I thought Crompton had put his demons behind him. That may not be the case. Unfortunately, it’s not like we have a lot of options at this point.

UCLA was progressively running stiffer run-oriented defense throughout the game. Tennessee had to throw at some point in time.

we could challenge in the sec this year. As it is, we are just gonna try to go bowling.

Funny.

Florida in the mid 90s would regularly win games by multiple touchdowns but lose ToP, mainly because their scoring drives were about 45 seconds long. Plus, as in our game, you can have the ball for as long as you want, and if you don’t get in the end zone, it;s moot.

Last week was the “off game.”

This is closer to the Crompton we’re used to. He was very highly recruited coming out high school, but has never shown anything at the college level approaching that level of hype. TO be fair to the kid, he’s working his 4th offense in 5 years. Could he have been better if he;d been able to work in one offense the entire time? Hard to say.

Our other quarterbacks are Nick Stephens, a junior who was edged out by JC in camp this summer/fall. He didn’t look tremendously better than JC last year. He doesn’t have quite the skills of JC (not as good of an arm, etc, but he throws fewer interceptions). Our only other QB is Lamaison, a JC transfer.

I totally feel you on that though. I compare it to us with out point guard situation in basketball last season. Its so tough when your key role is your weak point.

Here’s hoping Crompton comes out to “prove someone wrong.” ;)

That was awful awful qb play, but I want him to have the chance to come out next week like a fire has been lit up under his behind. I think otherwise it would be bad for the team. That being said, if he doesnt come out and play im all for taking him out the week after

But yes, it’s a fine line to walk – when is a guy truly getting gassed, and when is he just hitting his stride? The RB rotation scheme is a work in progress, I’d say.

I think your O-line needs some work, but everything else ran pretty well. I don’t remember many miscues on your side of the ball. And having beat us 2 years in a row, your team has to be confident in your coaches.

the running game did work really well when not running at Price. When he needed breathers, it was guaranteed yardage for Tennessee.

I’m going to think about it for a bit, but I’m not sure I necessarily blame Kiffin for the playcalling yet. We absolutely have to have a passing game, and it’s still much better to learn these lessons against UCLA (nonconference) than Florida or Georgia.

Some calls were odd, I’ll admit. I would have gone with a play action on that 4th down at the goal line because UCLA absolutely had to sell out against the run. Even with all Crompton’s troubles to that point, the worst thing that could have happened was UT not scoring a touchdown. An interception and an incompletion were basically the same thing.

Kiffin called a good a game, there are only a few things I could really pick on in the play calling:

-the fourth and 1. I would’ve liked to see a FB run or even a pass out on the flats. But you can’t blame kiffin to going to hardesty. You gotta put the ball in your playmakers’ hands in that situation and in that case hardesty is your guy to go. Look at the fourth and goal in the first, Crompton went play action, and almost threw a terrible interception when there was a guy WIDE OPEN. Crompton didn’t look like he was going through his reads, looked locked in on players, and had horrible placement of the ball.

-Where was the TE play? UCLA’s secondary looked like they had the long pass protected pretty well, we should’ve gone to the TEs then and quick passes over the center. Especially since Crompton looked like he couldnt hit the broadside of a barn. WRs didn’t look like they ran very good routes to me, but I could only focus on so much because whenever I saw Crompton with the ball, I couldn’t look elsewhere for fear.

- I also would’ve like to see more toss plays to RBs. That seemed to give us some of the best chances than the run up the middle.

Im glad Kiffin kept up with the pass though even though Crompton was horrible. You cant drop the pass without hurting the run game. It kept UCLAs defense honest, and while they had some good run stops in the second half, it was only because we still insistent on passing that we had any run game the second half. I do think I would’ve liked to see a bit more calls towards the run game, but not by much.

Crompton in UT football = Porter in UK basketball.

Lord I hope not. ;)

nothing beyond the norm. Anonymity is a wicked drug.

But its still the truth. Not one of those passes even came close or even had a shot.

to the world of UCLA

tough game. UT losing is always a guilty pleasure ‘cause my best friend is a big UT fan. You guys have some young talent, but you aren’t quite there yet. I’m still not sold on Kiffin’s ability to coach and definitely not sold on Crompton. I don’t think Florida is going to blow you guys out. You’re not a bad team, and I never bought into the whole “you made Urban mad, he’s going to beat you up” angle. 44-31 is my prediction. I’m SOOOO looking forward to the handshake at the end of that game, regardless of how it turns out.