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Robert Marve chooses Purdue: where does Tennessee go from here?

No one should have been shocked that former Miami QB Robert Marve chose a free college education at Purdue over a Tennessee program that NCAA rules prohibited him from investigating. That's not meant to demean the Boilermaker program, which has produced some excellent quarterbacks over the years, including Drew Brees, Kyle Orton, Len Dawson, Bob Griese, and Mike Phipps.

Still, there could be almost no better opportunity for a good QB at a traditionally strong program than the current situation at Tennessee. Jonathan Crompton is almost certainly a lock to start this season, and unless he absolutely implodes, he will likely deprive junior Nick Stephens of much of an opportunity to gain additional experience in 2009. The only other QB on the roster is Mike Rozier, who's on the roster as a walk on mostly because, as a former pitcher for the Red Sox, Boston is paying his way. But nobody really knows anything about his ability as a signal caller right now as he's not taken a snap since 2004 in high school.

Unfortunately, I guess, Miami coach Randy Shannon would not extend the release granted Marve to Tennessee, Florida, or LSU, which meant that conversations with Tennessee were off limits.

So here we are. The Kiffin Chimera is still chasing Jake Heaps from Sammamish, Washington, Andrew Hendrix from Cincinnati, Ohio, and Jesse Scroggins from Lakeland, California. We have an outstanding offer to Blake Bell from Wichita, Kansas, but he's committed to Oklahoma. Tennessee will apparently take a look at former Gator QB Cameron Newton, who left Florida after being found in possession of a stolen laptop, and Matt Simms, who's been re-routed to junior college this season after transferring from Louisville.

It's pretty clear that Kiffin's overall QB recruiting plan was to improve the odds of landing an elite guy by not filling the roster with Plan Bs. Kiffin told highly touted Tahj Boyd and Bryce Petty out of last year's signing class, both of whom were committed to Tennessee, that they didn't fit the system. That makes sense, but it sure is a gamble.

We're still in the running for Heaps, but most believe he's most likely to choose BYU. Andrew Hendrix is a four-star guy with two handfuls of offers from decent, not great, schools. To me, at this time, Scroggins really seems to be our last best hope. Kiffin and his staff did a masterful job with the Class of 2009, landing the No. 1 player overall and a top 10 class while playing catch up the entire time. But none of that will matter if we don't have someone to take a snap next year.

Time is not quite running out to get one of those guys, but the witch has turned over the hourglass and the sand is falling.

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Jake Heaps

What about Jake Heaps from Seattle?? I heard he is making a decision next month and BYU is the lead candidate, partly because he is Mormon.

by Jeremy Mauss on May 22, 2009 9:53 PM EDT reply actions  

That's basically what we're guessing as well.

We seem to think that UT is probably #2, with UW being a longer shot that they’re being given credit for.

O/T: Happy to see you around. I’ve still got you in my feed reader.

by David Hooper on May 22, 2009 11:51 PM EDT up reply actions  

Am I the only person who was okay with Marve never thinking about coming here?

One ridiculous game against North Carolina aside, Marve …really wasn’t very good. He didn’t have a ton of success, rocked a 9/13 TD/INT ratio, and had an attitude problem to boot. As a highly-touted (well, VHT, I think) kid out of high school, a lot was expected of him but he hasn’t lived up to it so far – which is fine, he’s only a sophomore. He’s also got a little bit of an inflated ego, which may or may not be warranted at this point.

Really, aside from the ego issues, didn’t I just describe Crompton?

by Chris Pendley on May 23, 2009 10:20 AM EDT reply actions  

I'm fine with it.

To be honest, I never had any real feelings one way or the other. We don’t have to worry about any of his attitude/demeanor red flags and we’re still looking for a quarterback or six. But the whole ordeal really seemed to come from nowhere and is now headed back to the abyss.

As for describing Crompton: yes. But when the kickoff against Western Kentucky happens, all of Crompton’s (and the rest of the team’s) past will be forgotten by me. It’ll be a new history. Except for Berry, who should get the INT return yardage record on opening day.

by David Hooper on May 23, 2009 10:35 AM EDT up reply actions  

I was using the body of work that they both had created so far.

We don’t have evidence yet that either QB is going to be better than what we’ve seen so far (at least concrete evidence; I’m not the type to trust quotes). If Marve goes for 3,500 yards with a 35-12 TD-INT ratio in 2010, whoops. (Or for that matter, if Crompton does.)

by Chris Pendley on May 23, 2009 10:55 AM EDT up reply actions  

Oh, absolutely.

That’s all we can ever do. And it’s always worth remembering that Crompton hasn’t brought UT any sustained success. Perhaps last year can be blamed entirely on the Clawful, but that’s just as speculative as blaming it all on Crompton.

Didn’t mean to overlook your assumptions there. I think we’re on the same page.

by David Hooper on May 23, 2009 11:37 AM EDT up reply actions  

I don't disagree with what you've said

But it really bothers me when people compare Marve’s (RS Freshman) stats to Crompton’s (RS Junior).

by rblakeh on May 23, 2009 2:11 PM EDT up reply actions  

Right there with you.

I watch a lot of Miami ball, and he is….not great. And his dad is a royal pain.

________________________________
I will give my shirt for Tennessee today.

by Holly Anderson on May 23, 2009 5:08 PM EDT up reply actions  

How do you manage to watch a lot of Miami?

Half the games I see of theirs are the 12 PM ACC Raycom game (which – those guys have nothing on the Daves) and the other half are either:
- regional ABC games at 3:30 (no, it’s cool, I don’t want to see Oklahoma-Texas, I’d rather see Virginia Tech-Georgia Tech)
- 12 PM ESPN games

Figured those’d be either a bit early or impossible to watch. Unless you’re actually paying out money to watch ACC ball, in which case we may need to stage an intervention.

by Chris Pendley on May 23, 2009 6:27 PM EDT up reply actions  

Yeah, why's that?

I’m betting you’re an ESPN college football package deal-er, but what’s the Miami connection? Tennessee, I know. LA, I know. South Florida?

Rocky Top Talk

by Joel Hollingsworth on May 23, 2009 7:55 PM EDT up reply actions  

Just general affection.

No connection at all; I just like watching ’em. Also, inexplicable years-long fixation on Jeremy Shockey.

________________________________
I will give my shirt for Tennessee today.

by Holly Anderson on May 26, 2009 3:16 PM EDT up reply actions  

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