QB battle continues at UT

KNOXVILLE -- University of Tennessee football coach Lane Kiffin said Monday he still wasn't ready to name senior Jonathan Crompton or junior Nick Stephens the Volunteers' starting quarterback.

Kiffin said the pair graded out similarly in Saturday's second major scrimmage at Neyland Stadium. Crompton had superior numbers -- completing 17 of 25 passes for 178 yards and a touchdown, as opposed to Stephens' 11-for-23, 120-yard, two-score effort -- but Kiffin noted that Stephens was plagued by penalties and drops that weren't his fault.

"They're grading out very close, and that's good to see," Kiffin said. "I know you guys probably all want it to be easy, and you'd think I would. But if it was easy that would mean one guy wasn't playing well, and if that was the case, we wouldn't be very good because you never know when you're going to need your number two, so I'm excited that they're playing well."

Kiffin wouldn't say either quarterback regressed from the previous Saturday's first major scrimmage, but he admitted neither graded out as well on a day clearly won by the defense.

"Jonathan appeared better number-wise, but Nick was very unfortunate with a number of drops and some plays that would have been some very big third down conversions -- two third-down penalties where we actually converted the third down," Kiffin said. "It was a group thing of guys not doing right, which then obviously affected the quarterbacks."

Not all was lost, though, Kiffin added.

"There's an old lesson," Kiffin said. "When you play great, it's never as good as it seems when you go to watch it, and when you play bad it's never as bad as it seems. So it was the same thing. I thought afterwards offensively we really got beat physically and mentally, and after watching the film it was not really a physical issue. Guys were playing with very good effort. It was really mental. It was the first time we'd gone out, had that many penalties. We ended up with 12 (offensive) penalties and a bunch of missed assignments. Three times the missed assignments as the Saturday before.

"What's good is we have another preseason game to go next Saturday, our biggest preseason game of all four so our guys will be ready to go."

Crompton sidestepped questions about his individual Saturday performance, saying "the only thing that matters is whether the team gets better."

The Vols didn't necessarily get better Saturday, Crompton said, but the eternal optimist said lessons learned will help going forward.

"The littlest things make the biggest difference," Crompton said. "We've got to eliminate the penalties, and once we do that, I think we'll play better. We've just got to get better.

"Everything that happened out there (Saturday) can be fixed. That's the good news. Now we've just got to go out there and fix them."

HIP SIDELINES BROWN

Highly-touted freshman tailback Bryce Brown left Monday's practice with a hip injury. Kiffin didn't specify, but Brown tried fighting through the injury early in practice before retreating to the training room.

ACADEMIC SACRIFICE

The Vols won't practice Wednesday, the first day of fall semester classes. It's not clear whether they'll make up that day, or the Friday two-a-day nightcap that was canceled in favor of a team bowling trip.

KIFFIN WELCOMES FRESHMEN

Kiffin spoke at a pep rally last weekend and invited incoming UT freshmen students already on campus to attend Monday's practice. At least 200 students accepted the invitation, though that number steadily dwindled on a hot August afternoon.