Kansas State turns back Tennessee in blustery Cotton Bowl.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

DALLAS _ At the end of a frigid afternoon in which the Cotton Bowl seemed alive with purple-garbed tormentors, Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer was inclined to recall the tender days of his youth.

"I remember we came in here in `68, when I was a freshman, and got spanked like this," he said, wanly. "We came back the next year to win a championship."

A splendid example of the art of drawing a positive example from a dismal experience. To wit: a 35-21 pounding by Kansas State on Monday in the Southwestern Bell Cotton Bowl Classic, in front of 63,465 nature lovers who settled into their seats at an hour (10 a.m.) when the field was still covered with snow.

Roughly 35,000 of them wore purple, and as the day wore on it seemed to the Volunteers (8-4) as if most of them had drifted into the Wildcats' secondary, which subjected freshman phenom quarterback Casey Clausen (7-for-25, 120 yards, three interceptions) to a rough outing.

For the 11th-ranked Wildcats (11-3), it was fine complement to a 507-yard offensive day and a game that senior quarterback Jonathan Beasley admitted was "probably the best I've ever had at Kansas State."

Nothing like going out in style. In his final game, Beasley (13-for-27, one interception) threw for 210 yards and two touchdowns and added 98 on the ground, and another score, on 17 rushes and was selected as the offensive player of the game. With the victory, the Wildcats achieved their fourth consecutive 11-win season.

If Fulmer's analogy comes true, great days are ahead for the Vols. But this was one to forget.