NCAA record for longest pass play with a 92-yard touchdown pass he threw in his very first collegiate game against FCS Southeast. Here is a round-up of his stats for the season:


The next time we see Benjamin, he’ll be halfway through his sophomore season as the quarterback of the Tennessee Volunteers. Preseason ranking has Tennessee at #31—just outside of the Top 25—and Benjamin has been named to the Preseason 1st Team All-Americans for the SEC.

Join us next time to find out where the Volunteers stand in their quest to win the SEC and find their way to the BCS National Championship Game!