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Vols reopen quarterback competition after loss

By: Wes Rucker
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Phillip Fulmer
Nick Stephens
Jonathan Crompton

Staff Photo by Dan Henry
UT's quarterback Jonathan Crompton (8) hands off to Arian Foster (27) while playing against Auburn during the first half of play Saturday afternoon. The University of Tennessee played Auburn University at Jordan Hare Stadium, September 27, 2008.

KNOXVILLE — University of Tennessee football coach Phillip Fulmer begrudgingly dropped the green flag on a quarterback derby Sunday evening.

One day after another inept offensive performance caused UT’s first 1-3 start since 1994, Fulmer said he would let sophomore Nick Stephens split first-team practice snaps with junior Jonathan Crompton before this week’s game against Northern Illinois.

Fulmer said he’d rather name a “main guy” before Saturday, but he didn’t rule out a rotation. Regardless, he said the team will expand sophomore wide receiver Gerald Jones’ “G-Gun” quarterback package.

“The guy that shows the most consistency in the passing game (will start),” Fulmer said. “We’re going to chart everything they do all week long, and we’re going to work like heck to improve at quarterback.”

Crompton has fallen far short of even the most modest expectations placed on him for this season, completing 64-of-123 passes for 658 yards, two touchdowns and four interceptions.

Excluding a 35-3 victory over hapless UAB, Crompton has completed 45-of-92 passes for 418 yards, zero touchdowns and three interceptions against UCLA, Florida and Auburn.

Including the UAB game, Crompton is still ranked 108th nationally with a 95.83 quarterback rating. There are 119 major Division I programs, and 117 quarterbacks are listed in this week’s statistics. There are only four Bowl Championships Series conference quarterbacks rated below Crompton — Michigan’s Steven Threet, Boston College’s Chris Crane and Virginia’s Peter Lalich and Marc Verica.

Twenty-nine major Division I quarterbacks have ratings higher than 150, while 67 have at least 125 and 103 have are in triple-digits.

“It’s very disappointing,” Fulmer said. “We’ve got no consistency in the passing game at all right now.”

Crompton’s latest setback was Saturday’s anemic, 8-of-23 passing performance at Auburn. He didn’t throw an interception but totaled just 67 yards through the air and missed several open receivers.

Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville complimented Crompton on Sunday afternoon

“I watched him warm up, and I’ve seen him in other games,” Tuberville said. “He’s had good games, but again — new quarterback, new offensive coordinator. Things are not going to go perfectly, especially early in the year. They’ve gotten off to a slower start than I’m sure they would have liked, but he’s got a lot of ability.

“He’s going to be a good quarterback. In this league, it’s just hard to play quarterback your first year. You’ve got a lot to learn and a lot of bumps and bruises to take. You’ve just got to earn it.”

UT is ranked 103rd nationally with 19.3 points per game. The Vols are slightly better in total offense — 81st with 346.3 yards per game — but that simply proves that they’re not opportunistic.

“I want to make clear that it’s not always the quarterback,” Fulmer said. “Sometimes it could be a protection, or a (poor) route, or a good defensive play. But we’ve had enough inconsistency that we need to see what our options are as we go through this week.”

Stephens is a 6-foot-4, 215-pound Texan with the strongest throwing arm on UT’s team, but his varsity college career is limited to one game. He threw two passes against UAB, connecting with sophomore tight end Brandon Warren for 42 yards to get the Vols off their goalline.

“You always just try to do the best that you can, and not worry about other people,” Stephens said. “I’m sure (Crompton’s) mindset is the same way. You just go out and try to do the best you can and try to help the team.

“Personally, for me, it’s not going to be awkward. I’m just going to go out there and do what I do, and work as hard as I can.”

Redshirt freshman B.J. Coleman from Chattanooga’s McCallie School split second-team reps with Stephens during preseason practice, but he doesn’t appear to be involved in the immediate plans.

“Nick has made a lot of progress the last two or three weeks,” Fulmer said. “B.J. is doing all right. We made a decision about three or four weeks ago to stop splitting those second-team reps, because we had to get Nick ready, basically.”

Much has been expected from Crompton since his celebrated arrival in fall 2005. He was Rivals.com’s second-rated prostyle passing quarterback prospect in that signing class, behind only Southern California’s Mark Sanchez.

If Crompton or his coaches felt something like this was coming, they showed great poker faces all offseason.

“(Competition) just brings out the best in me,” Crompton said. “I have every confidence in the world in myself that I’m going to be fine, and I’m still going to be the guy. That’s just how I go about looking at it.”

Asked to assess his performance after watching the film, Crompton, as usual, shied from specifics.

“Obviously, we didn’t win the game, so it wasn’t good enough,” he said. “That’s pretty much all there is to it.”

Each week’s game plan has become increasingly simplified. But that hasn’t prevented Crompton’s penchant for locking onto primary receivers; forcing throws into double-coverage; ignoring or missing open receivers; unexpectedly changing cadences; a general lack of field awareness, pocket presence and clock management; and, most unfortunately, problems with simple exchanges from the center and to the backfield that have cost the Vols dearly in three games.

“He wasn’t finding his second receiver very well,” Fulmer said. “And when he did he didn’t throw it as accurately as we would like to have him throw it.

“That’s where we are.”

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