Nov. 21, 2006

Tennessee's James Wilhoit had a career day during his final visit to Vanderbilt Stadium and for his efforts was named Southeastern Conference Special Teams Player of the Week.

A native of the Nashville suburb of Hendersonville, Wilhoit took over the SEC's active scoring lead Saturday after tallying 15 points in the Vols' 39-10 win. The senior was perfect on four field goal attempts in the game (43, 27, 22 and 41 yards) and added three PATs.

Wilhoit has made 16-of-19 field goals this year and 27 of his last 31 dating to last season. He is a perfect 10-of-10 from inside 40 yards. In addition, Wilhoit had five kickoffs for touchbacks Saturday and has 33 touchbacks in 67 kickoff attempts this season -- second best percentage (.493) in the SEC.

Wilhoit has 316 points to move into ninth on the SEC's all-time scoring chart and is third among Tennessee's all-time scorers and one point from tying for second. He leads the SEC in scoring this year with 87 points and also is first in field-goal percentage (.842).

A Lou Groza Award semifinalist, Wilhoit also earned recognition from the classroom by being named a Draddy Award semifinalist and a first-team selection to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District IV team. He remains in the running for Academic All-America honors.

This week's honor is the third time Wilhoit has won the SEC's weekly award and the second time this season. He also was named earlier this year after scoring 11 points at Memphis and in September 2004 after kicking the winning field goal to defeat Florida.