Under center, under fire: All eyes on QBs

There's no disputing the edge.

The Heisman Trophy winner is on the other sideline.

The quarterback is the unquestioned leader of that team, and there are no firing squads lining up to take shots at him.

That used to be familiar territory for Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin, but for one of the first times in his college career, he has a decided underdog at the most important position on the field. And even if Jonathan Crompton and Tim Tebow aren't exactly going head to head on Saturday in The Swamp (TV: WVLT, 3:30 p.m.), the disparity certainly underlines the challenge for the Vols against No. 1 Florida.

"They're not playing against each other," Kiffin said. "This is always about us. Look at the last game, that wasn't about UCLA. That was about us not playing well, and if we would have played well we would have won that game.

"This happens to be the next game, Jonathan is going to need to play well and it's a great matchup."

Obviously on paper it appears to be a bit lopsided, particularly under center after last weekend's struggles against the Bruins.

Not many players in the nation would compare favorably against Tebow, though Crompton's case became harder to make after throwing three interceptions and essentially forcing the Vols to operate a predictable, one-dimensional offense.

Kiffin is still squarely in Crompton's corner and hasn't budged about keeping him in the starting lineup, though he has cut the senior off from the media this week to try to limit distractions.

"He can't worry about the other stuff and what people are saying," Kiffin said. "This is a great university to play at, but when things go bad, because there is so much focus on football, you're going to hear about it. You're going to hear about it when you're at breakfast, when you're at lunch, when you're at dinner, when you're walking to class, and that makes it a difficult situation to handle.

"We're going to monitor that. . . . I've talked to him, and we're going to really focus on this game plan, focus on this week and that's all he can do."

The Vols will clearly need him to do a bit more against the hard-hitting Gators, but that's true at other positions as well.

Kiffin has repeatedly pointed to a couple of critical dropped passes and missed blocking assignments that didn't help Crompton any against the Bruins. The Vols also had issues with a missed exchange, poor timing on routes and little success breaking any significant gains in the running game, but if they're going to clear them up, they're going to do it with Crompton on the field.

"I think Jonathan is still a good quarterback," freshman tailback David Oku said. "We all make mistakes, and it wasn't just Jonathan.

"Games are not always going to go the way you plan them to, that's why you come to practice, that's why you do more film study. It's just about us as players, we have to find the edge. Jonathan's all right, I still believe in Jonathan and if Nick (Stephens) came in, I'd still believe in Nick. That's just a team effort."

The other team this week doesn't even need to address the possibility of another quarterback taking over, a sense of comfort Kiffin used to have at USC with guys like Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart.

There's no upper hand this week, but there's also no question which arm the Vols are using.

"As you guys know, (Crompton) didn't have a very successful year last year so as soon as bad things happen like that (last) game, everything goes back to him," Kiffin said. "That will always be the situation with the quarterback. When your team plays well, when your offense plays well, you'll get more credit than deserved.

"When the offense plays poorly, they get more critics than they deserve."

Either way, all eyes will be on the quarterback again this week.

Both of them.

© 2009, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
Want to use this article? Click here for options!