"If the goal line had been around the 10 or 15 (yard line) we'd have had 60 points tonight," Vols coach Phillip Fulmer said. "Obviously we have some work to do."
Tennessee (3-1, 1-1 Southeastern Conference) didn't need a whole lot of offense as the Tigers (3-2, 1-2) had redshirt freshman Jeff Klein making his first start at quarterback in place of the injured Ben Leard.
"He's not the second-team quarterback anymore. He's the starter," Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville said. "He's got to make better decisions, but he'll learn."
It was Tennessee's first shutout of Auburn in 14 meetings since 1980.
Tennessee safety Deon Grant intercepted a pass by Klein and scored on the first offensive play of the game to get the Vols on the board after only 14 seconds of play.
"I didn't think the quarterback was going to throw it," said Grant, who tied a school record with three interceptions in the game. "I just looked back and it was in my face."
Travis Henry scored on runs of 34 and 1 yards to provide some offensive punch for the Vols, who gained 401 yards but came up empty on five trips inside the Auburn 23. Henry finished with 84 yards on 13 carries. Jamal Lewis was held below 100 yards for the third straight game, with 64 on 19 carries. Cedrick Wilson caught six passes for 112 yards.
Clifton Robinson led the Tigers with 65 yards on 20 carries.
Tee Martin had three passes intercepted to end Tennessee drives into Auburn territory, and a bad center snap recovered by Auburn's Adlai Trone ended another.
"We moved the ball up and down the field, we just didn't punch it in," Martin said. "If it ain't one thing it's another."
Grant either scored or set up all of Tennessee's points for a 10-0 halftime lead.
Klein finished 15-of-29 for 147 yards, with four interceptions.
"The first play I just didn't see him," Klein said. "I thought they were in man and they rolled up the coverage. They just got me."
Grant returned his third interception 28 yards to set up Alex Wall's 22-yard field with 13 seconds left in the half for a 10-0 Tennessee lead.
Martin's passes were intercepted by Rob Pate in the Auburn end zone, by Trone at the Tigers 13 and by Kenny Kelly at the Auburn 11 to end scoring threats.
1ST 2ND 3RD 4TH FINAL
--- --- --- --- -----
Auburn 0 0 0 0 0
Tennessee 7 3 7 7 24
First Quarter
Tenn-Grant 19 interception return (Walls kick), 14:46
Second Quarter
Tenn-FG Walls 22, :13
Third Quarter
Tenn-Henry 1 run (Walls kick), 8:10
Fourth Quarter
Tenn-Henry 34 run (Walls kick), 4:34
Aub Ten
--- ---
First downs 14 21
Rushes-yards 27-75 46-181
Passing 147 220
Comp-Att-Int 15-30-4 16-27-3
Return Yards 17 79
Punts-Avg. 6-38 4-44
Fumbles-Lost 1-0 1-1
Penalties-Yards 7-56 9-69
Time of Possession 26:51 33:09
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING-Auburn, C.Robinson 20-65, Williams 3-18, Worthy 1-9,
Klein 3-(minus 17). Tennessee, Henry 13-84, Lewis 19-64, O. Smith
6-30, T. Martin 5-13, Scott 1-8, Crosby 1-0, team 1-(minus 18).
PASSING-Auburn, Klein 15-29-4-147, Duval 0-1-0-0. Tennessee,
Martin 16-27-3-220.
RECEIVING-Auburn, Daniels 4-61, Worthy 4-33, T. Robinson 3-15,
Evans 2-28, C. Robinson 1-6, Cooper 1-4. Tennessee, Wilson 6-112,
Lewis 3-46, D. Martin 2-17, Graham 2-17, Parker 1-20, Stallworth
1-11, Henry 1-(minus 3).
A-106,424.
Data provided by Infobeat Sports