Chris O'meara / AP

Penn State coach Joe Paterno, lower right, watched his team's 20-10 victory over No. 17 Tennessee in the Outback Bowl. Paterno, 80, won his record 22nd bowl game while recovering from a broken leg.

Penn State viewed Monday’s game as a final opportunity to assess how far it has come since a lopsided loss to Notre Dame early in the season.

The Nittany Lions were more competitive in subsequent losses to Ohio State, Michigan and Wisconsin, and Paterno felt an opponent as highly regarded as Tennessee would be an excellent gauge of where his team is heading.

Morelli’s TD pass to Quarless finished an eight-play, 92-yard drive — Penn State’s longest of the season — and gave the Nittany Lions a short-lived 10-3 lead.

LaMarcus Coker countered for Tennessee a little more than 2 minutes later, using a nifty straight-arm to fend off linebacker Sean Lee before sprinting through a hole on the left side and outrunning the pursuit to finish a 42-yard touchdown run.

It remained 10-10 until Davis picked up a fumble by Tennessee’s Arian Foster and raced untouched up the left sideline to put Penn State ahead for good with 10 minutes remaining. Kelly added his second field goal with 3:29 left.

College football Complete recaps of all 32 games

Erik Ainge was 25-of-37 for 267 yards, but also threw his first interception since Oct. 21 for Tennessee. The Volunteers were threatening to break the 10-10 tie after his 53-yard completion to Chris Brown. However, Lee hit Foster on the next play to force the fumble that Davis returned for his TD.

“I was trapped under a couple of defenders, and I saw him going down the sideline,” Foster said. “It made it tough to get up. ... It’s a tough pill to swallow.”

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