KNOXVILLE -- It might be more than mere coincidence that Jonathan Crompton's best career performance against a Southeastern Conference opponent came shortly after Tennessee's top two wide receivers lost their limps.

Crompton and coach Lane Kiffin admitted moments after the 45-19 win over Georgia that junior wideouts Gerald Jones and Denarius Moore were two of the biggest reasons the Volunteers blew out the Bulldogs.

Jones, whose wrist injury required offseason surgery, found his form early in preseason camp but suffered a high ankle sprain in mid-August. He still wore a brace against Georgia, but he made five catches for 105 yards and two touchdowns.

Moore, one of UT's fastest players, missed most of preseason camp after a July 16 operation to place a screw in his fractured foot.

"It's football," Moore said shortly after returning to the field late in camp. "Injuries happen, unless you just get lucky. But they're probably going to happen, so you just have to get your mind right and work as hard as you can every single day to get back out there with your teammates and make plays.

"Stuff like this happens. How you deal with it is what matters."

He and Jones both returned to the field well ahead of schedule.

Jones missed the season opener against Western Kentucky, didn't catch a pass in UT's loss to UCLA and gained just 25 yards on two receptions at Florida. The competitor's frustration boiled over the next week, though, when he mouthed off at coaches and teammates on the sideline during the team's win over Ohio.

Jones caught just one pass for 4 yards against the Bobcats but called that "no excuse" for his sideline antics, and he apologized to Kiffin and his teammates. Then he caught 12 passes for 177 yards the next two games.

"When Gerald's healthy, we know what kind of player he is," Kiffin said. "We know he can be a great flanker. We saw that in camp against our defense, and obviously our first-team defense is pretty special."

Moore caught just one pass for 4 yards in the first three games. He's amassed 164 yards and two touchdowns on 11 receptions in the last three.

"I'm not even thinking about (the injury) any more," Moore said. "I'm just out there working hard and trying to make plays for the team, and help the team win, and it feels good to finally get a big one."

Moore made a 4-yard dive for the pylon to secure his 33-yard touchdown against Georgia. He caught a short pass from Crompton and broke free down the sideline after eluding three Bulldogs, most noticeably star linebacker Rennie Curran.

Moore said he saw the angled pursuit in his peripheral vision near the goal line.

"How I was going to get in the end zone, basically -- over the top or try to run him over," Moore said. "Over the top was the best bet."

The Vols coaches planned for a full season of Jones' shiftiness combining with Moore's speed and fifth-year senior Austin Rogers' experience. But Rogers' ACL tear and the other two's injuries changed those plans.

Better now than never, though, Crompton said, adding the desire for senior receiver Quintin Hancock's injured jaw to heal quickly. Hancock missed just one game but hasn't been the same since taking a big blow to the chin late in the loss at Florida.

"That helps everybody, because that gets everybody more rest," Crompton said. "The more depth we have at receiver, the better we are, because that means we can just keep rotating them, and that always helps, because then DBs stay on the field and we've got fresh legs. Those guys coming back, obviously that helps tremendously. Obviously, being veteran guys, they can help the other guys on the run during the game, saying, 'I saw this. What did you see?'

"It's a big help having them back, and we're glad to have them."

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