BATON ROUGE, La. -- Fuad Reveiz kicked a 52-yard field goal with 2:07 left to lift the Tennessee Volunteers into a 24-24 tie with 14th ranked Louisiana State Saturday night.
But Reveiz, who earlier had kicked a pair of 38-yard field goals, missed a 52-yarder with two seconds left to allow LSU to escape with the tie. Reveiz' last second try fell inches short of the cross bar.
The Volunteers, who trailed 17-14 at the half, drew to within three points when quarterback Alan Cockrell hit Darryal Wilson with a 9-yard pass midway through the fourth quarter.
Reveiz then tied the game with his 52-yard effort.
The Tigers, 3-0-1, had taken a 24-14 lead early in the final period when freshman tailback sensation Dalton Hilliard scored on a 3-yard run, capping a 77-yard drive that consisted mostly of passes from Alan Risher to Eric Mortin.
Risher completed 14 of 24 passes for 192 yards, but was intercepted three times. The senior quarterback also rushed 10 times for 56 yards, including a 24-yard touchdown on a quarterback draw.
Mortin caught six passes for 109 yards.
Alan Cockrell, a sophomore quarterback, completed 21 of 38 passes for 214 yards and a touchdown to lead Tennessee, now 2-2-1. But the Tigers intercepted Cockrell three times.
The Volunteers deprived LSU of a chance to gain its 500th career victory by forging the tie. The Tigers are now 499-268-42 since starting a gridiron program in 1893.
The Volunteers were able to hold Hilliard, who entered the game as the nation's leading scorer, to only 57 yards on 18 attempts.
Willie Gault, Tennessee's speedy split end, was not a factor on offense but did return a kickoff 96 yards for a touchdown.
Tennessee built a 6-0 lead early in the second quarter on a pair of 38-yard field goals by Reveiz. The contest was a failed struggle until the final 3 minutes of the half, with each team wasting long drives because of turnovers.
Liffort Hobley intercepted a Cockrell pass on the Louisiana goal line to end a Tennessee drive, but LSU tailback Garry James fumbled on the Volunteer 7-yard line after the Tigers had driven the length of the field.
The fireworks then began, as the teams scored three touchdowns and a field goal in a span of 2:40 at the end of the half.
LSU took the ball on the Tennessee 48 after a punt and needed just two plays to score its first touchdown. Risher passed to Mortin for 24 yards, then Risher scrambled the final 24 yards on a quarterback draw.
Three plays later, the Tigers extended their lead to 14-6 when cornerback James Britt picked off a wobbly Cockrell pass, avoided being tackled by a teammate and scooted 44 yards for a touchdown.
On the ensuing kickoff, however, Gault found a seam up the middle and ran 96 yards for a touchdown, his fourth career return of a kickoff for a score. The Vols tied the game when Cockrell passed to Randall Morris for a 2-point conversion.
The Tigers quickly regained the lead when Juan Carlos Betanzos nailed a 46-yard field goal.
