Phillip Fulmer smiled.

Erik Ainge punted.

And Tennessee rang in the new year with a win.

A season that began with two losses in the first three games ended with a 21-17 victory over No. 18 Wisconsin on Tuesday in Raymond James Stadium.

For the first time since the 2005 Cotton Bowl, Tennessee finished its season with a bowl victory, a feat that certainly wasn’t lost on Tennessee’s head coach as he took the podium to accept the Outback Bowl trophy.

“Been waiting a couple years to get one these, huh?” Fulmer quipped.

Tuesday turned into a day of celebration and reflection for the 16th-ranked Vols (10-4), who earned their first 10-win season since 2004.

Shortly after Antonio Wardlow sealed the victory with an interception deep in Tennessee territory, Erik Ainge put his own exclamation mark on the season by booting the football into the stands.

And Tennessee, the reigning SEC East champion, found a way to distance itself from a tough opening stretch that had many wondering if a coaching change was in order.

“They had the tombstone put up for us,” defensive coordinator John Chavis said. “We were gone. The grave was there, but we didn’t fall in. And that’s because we’ve got great character.”

Tennessee never trailed against Wisconsin (9-4), but it still showed plenty of the same traits that helped it bounce back from that 1-2 start.

With linebacker Rico McCoy, UT’s second-leading tackler, and Lucas Taylor, the Vols’ leading wide receiver, among six players academically ineligible for the bowl game, Tennessee found other players to make enough plays to win.

Josh Briscoe led the way with seven catches for 101 yards and a touchdown in place of Taylor, and did it with a broken wrist.

Linebacker Ellix Wilson finished with six tackles — third behind Jerod Mayo’s 13 and Jonathan Hefney’s eight — in his first career start in place of McCoy.

And Tennessee’s defense, maligned for the better part of the season, rose to the occasion.

Clinging to a four-point lead with 1:26 remaining, Tennessee’s defense came through with a crucial stop when Wardlow intercepted Wisconsin quarterback Tyler Donovan’s pass at the UT 1-yard line.

“With the ball hanging up that long, you’ve got all these thoughts going through your head,” Wardlow said. “I knew I had to go through the highest point and make the catch.”

With an elusive bowl win within its grasp, Tennessee didn’t let it go, either.

The Vols jumped out to a 7-0 first-quarter lead on a 3-yard run by freshman receiver/quarterback Gerald Jones.

Wisconsin countered with a 22-yard touchdown drive set up by David Gilreath’s 60-yard kickoff return.

Tennessee then retaliated with two surgically efficient touchdown drives to take a 21-7 lead.

Erik Ainge, who was named the game’s MVP after completing 25 of his 43 passes for 365 yards and two touchdowns, was at his best late in the first half.

The senior led Tennessee on scoring drives of 59 and 51 yards by completing all six of his passes for 112 yards and connecting with Briscoe for a 29-yard touchdown and tight end Brad Cottam for a 31-yard score.

Wisconsin kicked a 27-yard field goal in the third quarter, but Tennessee’s defense rallied to stop the Badgers on a key fourth-and-2 play from the UT 10-yard line midway through the fourth quarter.

The Vols even had a crucial call go their way in the fourth quarter when the replay booth ruled that Wisconsin’s Jay Valai was out of bounds when he recovered a Briscoe fumble at the Wisconsin 40.

Tennessee had two chances to add to its lead, but a Lennon Creer fumble on a trick play in the first quarter and a blocked field goal in the fourth quarter.

Still, those 21 points — Tennessee’s fewest points scored in a victory this season — proved enough, thanks to a defense that overcame injuries to steadily improve throughout the year.

“The biggest thing I brought back from this season is how much we’ve grown up,” said linebacker Ryan Karl, who played his final game for Tennessee with a chipped bone in his elbow. “At the beginning of the season, we weren’t doing too well on defense, and our freshman guys stepped it up so big and became All-SEC guys.

“It’s great to see a team mold and bond together like that throughout the season. I couldn’t have asked for a better season as a senior.”

And for just the third time in its last eight bowl games, Tennessee got the kind of finish it wanted.

“It finishes off a season that’s been a very challenging season, to say the least, for our football team,” Fulmer said. “To finish with 10 wins is a real honor for them. It does kick off 2008 for us in a real positive fashion.”

How long those positive vibes linger remains to be seen.

Tennessee — with offensive coordinator David Cutcliffe heading to Duke as head coach and receivers coach Trooper Taylor heading to Oklahoma State as co-offensive coordinator — will hire replacements for them and as many as two other offensive coaches in the coming days.

There’s still recruiting and signing day and spring practice and a hundred other things between New Year’s Day and the start of the 2008 season in August.

But for now, Tuesday’s win provides plenty of reason to smile.

Or punt.

See more at www.govolsxtra.com