ATLANTA (AP/HIG Staff) — A backup quarterback denied Tennessee a spot in the Rose Bowl.

Matt Mauck, filling in after Rohan Davey was injured, ran for two touchdowns and No. 21 LSU won its first Southeastern Conference title since 1988 with a 31-20 upset of second-ranked Tennessee on Saturday night.

The Volunteers (10-2) came to Atlanta hoping to complete their run for the Rose Bowl and a chance to win the national championship. Instead, they'll have to settle for the Orange, at best, or more likely the Citrus.

``We just didn't play very well,'' said coach Phillip Fulmer, whose team joined the national championship race with a 34-32 victory over Florida last week. ``We got here together. We lost together.''

Mauck, a 22-year-old freshman who spent three years as a catcher in the Chicago Cubs' organization, put LSU ahead for good with a 13-yard touchdown on the second play of the fourth quarter. He also scored LSU's first TD on a 4-yard run.

Another backup, Domanick Davis, finished off the Vols by diving over the top on fourth-and-goal from the 1 with 2:26 remaining.

Tennessee could have made things a little easier on the BCS by winning. But the Vols couldn't beat an LSU team that lost both Davey and star running back LaBrandon Toefield to injuries in the first half.

LSU (9-3) earns a spot in the Sugar Bowl against No. 8 Illinois with a truly remarkable upset, the final surprise in a regular season that ended a week later than expected because of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Nebraska, Florida and Texas all fell by the wayside in recent weeks. Now, Heisman Trophy winner Eric Crouch and the Cornhuskers might be back in the picture, getting a chance to play for the national title when they didn't even win their own division in the Big 12 Conference.

After falling behind 17-7, LSU held the Vols to a field goal in the second half.

Travis Stephens, who rushed for a career-high 226 yards in the upset of Florida, managed just 37 yards on 14 carries. He also had a crucial fumble that led to Mauck's go-ahead touchdown.

Kelley Washington had six catches for 103 yards in the first half but just three for 37 yards over the final two quarters.

Down 24-20, the Vols had a chance after a short punt gave them the ball near midfield. Casey Clausen completed a 17-yard pass over the middle to Donte Stallworth, but Demetrius Hookfin stripped the ball and Ryan Clark recovered the fumble for LSU.

LSU then drove 65 yards for the clinching score. Appropriately, Mauck and Davis did all the running for the Tigers, while the Vols made two more crucial mistakes.

Julian Battle had an interception right in his hands but couldn't hang on. Rashad Baker tripped up LSU's star receiver, Josh Reed, and was penalized for interference.

Toefield, who tied an SEC record with 19 rushing touchdowns, went out with an injured left knee. He gained just 18 yards.

But Davis ran for 78 yards and Mauck contributed 43 yards on the ground, usually taking off from the shotgun. Mauck completed just 5-of-15 passes for 67 yards, but was named the MVP.

Tennessee's last hope died when Stallworth, trying desperately to pick up a first down, was dragged down by four tacklers at midfield with a minute to go.

On LSU's second possession, Davey was leveled by Tennessee linebacker Keyon Whiteside at the end of a 2-yard run. The quarterback appeared to be out of bounds when Whiteside drove his helmet into Davey's left ribs, but no penalty was called.

After several minutes on the turf, Davey finally managed to walk slowly to the locker room for X-rays. Nothing was broken, and he returned to the field for LSU's next series.

In the meantime, Mauck guided the Tigers to the end zone, taking advantage of three Tennessee penalties. The Vols were twice called for being offsides on incomplete passes, and a flag was thrown for pass interference when Reed was tripped up near the goal line by Baker, an omen of things to come.

Davey took another shot in the ribs just before the end of the first half and didn't return. That brought on Mauck, who had played only two games and thrown just 26 passes in his career.

He wound up making a Mauck-ery of the BCS.

For a while, it seemed as though things would work out for Tennessee, which wiped out an early 7-0 deficit with 17 straight points in the second quarter.

Clausen threw a perfectly placed pass to Washington for a 31-yard touchdown with 9:04 left in the half. The quarterback simply threw to the goal line and Washington ran under the ball at the left pylon without breaking stride.

The Clausen-to-Washington combination worked again on Tennessee's next possession, this time for 47 yards to set up a 3-yard touchdown pass to fullback Troy Fleming.

Hoping to turn the momentum, LSU coach Nick Saban gambled on fourth-and-inches at the Tigers 22. The plan backfired when Davey, attempting a sneak, fumbled the snap and was wrapped up by Demetrin Veal for no gain.

Tennessee actually went backward — Clausen was called for intentional grounding — but Alex Walls equaled the longest field goal of his career when he connected from 51 yards.

LSU got to 17-10 at halftime when John Corbello made a 45-yard field goal. In the third quarter, he hit from 47 and 45 yards to pull the Tigers within 17-16.

Reed and Stephens both set records.

Reed had four catches for 60 yards, giving him 3,001 in his career. He broke the SEC mark of 2,964, set by Boo Williams of Vanderbilt from 1985-88.

Stephens wound up with 1,464 yards for the season, eclipsing Jay Graham's 6-year-old school record of 1,438.

LSU Quotes

QUARTERBACK MATT MAUCK

ON WINNING AN SEC TITLE...
"Everyone dreams about doing it. For it to actually happen is something that is very special to me."

ON HIS MENTALLY WHEN HE FIRST GOT IN THE GAME...
"I was pretty nervous in the beginning. As the game went on, I started to forget about everything and played my hardest."

ON THE TEAM BELIEVING THEY COULD BEAT TENNESSEE...
"We expected to do it. As crazy as it sounds, we believed in ourselves."

KICKER JOHN CORBELLO

ON THE RHYTHM HE WAS IN TONIGHT...
"After the first one, I got into the flow a little bit. I was really showing some confidence."

ON THE LACK OF RECOGNITION HE RECEIVED DURING THE YEAR...
"I think a kicker's job is to make sure his name is not mentioned. If it is in the paper, it usually is not a good thing."

ON WHAT HE TOLD HIS TEAMMATES AFTER THE GAME...
"I was telling them I'd rather kick PAT's instead of 45-yard field goals anyday. But it is a great feeling to contribute."

OFFENSIVE LINEMAN BYRON DAWSON

ON CAPTURING AN SEC TITLE...
"It feels great. It was the biggest game with BCS implications, and the whole country was watching. It felt good to play the role of spoilers."

ON THE TEAM'S SECOND STRING CONTRIBUTING...
"It shows the heart the team has. We always knew the second team was important. They are always one play away from playing, and tonight they were key."

ON LOOKING FORWARD TO THE SUGAR BOWL...
"It's a great accomplishment to make the Sugar Bowl. We'll just try to go out and repeat what we did tonight."

FREE SAFETY DAMIEN JAMES

"Right now is unbelievable. Today, everyone came in and didn't give us a chance, but we came out and got it done the second half."

"Coach Saban really got on the defensive backs at halftime. They had two big plays in the first half on us so we stayed deep and made sure they didn't get behind us and we took care of business."

WEAKSIDE LINEBACKER BRADIE JAMES

"We go out every week and try to get respect, and in order to get respect, you have to beat the great teams. All we heard this week was Tennessee going to the Rose Bowl, but today we proved them wrong. Right now words cannot describe this feeling."

MIDDLE LINEBACKER TREV FAULK

"I think the main thing was the third quarter, where we tried to make it as easy as we could on our offense in the second half."

"Travis Stephens was our main concentration and our Defensive line did a great job. It was just a great win."

HEAD COACH NICK SABAN

On Tonight's Game:
"Obviously I like the way our team played. I am pleased with the commitment of our team all season long. The opportunity to play in the Sugar Bowl is well deserved, especially for all the players who helped make it happen. We came out well in the 2nd half and beat a very good football team. Beating Tennessee is great for this team, the players believed in themselves all season and wanted to show the country that we are a good football team. They were a great football team, a 10-1 Volunteer team came into this game on a roll."

On Character of the Team:
"Rohan and LaBrandon Toefield have played outstanding all year, but the injuries to them gave other guys an opportunity to come in and show what they could do. Everyone believed in themselves. Matt and Damien James came in, in a big ball game and played outstanding."

On Fourth Down Conversion at End of Game:
"I thought it was important when the ball was inside the 1 to score a TD. I didn't want to kick a field goal and give the ball back to Tennessee. It was hard for me to kick a field goal down there on the one. When we scored it was the icing on the cake. When you score on a play like that it's a good idea, and when you don't succeed it's a bad idea.

Tennessee Quotes

Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer

"I am very disappointed in the game. You can't expect to win with all the mistakes that we made. We picked a bad time to play our worst game of the year. We did have a good year, but we did not finish well. We had good practices all week. We had a lot of energy and excitement but we came out flat and didn't finish the job."

On LSU QB Matt Mauck:
"Mauck did a fantastic job for them. We saw him on film during the week and we knew that he was mobile. I was very impressed with his poise, We hit him a lot and he kept getting back up. He showed a lot of composure in a big time game."

On the intentional grounding call:
"We had a fullback screen call. I will have to go back and look at the film, but it seems to me that on a screen pass, a player will be near the ball, but I couldn't say for sure right now.

On missing the Rose Bowl:
"I am very disappointed that we are not going to the Rose Bowl. We had a chance to get there but we just came up short at the end. We still have one game to play, we don't know where yet, but we will come out prepared and hopefully go out with a win.

Running Back Travis Stephens
"I can't believe it. We had our opportunities to win the game, we just didn't do the job. They came out trying to stop our running attack, and they did a good job."

Defensive Lineman Will Overstreet
"You can't blame this on one play or penalty. We just came out and didn't play our best game. They came out and really executed. They just came out and they beat us."

"They (Mauck and Davis) played great. They lost two of the big players, but they seemed to play better. They mixed it up from last time with all the quarterback draws and also were able to spread our defense out."

Defensive Lineman Albert Haynesworth
"We had too many letdowns. We can never accept it. This taste is going to be in my mouth until next year. We were in condition. We didn't get tired. We didn't capitalize on turnovers. We let them do whatever they wanted -- running or passing. Domanick Davis is a great back, too. We just didn't do our jobs. They wanted it more than we did. Mauck made some passes and great runs."

Quarterback Casey Clausen
"We beat ourselves tonight. We played hard, but you can't turn the ball over or have penalties. LSU did a good job. I felt good the whole game. We just didn't get it done tonight. We didn't think we'd make as many mistakes as we did."

Wide Receiver Kelley Washington
"I felt we were really prepared coming into the game. We didn't make the most of our opportunities and that killed us tonight. I can't take anything away from LSU. They played a great game and had a great plan. The dropped balls and fumbles really killed us."