Crompton knows the routine

Tennessee quarterback Jonathan Crompton is on standby once again, preparing himself for whatever opportunity awaits with starter Erik Ainge slowed by an injury.

This time, Ainge has a broken pinky finger on his right, throwing hand. UT coach Phillip Fulmer said Wednesday he expects the senior to play Saturday against Cal, but Ainge has been limited in practice this week.

Last year, Ainge missed practice leading up to the LSU game, then played three series before giving way to Crompton and missing UT’s next game against Arkansas.

“I’ve been through this before,” Crompton said.

Crompton said the situation won’t dictate how he practices.

“You’ve got to go out there and compete everyday,” the sophomore said. “That’s what everybody on this team does no matter if you’re first, second, third or fourth team. I think our whole team does a good job with that.”

Fulmer said he has confidence in Crompton’s ability to step in.

“He’s got plenty of tools, and I think he’ll be just fine,” Fulmer said. “It’s very valuable that he’s played ... I think Jonathan has continued to progress and get himself to a position where he can be a starting quarterback in the Southeastern conference.”

Crompton was 27-of-58 passing for 357 yards with four touchdowns and two interceptions in loses to LSU and Arkansas last season.

“I think that I know how to handle adversity,” Crompton said. “I’ve been through it before.”

Tight Ends Focused: Brad Cottam’s injury doesn’t mean UT’s tight ends are abandoning their preseason goals.

Senior Chris Brown said it’s up to him, sophomore Jeff Cottam and freshman Luke Stocker to haul in the 100 passes that the group pledged to catch before senior Brad Cottam was sidelined following wrist surgery last week.

“That’s our goal,” Brown said of the 100 receptions. “Brad went down and Luke and Jeff have to step up.”

UT’s tight ends only caught 44 passes last season. Brown caught 31 passes for 239 yards. Cottam hauled in 14 for 182.

Tight ends coach Matt Luke said the Vols are ready to replace Cottam, thanks to their offensive approach.

“Those guys are interchangeable,” Luke said. “All three of those guys can play all three spots. We’ll do that some. You’ll see us mixing those guys in at different positions.”

UT’s top two tight end positions consist of H-back, which is similar to a fullback, and a more traditional, hand-on-the-ground tight end. Typically, UT’s H-back runs short, underneath routes while the traditional tight end is more often asked to run downfield routes.

Brown, who typically plays the H-back role, said he’s willing to adjust.

“Hopefully I can be that go-to guy,” Brown said. “I think I need to be, just because our receivers are so young. They really haven’t played that much football yet, especially in a big non-conference game.”

Luke said UT will rely on its offensive system. However, Brown said that doesn’t mean tweaks can’t be made.

“He’s put a lot more stuff in the past week for Cal, trying to get me downfield a lot more and just trying to utilize me a lot more,” Brown said. “The coaches are depending on me to catch the ball and do something with it.”

Hefney’s Hopes: Hefney’s cousin, Buffalo Bills defensive back Ko Simpson, laid out some stout goals for the 2007 season.

“He told me that he wanted me to get over 100 tackles and like nine picks,” Hefney said. “I also want to return a lot of punts too. I want to run five punts back. I want to beat (Cal receiver) DeSean Jackson.”

Jackson led the nation with 18.2 yards per punt return last season. He also scored four touchdowns helping him to win the inaugural Randy Moss Award for best collegiate return man.

Hefney averaged 12.7 yards per return and didn’t score a touchdown.

Motivated Mayo: Junior linebacker Jerod Mayo has heard how motivated Cal’s players are to atone for last year’s 35-18 beating they received in Knoxville.

“These guys have been talking a lot about revenge,” Mayo said. “We’ve been listening, but at the same time we’ve been training real hard.”

Mayo said, like Cal, UT has plenty of motivation.

“We still have that chip on our shoulder from last year after losing to Penn State,” Mayo said. “We’re hungry. We’re ready to get a win under out belt as well.”