Bobby Scott's late rally helped 1970 Vols avoid UCLA upset

Neyland Stadium was silent. 

After Ron Carver stepped in front of a Bobby Scott pass and trekked 85 yards for a go-ahead touchdown with just over three minutes left, Tennessee’s once-jubilant home field was suddenly quiet. 

The dark clouds swirling above it, threatening to unload, provided an appropriate and almost poetic backdrop for the Vols’ own unraveling in their final regular season game of the 1970 season. 

UCLA, with just six wins and not even a postseason bid to its name, was leading the Sugar Bowl-bound Vols, ranked fifth in the national polls and winners of eight-straight since their lone loss to Auburn in the second week of the season under first-year head coach Bill Battle. 

All of that was on the cusp of being spoiled when Carver waltzed into the end zone late. But Tennessee had a couple of punches left in it. Scott recovered to throw two of them, then Curt Watson landed the final blow on a touchdown run before the Vols scored again in the closing seconds to survive, 28-17. 

“I knew we could do it,” Battle told reporters. “And I know our players felt that way. It’s that kind of team. These boys have class and character. It’s an unusual group of boys.”

Those final three-and-a-half minutes were certainly unusual, but Tennessee learned the hard way how to pull off that kind of escape act. 

It happened against Auburn back in September. The Vols fell behind big in their first test of the Battle era at Legion Field in Birmingham. Then they rallied to pull within one score before losing, 36-23. 

“I told our team after that (Auburn) game that we would be trailing in other games,” Battle said. “And I told them that we’d succeed in the future as we failed that day.”

Tennessee didn’t lose again. In fact, it hardly trailed again. 

The Vols thumped Alabama and Bear Bryant—Battle’s former school and coach—behind seven takeaways in a 24-0 triumph, then buried Florida and Doug Dickey—Tennessee’s former coach and Battle’s old boss—38-7. 

But the lowly Bruins, fresh off of a 45-20 thrashing at the hands of Southern Cal, nearly nabbed the Vols the same way Tennessee nabbed them in Memphis five years earlier when Dewey Warren dove across the goal line for the game-winning touchdown. 

UCLA got payback for that one a few years later in 1967, handing the Vols their only regular season loss in an SEC and national title campaign after a late touchdown at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. 

A similar script was playing out in the Bruins’ second trip to Knoxville. 

It had started like so many other Tennessee games that season. Scott led the Vols to the doorstep before Don McLeary leapt over the UCLA defense for a touchdown to go up, 7-0 late in the second quarter. 

The Bruins found life when they pounced on a Watson fumble on the first play of the third quarter. Marv Kendricks paid off the takeaway with an 18-yard run to draw even at 7-7.

Scott clapped back with an 80-yard scoring march, capped by a 25-yard strike to Lester McClain in the end zone to pull back in front, 14-7.

It was uncertain if Scott, the senior quarterback from Rossville, Georgia, would even play against UCLA after suffering a foot injury. Battle gave option quarterback Dennis Chadwick the starting nod, but had to turn to Scott when Chadwick went down with his own injury.

Already in the Tennessee offensive record books, Scott was leading the way for one of the best offenses in school history to that point, passing for more than 1,900 yards. 

Bowl game stats counted for nothing then, so his 211 yards on 32 completions in his carve up of the Bruins secondary made for a grand finale in his final game on the Vols’ home turf. 

When linebacker Ray Nettles pounced on a UCLA fumble on the Bruins’ next possession, Scott had Tennessee again on the brink of putting them away for good. But George Hunt’s field goal that would have made it a two-score game missed wide and UCLA answered with one of their own to trim the Vols’ lead to 14-10. 

No matter. Scott had Tennessee right back in position again and with the clock on its side. The Vols ate up field and time, first on a Scott pass to Stan Trott and then to Joe Thompson to move deeper into plus territory.

Then another Scott pass, this one was a little too wide. Wide enough for Carver to grab and start racing down the sideline. By the end of his run, UCLA led for the first time, 17-14. 

What was supposed to be a delightful climax to a memorable season had turned into despair. Even the weather had turned to fit the mood. 

But Scott and the Tennessee offense still had three minutes, 40 seconds to work with—and a little luck, too. 

The first stroke of it to go the Vols’ way happened when Bruins’ linebacker Bob Pifferini let a game-sealing interception slip through his hands.

The rest was all Scott, McClain and McCleary. 

It was McClain that went high to snag a Scott pass at midfield and then turn goal-ward for another 15 yards to the Bruins’ 35-yard line. Then, on fourth-and-short, McCleary came down with a Scott pass over the middle of the field for 10 yards to keep Tennessee’s hopes alive. 

It all set up Watson, who lined up in the backfield then anxiously watched as a UCLA defense end made eye contact with him. He knew what was coming. He just needed to be faster.

Watson took the handoff, zipped past the end and burst through the middle. He one hand down on the turf to keep his balance and then regained it for a 19-yard touchdown to take a 21-17 lead. 

“I could just feel it was going to work and the only question was how far,” Watson later regaled to the sporting scribes. “I was so anxious, it scared me. In fact, I looked back after the touchdown to be sure there was no flag for me in motion. Gosh, I was excited.”

UCLA got the ball back, but couldn’t match Tennessee’s heroics. All four passes fell harmlessly to the ground. McClearly put the finishing touch with a 1-yard score—his second, but less meaningful.

Less than a month later, the Vols routed No. 11 Air Force, 34-13 in the Sugar Bowl at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans to finish off an 11-win season. 

“There’s no other (team) like this one,” Scott said after the UCLA game, shaking his head almost as if he couldn’t believe what his team had just pulled off. “They’re just a great bunch of boys. A great bunch of football players.”

“I’ll admit to you that I got tight when (Carver) was going down the sideline,” Watson added. “But when Bobby completed that first throw to Lester, I decided right then that we’d make it.”