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Quarterback Jonathan Crompton throws during practice Monday at Haslam Field. The Tennessee starting quarterback has shown steady improvement in running the team since camp opened earlier this month.
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UT middle linebacker Gerald Williams has finished his last class to qualify and awaits his grade. In the meantime, he's ready to take to the field for the Vols. Watch »
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Tennessee will hold its last major scrimmage of preseason camp this afternoon in Neyland Stadium. The Vols have seen major improvement among reserves at defensive tackle and on the offensive line. Jonathan Crompton has continued to get better as fall camp progresses.
But here are Five Big Things the Vols are looking for Thursday as UCLA creeps up on the horizon:
1. Wrap It Up: UT's defense and its linebackers in particular missed too many tackles in Saturday's scrimmage. Given what happened in the Cal game a year ago, the Vols are looking for major improvement right now. A little extra fundamental work this week should give UT a nudge in the right direction.
2. Keep It Going: Jonathan Crompton had his best scrimmage Saturday, completing 67 percent of his passes. He was able to move the chains and find the end zone - and he did it without turning the ball over. Another strong performance today could set the stage for a great opener at UCLA.
3. Will Someone Step Forward? One of the most heated position battles this fall has yet to produce a starter. Neither Adam Myers-White and Nevin McKenzie have distinguished himself at strongside linebacker. With fewer than two weeks remaining until the season-opener, one of the two needs to put a vise grip on one of the most important positions on UT's defense.
4. Watch Warren: After learning that tight end Brandon Warren will be eligible for the fall, expect coaches to take an extended look at packages involving the sophomore transfer from Florida State. Warren didn't take a lot of snaps Saturday, so today will be a key scrimmage. Either way, Warren should contribute heavily this fall, but a good day today will accelerate that process.
5. More Montario: Tailback Arian Foster proved he's ready to play with just three carries and two catches on Saturday. Sophomore Lennon Creer gained 70 yards on nine carries, while true freshman Tauren Poole has earned some carries this fall with his tough running in spring practice and fall camp. Junior Montario Hardesty, while apparently healthy, has been so-so during scrimmages this fall. A good day from Hardesty, who can be a major impact player for the Vols, could help build his confidence heading into the fall.
© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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Comments » 112
mdvol writes:
Phelps!
IPOrange writes:
WRAP 'EM UP! Missed tackles have been a sore spot for the Vols in the past. Hit and stick, guys.
gobigorange writes:
Make tackling the #1 priority please coach. Offense wins games DEFENSE wins championships. GO VOLS!
IPOrange writes:
What's up, Geoff? Been circling the globe?
Michael1204 writes:
gobigorange, i agree that tackling must be our priority. however, i disagree that defense is likely to win us a championship. In 2005, the year of the "perfect storm," we had the sixth ranked defense in the country. that didn't really get us anywhere. not even to a bowl game.
go vols !
murrayvol writes:
Michael1204: There you go bringing up 05' again when I almost get the memory purged. Thanks a lot.
miamiVOL writes:
good review, im excited to see Warren and maybe G.Jones and/or E.Berry in the backfield for a few snaps
jacksfacts writes:
3-4 def sounds good to me maybe when can save it for florida.
jacksfacts writes:
Savage, any stud DTs left for next year that we have a chance with that could play as true freshmen?
jacksfacts writes:
Savage, any stud DTs left that we have a chance with that could play as true freshmen next year?
zbbb10#212690 writes:
(This comment was removed by the site staff.)
cleVOLand writes:
Lamarcus, I thought you were in Virginia somewhere?
gnm53108 writes:
gobigorange..Agree.
In 05 we did have a championship calaber defense but our offense was horrible.Going by memory,I think there was only one offense in the SEC that wasnt better than ours.If we had atleat a bad offense that year we would have gone Bowling.With a decent O we would have been in the SECCG.
zbbb10#212690 writes:
what a sandwich! what the heck with this oliver kid? rivals already took him off our list. boo kid boo!
zbbb10#212690 writes:
meant section x2 row 46. im 6 foot 8 holler at your boy u cant miss me. go vols. somebody take the s.a.t. for marlon walls please. oh thats seat 19 and 20.
orangesox writes:
zbbb10=Major Wingate???
BigVolinCarolina writes:
LOL, orangesox!
copan07#220906 writes:
I recently watched a You Tube video of Eric Berry highlights and the first thing I noticed was the poor tackling in the Cal game by the whole team. WE looked like a high school team. When you look at that video footage compared to the other games it is very clear why we lost. We could have won that game with proper tackling because our offense that day scored enough points to win.
SemperVol writes:
So if G. Williams is the sizzle and the steak and gets the nod, what happens with Ellix Wilson?
I just remember Nevin McKenzie on special teams making plays alot more than I've seen Meyers-White, so he'd get the nudge in my mind. But,what the he11 does it matter what I think.
'Bout ready to get this party started, fellas!
Carolina 4:14 "...attack...attack...attack..." (echoes of Johnny Majors of a particular pregame speech I'm thinking of)
DennisVols writes:
The poor tackling did not just start with last years Cal game. If you watch replays of games going all the way back to the 5-6 '05 season you will see the trend. It actually is a by product of HS football were alot of these guys are able to knock down a HS running back or receiver with a hard hit.
The get to the college level were few have come up against the level of talent that they face week in and week out. No longer does a hard hit do anything more than cause a studder step or a good spin move. The poor tackling is not just at UT but it is the only team that concerns me. :)
I want to see those arms wraping up with the hard hit and driving the runner into the ground like a fence post. If you do that early in a game it makes them start to think. You drill a receiver coming across the middle when he catches it the next time he is hearing footsteps.
As my platoon sgt always said "Hit em hard & bury em deep"
WorkinLikeHeck writes:
Foolmore is going to be watching our trick plays closely this scrimmage....he's loves to trick the opponent with 40 yard FG attempts.
SemperVol writes:
I think it's a no brainer with Stephens and Coleman. Stephens is a Junior with Crompton, he won't start. Coleman is a Freshmen and quite possibly our starting QB in two years.
LanceR24 writes:
man since im at ut for class today i was thought i might get to pop in and watch some of the scrimmage.......then i looked at my schedule, darn school lol.
orangebloodgmc writes:
Semper, you could be right, but we got those other 2 qbs coming in next year ...
Major_Magilicutty writes:
watched FCS's show on UCLA football last night. One of the guys running down the UCLA team said, "and they open with Tennessee. That game will just be ugly. No way UCLA goes more than 5-7 this year."
Hope that's right. I hope it is disgusting for all the west coasters.
givehim6 writes:
11 days! Im so excited! Have a great scrimmage, and lets wrap-m-up. GO VOLS!
SemperVol writes:
orange 9:57-
Yea, this staff has shown they aren't reluctant to start a golden boy from California.
chrslyp writes:
heard on the sports animal that ramon foster has been working at TE, they have set up a special package for him named after his hometown, chicago.
TommyJack writes:
iam4ua: Is it really true that top Bama donors are actually still dragging the Bear to home-games....sort of like Week-end at Bernies?
DennisVols writes:
Don't let iam4uselessalabama get you riled up.
Come the end of this season when Auburn and LSU finish 1 & 2 in the SEC West and Bama loses to Auburn, UT, Clemson(to start the year), GA & LSU with a possible upset by another non-ranked team they will not be here they will all be on the Bama sites calling for Saban's head.
And if they continue to bring up last years game know that it was last year not this year and it is the only thing they really have to brag about in a year that ended 4-4 in conference and 6-6 overall.
WorkinLikeHeck writes:
vol5521 is still mad at me because he never got to go to UT.
CatScratchFever writes:
NEWSFLASH!!
Kentucky got another committment today from a top 10 Quarterback. This time it is 5-Star QB Morgan Newton out of Indiana. He turned down offers from Florida and Clemson among others. His announcement comes on the heals of Ryan Mossakowski's commit to the Wildcats last week.
It looks like Randy Sanders is starting an NFL Deveopmental league for Quarterbacks up in Lexington.
Go CATS!!!
TommyJack writes:
Scratch: So who's gonna develop them?
WorkinLikeHeck writes:
I'm glad for Kentucky...Couch got them 7 wins I recall. LOL!!!!!!!!
Go4Two writes:
Both will not stay committed. Why would you go to KY if you are a top flight QB ?
Moaninglikeheck writes:
iam-40yearsoldandinthethirdgrade
WTH!!! Go ahead and talk smack. WTH!!! rotflmao I can't stop chuckling!!!
Alabummer with it's 4 mill coach who can't even get you to a bowl game and embarasses the ENTIRE CONFERENCE with a loss to a (sunbelt??) team, and you are making "dire" predictions for UT???????????????????????
Go read your "See spot run" book and get off your retired dad's computer. Shouldn't you be in school learning how to read anyway?
Good lord rotflmao!!!!
auttat writes:
Word on the street is Joker Phillips knows what he is doing? Don't know what street, but that's what people are saying.
Major_Magilicutty writes:
Morgan Newton 5* QB committed to Kentucky today. What in the world?
Major_Magilicutty writes:
EEK...guess I should read before posting. Sorry for the duplicate newsbreak.
thesavageorange writes:
CatScratchFever , scout has him as a 5*, but rivals a 3* and the 18th ranked QB.Either way congrats I think he's a nice player.Much different style than Mossakowski.Either way 1 of the 2 will be pretty good.I'm actually glad that Kentucky football is looking up.Maybe I won't have to hear about UK basketball 365 days a yr.
99gator writes:
can't wait for the season to get started.
as the season approaches, it is hard to get a feel for anything because everyone feels good about themselves at the start of the season.
i do feel like florida and georgia will battle it out in the east and auburn and lsu will battle it out in the west.
tenn can make some noise, but they would have to pull some upsets to do so. they will be underdogs against florida, auburn, and georgia and they will be underdogs for a reason.
but, they should not be underestimated and are capable of beating people.
but, playing florida (with florida having a bye week), having georgia, auburn and south carolina on the road. georgia and south carolina also have bye weeks before playing tennessee and auburn is a game following the biggest game of the year (florida). to me, that's just too much for a team with questions on defense and a new qb to overcome.
a little predicition for all the ainge haters out there.....at some point in time, there will be a moment or moments, where it will be shown how valuable a 4 yr senior starting qb is.
mdvol writes:
Wow. More important things going on in Knoxville today than football. What is the deal with kids today?
keeling67 writes:
any word on marlon walls?
thesavageorange writes:
jacksfacts , it's hard for any freshman DT to contribute.The only one that will have a chance is Bonds or Sentimore if we get either.It is possible, if Hughes goes to hargrave, for him to be an addition to next yr's class and help as a frosh.
Terry Shanckle the 4* DB I mentioned yesterday as one to watch did an interview for VQ this morning and confirmed that we are in the top 4.He will be in w/ Jerod Askew at the UAB game.He said alot depends on how he gets along w/ coaches and how the players mesh w/ each other.I think he'll find out what the other recruits have found out.This is a tight nit group that gets along very well.I think we have a good shot.
thesavageorange writes:
That's Shankle.Don't want to get in trouble w/ the abc police.
DennisVols writes:
gator
I agree about your comment concerning Ainge. Ainge's biggest libility was the offensive system he was in under coach Cut. Cut was and is a great developer of QB's. Admittly the raw talent he had to work with (the Mannings) had alot to do with that status as well. My fault with coach Cut had to do with his overall offensive system. It was always very conservative. The good points is few turnovers and playing the fundimentals well. The down side is it never changed against any opponent. Over the years it became predictible, defense's play in tight because unsless you had a receiver who could break tackles (R.M.) the down field threat was just not there. This also hampered the running game due to the secondary being up tight even if you broke the line of scrimmage the next level was right there.
Ainge was not mobile and his teacher limited his talents even more by that style of offense.
UT has as good a chance to beat anyone in the SEC this year as anyone. The new starting QB and new offensive system are question marks because no one really knows at this point how it is going to work out. Many of us UT fans are excited, we wanted a change and believe this was the right choice.
Now with limited practice time (NCAA rules) will this offense gel and give us the spark we want and need? Time will tell. I believe it is an advantage that UT plays the week before the UF game because of this.
It will be an exciting season again in the SEC and there will be upsets both good and bad for everyone.
pdb73216#339474 writes:
Savage, any news on G Williams test scores? How is Cromptons ankle? Just saw a preview of him on SC and they didnt say anything about it. Thanks for all you info.
GerryOP writes:
sjt18 @ 11:41 am: Thanks for the link. Is that "our" John Pennington?
Interesting observation, stock is rising! Can't disagree, but lets take another look at the stock at the end of September.
My thoughts have gone from 40-60 for a successful season up to maybe 70-30. But, it all depends on September!
thesavageorange writes:
pdb73216 ,from what I've been told Williams passed.It is a simple matter of the grade being added to his transcript.At that time it will be faxed back to UT and so on.
Cromton's ankle is a non issue.He looked good in practice yesterday w/ no visible ailments.
jack_2222#231746 writes:
You'd think the florida fans would be busy making sure their players' AK 47's are locked and that any credit cards the players have belong to them and not some dead coed.
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