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The Matchup!

Tennessee (3-3, 1-2 SEC) at Alabama (7-0, 4-0 SEC)

Kickoff: 3:30 p.m.EST Location: Bryant-Denny Stadium

TV: CBS

Series: Alabama, 46-38-7

The Vols took the third Saturday in October as their lone open date, while Alabama took the No. 1 spot in AP poll from unbeaten Florida with a 20-6 victory over South Carolina.

Alabama hasn’t lost a regular-season SEC game since 2007, and it’s had Tennessee’s number since head coach Nick Saban arrived in Tuscaloosa.

The Tide enters Saturday’s game as a heavy favorite for two big reasons: a stifling defense and a running game that has found its stride the last few weeks.

Strengths:

It all starts on defense for the Tide. Alabama ranks No. 1 in the country in total defense and pass efficiency defense. A lot of that credit goes to a stellar defensive line and a defense that leads the SEC with 21 sacks.

Tailback Mark Ingram is getting some serious Heisman hype after putting up 246 yards rushing (the third-best total in school history) last week against South Carolina. He enters Saturday’s game leading the SEC in rushing and fourth nationally with 129.3 yards per game. Alabama’s offensive line, led by left guard Mike Johnson has been solid as well.

Weaknesses:

Quarterback Greg McElroy started the season strong, but he’s struggled the last two weeks. Against South Carolina, McElroy threw two interceptions in his first four attempts and fumbled twice – both of which were recovered by South Carolina.

Return specialist Javier Arenas is day-to-day with a rib injury. He’s one of the SEC’s best, and has burned the Vols before. The Tide has other solid candidates in the return game (see Julio Jones last week returning punts), but they’d miss Arenas in the return game and at cornerback.

Did You Know?

Saturday marks the first time Tennessee has faced a team ranked No. 1 in the AP poll twice in the same season. Florida, ranked No. 2 in this week’s poll, held the top spot when they hosted the Vols on Sept. 19. … UT is 2-7 all-time against teams ranked No. 1 in the country. Its last victory came against No. 1 Auburn in 1985.

Saturday marks the third time the Vols will play a Crimson Tide team ranked No. 1 in the country, having lost to No. 1 Alabama in 1979 and 1980. And all three times, the Vols haven’t been ranked.

“(Kiffin) basically made a promise to us that we wouldn’t lose to them anymore, forever or until he leaves,” Volunteers safety Eric Berry said. “He’s not going to let Georgia beat us.”

The first-year coach got some help from Jonathan Crompton, who passed for a career-high 310 yards and threw for four touchdowns.

Kiffin had emphasized the Georgia game to his players due to its importance in recruiting. Because the state of Tennessee doesn’t produce many elite prospects, coaches traditionally have recruited in Georgia, and 12 current Vols hail from the bordering state _ including Berry.

“I told the guys last night, I don’t know all the Tennessee history or tradition of all the matchups,” Kiffin said. “There are a lot of great teams in this conference. But I told them, to me, this is the biggest matchup.”

It was his first Southeastern Conference victory and kept the Volunteers (3-3, 1-2) from going 0-3 in the league for a second season in a row. Georgia (3-3, 2-2) dropped to 3-3 for the first time under coach Mark Richt.

“They played better. They coached better. It’s very obvious their team was a better team by a long shot,” Richt said.

The Vols’ passing game had faltered at times this season, with Crompton struggling with his accuracy and his receivers often dropping passes when he was on target.

But by halftime Saturday, Crompton had already thrown for 205 yards and three touchdowns. He finished 20-for-27.

Georgia’s offense never reached the red zone, and the Tennessee defense held it to 241 yards compared with the Vols’ 472.

The Bulldogs found other ways to put up points. Brandon Boykin scored on his second 100-yard kickoff return of the season, and Bacarri Rambo returned Crompton’s interception 28 yards for a TD.

Blair Walsh kicked a 52-yard field goal, and Zach Renner blocked a punt by Chad Cunningham that sailed through the end zone for a safety.

“I don’t know that I’ve ever been involved in a game where the defense didn’t let a team into the red zone one time,” Kiffin said.

Crompton was a perfect 4-for-4 for 67 yards on a drive late in the first half, finding Marsalis Teague on a 5-yard touchdown pass for a 21-10 lead with 2:40 left. He also connected with Gerald Jones on a 51-yard score, the Vols’ longest pass of the season.

Despite being Tennessee’s most productive receiver returning from last season, Jones had struggled with drops and mistakes while recovering from an ankle injury and wrist surgery. He had a season-best 105 yards receiving and two touchdowns.

It was Georgia’s Joe Cox who played the role of struggling quarterback. Cox finished 19-for-34 with 146 yards and no touchdowns.

On the opening drive of the third quarter, Cox fumbled a snap, recovered and threw to Tennessee’s Dennis Rogan while under pressure. The interception set up a 30-yard field goal by Daniel Lincoln to give the Vols a 24-12 lead.

“It’s so frustrating to come out and have so many things go wrong,” Cox said. “It’s embarrassing. We are not doing the things we need to do as players.”

The SEC’s leading receiver, Georgia’s A.J. Green, finished with only 60 yards on eight catches. Its leading rusher, Tennessee’s Montario Hardesty, had 97 yards on the ground and a touchdown.

Richt opened his career by winning four out of his first five meetings with Tennessee, but the Vols have won three of the last four.

The game has often been one of the SEC East’s premier matchups, but for the first time in 38 meetings neither team was ranked coming in.

“We’ve got a long way to go to become a good football team,” Richt said.

Chris Todd threw for 218 yards and a touchdown, and Ben Tate ran for 128 yards and a score to help the Tigers beat Tennessee 26-22 and jumped out to their first 5-0 start since 2006 on Saturday night.

“This one of those old-school, physical SEC games and we did a good job executing most of the night,” Chizik said.

Auburn (5-0, 2-0 Southeastern Conference), which came from behind in its other four games this season, never trailed in its first road game of the season and has now won five straight over the Vols — its longest streak in the series.

Tennessee (2-3, 0-2) isn’t faring nearly as well in its rebuilding efforts under new coach Lane Kiffin.

The Tigers met some resistance early from Tennessee’s defense, but slowly wore it down as they held the ball nearly 10 minutes longer than the Vols. Auburn’s third-ranked offense racked up 459 yards.

“They are so complicated,” Kiffin said. “There are so many things they do.”

Tennessee made the score look closer when Jonathan Crompton threw a 32-yard touchdown pass toDenarius Moore as the clock expired to cut the final margin to 26-22. No extra point was attempted.

The Vols defense, which entered the game ranked eighth in the Football Bowl Subdivision, forced the Tigers to punt six times and limited them to field goals by Wes Byrum on four drives. The Auburn offense entered the game averaging 45.3 points and 526.3 yards and ranked third in the FBS.

“We’re trying to prove something every time we hit the field,” Auburn fullback Mario Fannin said. “We know what we have in mind, and that’s a championship. We’re just going to keep pushing forward and get better every week.”

Tennessee’s offense couldn’t stay on the field. The Vols went three-and-out three times in the first half, and Crompton fumbled a snap at the Vols 30 on the first play of a first-quarter drive. The Vols converted only four of 17 third downs.

By the middle of the second quarter, Auburn managed to take advantage of the weary Vols defense and drove 87 yards in 2:32. Tate scored on an 11-yard run to put the Tigers up 13-0 with 8:07 left before halftime.

The Tigers again drove easily on the Vols on a 70-yard drive in the fourth quarter, and Todd connected with Terrell Zachery on an 11-yard touchdown pass to give them a 23-6 lead.

Crompton managed to miss his receivers in every way possible: He overthrew, underthrew and hit them in the head and at the feet. He also didn’t get any help from his targets, who dropped several passes that were accurately thrown.

At halftime, Crompton had completed only four passes for 62 yards. Still, thanks to some success in the Vols’ 2-minute offense, he finished 20 for 43 for 259 yards and two touchdowns.

“There were drops. It was bad. There was no rhythm,” Kiffin said. “We’re not good enough to overcome drops. You start adding those drops in, and we’re going to struggle.”

Todd, who completed 19 of his 32 attempts, had his choice of receivers, completing passes to eight different targets.

The Tennessee defense was noticeably frustrated, and defensive end Chris Walker and tackle Wes Brown spoke to the entire team in a huddle at the sideline after Tate’s touchdown run.

“We have to make those plays because the defense was on the field a lot of time in the first half, and that goes somewhat on us,” Hardesty said. “We’ve got to stay on the field on third downs. We’ve got to keep drives going.”

That’s why he let his interception-prone quarterback take to the air against the eighth-best pass defense in the Football Bowl Subdivision. The gamble worked as Jonathan Crompton threw for two touchdowns and Tennessee beat Ohio 34-23 Saturday night.

“I think you saw a different game plan _ you saw us try to throw it around,” Kiffin said. “I think we threw it 28 times in the first half, and then we kind of went back to what we do and threw it eight times in the second half.

“We’ve got a long ways to go,” he said.

Crompton threw a 26-yard screen pass to Bryce Brown to give the Vols (2-2) a 31-20 lead with 2:38 in the third quarter and lobbed a 3-yard scoring strike to Brandon Warren at the end of the first.

The Vols relied on their stable of tough running backs in their first three games to protect the unsteady passing game with mixed results. Against the Bobcats, Tennessee rushed for 177 yards while Crompton completed 17 of 34 passes for 222 yards.

Most of those passing yards came in the first half. At halftime, the Vols already had 173 yards by air and only 45 on the ground.

By the end of the game, Montario Hardesty had run 20 times for 140 yards and an 11-yard touchdown and had increased his career total to 1,531 yards rushing.

Brown added 56 yards rushing and caught two passes for 60 yards, including a 34-yard catch on the second play of the game.

“I thought maybe they might want to work on their passing game … they may want to try to get up on us quick to put the game away early,” Ohio coach Frank Solich said.

Ohio (2-2) has a habit of playing bigger programs close. Even though rain earlier in the day kept the attendance at Neyland Stadium down, the 95,535 in attendance made up the second-largest crowd in Ohio’s history.

The Bobcats kept Tennessee uncomfortable by taking advantage of mistakes and passing for 319 yards against a Vols defense that entered the game allowing an average 88.33 yards by air per game.

Crompton threw his eighth interception of the season to Noah Keller, who returned it 10 yards to the Tennessee 30. Theo Scott connected with LaVon Brazill on a 2-yard touchdown pass four plays later, giving the Bobcats a 14-7 lead with 7:08 in the first quarter.

“We wanted to pressure Jonathan Crompton to throw and make some bad throws,” Keller said. “We had some chances to get more plays than what we did, but we never capitalized on them.”

Scott finished 30 for 52. Brazill had 92 yards on eight catches, and Taylor Price added 90 yards on four catches.

Chris Garrett took advantage of the Vols’ poor special teams coverage and returned a kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown.

Tennessee, which entered the game ranked fifth in total defense in the FBS, held the Bobcats to only 21 yards rushing on 17 carries. Chris Walker picked off Scott’s pass at the Ohio 7 and returned it for a touchdown.

“I saw (the tight end) drifting a little bit and coming alive, and I knew something was up,” Walker said. “The ball came right to me, and I caught it and knew what to do with it.”

Tennessee will have a tough time regrouping before facing Auburn at home next week because of a laundry list of injuries, especially on defense. Kiffin said starting middle linebacker Nick Reveiz was likely lost for the season after taking a hard hit on his right knee.

Linebacker LaMarcus Thompson sat out with a sore back, linebacker Herman Lathers suffered a concussion, Walker left with a sore back and defensive end Wes Brown never played as he rested his sore knees.

“We’re pretty beat up over there, but we’ve got to get better,” Kiffin said. “We’ve got to improve our depth.”

Kiffin kept his head up the whole way. Who could blame him? After all, he had more reason to be encouraged than embarrassed after his Southeastern Conference opener against the top-ranked Gators.

Tim Tebow ran for 76 yards and a touchdown, Caleb Sturgis kicked three field goals and Florida eked out a 23-13 win over the Volunteers on Saturday.

It wasn’t the beatdown many expected. It gave Kiffin reason to believe Tennessee (1-2, 0-1) is on the right track. It gave Meyer a big enough scare that it could help the defending national champions the rest of the way.

“It wasn’t how we envisioned or hoped,” said Tebow, whose streak of games with a TD pass ended at 30. “But it’s a win and it’s good enough for all of us.”

The Gators (3-0, 1-0) won their fifth straight in the series and set a school record with their 13th consecutive victory.

Florida started counting down the days for this one more than nine months ago, right after Kiffin vowed to sing “Rocky Top” all night long after being the Gators. Kiffin also riled up Florida with his false allegations of NCAA violations by Meyer.

Kiffin ran out of the tunnel just before the opening kick and had 90,000 Florida fans screaming, pointing and yelling obscenities at him. One guy even tried to torment Kiffin with a poster of Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis, Kiffin’s former boss. Kiffin said afterward that his plan from Day 1 was to take the focus of his players and put it on him.

“It worked perfectly,” Kiffin said. “It took all the pressure off the players. We played the No. 1 team in the nation with no pressure on them. … It was all on me. We were 30-point underdogs in this place and it really helped them go out and play ball.”

Kiffin refused to claim a moral victory, though. So singing “Rocky Top” will have to wait at least another year. He didn’t even consider humming the tune.

“No, we lost a game,” Kiffin said. “Maybe I’ll come back here for basketball and sing it for (coach) Bruce (Pearl).”

Florida’s postgame celebration was about as conservative as its game plan. There was no trash talk and no one trying to rub it in. The Gators were clearly disappointed with their performance, even though they had reason to celebrate.

Tebow, return man Brandon James and Florida’s defense gave the Vols fits for the third straight year.

Tebow completed 14 of 19 passes for 115 yards, although he also had two turnovers that Tennessee turned into 10 points. James returned three kickoffs for 97 yards, helping set up Florida’s first 13 points, but he also dropped a pass in the end zone.

And the defense harassed Jonathan Crompton and twice held the Vols to short field goals when they were in position for touchdowns. Ahmad Black intercepted Crompton on fourth down with about 2 minutes to play, ending Tennessee’s last chance at pulling off the upset.

“I’m not happy,” said Crompton, who threw three interceptions and fumbled a snap last week against UCLA. “Don’t want to lose if you’re a competitor. Hate losing more than you like winning. Look at the positives. Got a chance to capitalize early and late.”

Tebow took over down the stretch.

After his two nifty, 4-yard runs, the Gators looked like they would put the game away. But Tebow fumbled at the Vols 4, and Tennessee scored seven plays later to make it 23-13. It was Tebow’s second turnover of the game. He threw an interception in the first half that Tennessee turned into a field goal.

The Gators had some excuses for their lackluster offense. Receiver Deonte Thompson missed the game because of a hamstring injury. Running back Jeff Demps played with a 101-degree fever. And tight end Aaron Hernandez had to be isolated Friday because of flu-like symptoms.

Meyer put it all on Tebow, who ran 24 times.

His best plays were short gains late. He started right on a third-and-3, looked to throw and then cut back left and headed toward the sideline. He eluded Wes Brown’s grasp, then tiptoed down the sideline for a 4-yard gain. Instead of possibly being forced to punt, the Gators scored a touchdown to make it 23-6.

“Unbelievable,” Meyer said. “Vintage Tebow. He had a hell of a day. … He kind of took that game over on that drive. That was one of the best plays. I can’t wait to see that on film. He was this far from out of bounds and got the first down.”

On the next possession, Tebow used a nasty spin move to escape All-American safety Berry and Gerald Williams, then hit Dennis Rogan so hard the defender’s helmet flew off.

“I don’t think he’s human,” Kiffin said. “I really don’t. There were times when I asked (the coaches in the booth) on the headset, ‘Is he ever going to wear down?’ But he never does. Our defense worked hard and you just prayed to get it to third-and-4, because if it was third-and-3, he was going to put his head down and run over people.”

Tebow and the Gators had their heads down afterward. Meyer even said he had to lighten the mood in the locker room.

“I think there’s so much pressure on this team to perform perfectly, which is good,” Meyer said. “I’d rather be on that end than on, ‘Boy, great job. We lost by 10.’ I don’t want to do that. There’s a lot of pressure on these guys and I felt it in there.”

It was the right call.

UCLA stopped Tennessee’s Montario Hardesty on fourth-and-2 in the closing minutes, and the Bruins made it two in a row against the Volunteers with a 19-15 victory Saturday.

“We will be a better offense,” Neuheisel said. “But given the way our offense was playing, I thought it was better to put it in (the defense’s) hands.”

Trailing by 6, the Vols (1-1) had a chance to take the lead after driving 52 yards, but UCLA (2-0) held fast and Lane Kiffin lost for the first time as Tennessee coach.

The Vols’ defense, led by Monte Kiffin, had been battering the Bruins’ offense for much of the day. UCLA had only 186 yards of offense compared to Tennessee’s 208. The Bruins had four fewer first downs, held the ball for three fewer minutes and had 60 more yards in penalties.

Tennessee reached UCLA’s Kevin Prince many times, but usually after he released the ball. After Hardesty was stopped, Tennessee got a safety when Dennis Rogan sacked Prince, giving him a bloody mouth.

An inept Jonathan Crompton couldn’t do anything with the last-minute opportunity after getting the ball back, taking a sack and throwing three incomplete passes.

Lane Kiffin said he saw a few of his players trying to point fingers in the locker room after the game.

“I told them that isn’t what we are. That isn’t what a championship mentality is. A little bit of finger pointing came out and we have to teach them,” he said. “You either win or you lose, and everybody on that team lost today.”

For the Bruins, the win in Neyland Stadium in front of 102,239 fans was a big step toward recovering from last year’s 4-8 finish.

“We’re hungry,” safety Rahim Moore said. “We are trying to come out every day and every weekend to prove to the world that UCLA is who UCLA is.”

For the Vols, it means a lot of work this week as they prepare for a trip to Florida — especially on Crompton, who unraveled after throwing five touchdown passes in the season opener against Western Kentucky.

On the first play after halftime, he threw his third interception of the day and second to Moore, who has five for the season. Kai Forbath kicked a 39-yard field goal four plays later for a 13-10 lead.

“I just read the quarterback,” Moore said. “I knew that Crompton had some skills, but I also knew that he could throw a pick because any quarterback can. I was just sitting back and reading the quarterback.”

Kiffin, who has pledged not to shuffle quarterbacks during games, stuck with Crompton. Tennessee went three-and-out on its next two drives, and Forbath answered with field goals of 31 and 47 yards to give UCLA a 19-10 lead with 2:39 in the third quarter.

Forbath, who beat Tennessee with an overtime field goal in California last season, made four field goals in the rematch.

Prince finished 11-for-23 for 101 yards and the one touchdown. Johnathan Franklin had 80 yards rushing.

In the second quarter, Crompton fumbled a snap at the Tennessee 36, and Jerzy Siewierski recovered. A few plays later, Prince threw a 12-yard touchdown pass to Chane Moline as he was being hit, tying the score at 10 with 7:09 before halftime.

Crompton threw interceptions on the next two drives. He overthrew Gerald Jones on the first and hit Moore instead. On the second, he threw right to Alterraun Verner.

“I didn’t do a very good job today taking care of Jonathan,” Lane Kiffin said. “I gave him a couple of calls unfortunately that didn’t put him in the best position. We’ve got to do a better job around him.”

Crompton completed 13 of 26 passes for 93 yards. Hardesty finished with 89 yards rushing.

But the Bruins couldn’t capitalize on either. UCLA went three-and-out on the first, and Forbath missed a 51-yard field goal to end the half.

UCLA had its own problems hanging onto the ball. The Bruins fumbled five times, losing the ball once.

Willie Bohannan sacked Prince, causing a fumble, and Gerald Williams recovered at the UCLA 11. Hardesty took care of the rest on the next play to put Tennessee up 10-3 with 2:58 in the first quarter.

“We really didn’t get into our groove as an offense,” Crompton said. “When you don’t, some doubts come, but the upside is we were in that game at the end. We had four turnovers and we still came up 1 yard short. That is the one positive.”

Agent Chad Speck said Saturday that Mahelona was involved in an accident about a mile from his home in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. Speck did not know any more circumstances of the accident.

Mahelona was drafted in the fifth round of the 2006 NFL draft by the Tennessee Titans, where he played in 10 games as a rookie. He also spent time with the Miami Dolphins before playing his last NFL game with the Atlanta Falcons in 2007.

He is survived by his wife, Brandi, who is pregnant with the couple’s second child.

In two seasons as a Volunteer, he had 77 tackles and seven sacks.

Jonathan Crompton threw five touchdown passes Saturday, leading the Volunteers to a 63-7 rout of Football Bowl Subdivision newcomers Western Kentucky and their largest margin of victory in nine years.

“This is the way that we expect to play,” Kiffin said. “We have high expectations here. I just talked to them about understanding that was one game and it’s over. We’ve got to find a way to play better next week.”

In its first two drives, Tennessee looked as if it hadn’t learned much under Kiffin, the youngest active coach in the division. Crompton threw a pass over the middle that was easily tipped by Thomas Majors and intercepted by Jamal Forrest, and Montario Hardesty fumbled after a hard hit.

The Vols settled down after the first quarter, and Hardesty carried for 18 and 22 yards to help set up a 2-yard touchdown run by freshman Bryce Brown early in the second quarter.

Bobby Rainey fumbled on the Hilltoppers’ next play, and LaMarcus Thompson recovered for Tennessee. Crompton connected with Luke Stocker on his first of two TD catches to make it 14-0 only 7 seconds later.

“We played one quarter of decent football, and then I think for the next three quarters were physically dominated,” Western Kentucky coach Dave Elson said.

Tennessee’s defense looked every bit the stalwart it was in 2008, while the offense found the composure it was missing in last year’s 5-7 season. Running backs broke through the line of scrimmage, wide receivers ran sound routes and Crompton threw accurately.

“We really just tried to get our personality as a team on film. We wanted to be physical but smart. The game we just played is part of our resume, and we want to build that resume and send it out to our opponents,” Vols safety Eric Berry said.

The receiving corps hardly looked depleted by injuries, with Stocker, Marsalis Teague, Quintin Hancock and Brandon Warren each catching scoring strikes.

Crompton, who was pulled with 12:26 left in the game, finished 21 of 28 with two picks, and his five TD passes was one more than his output last season. Hardesty finished with 160 yards and a touchdown on 18 carries, and Brown had 104 yards rushing and a touchdown on 11 attempts.

The Hilltoppers couldn’t capitalize on the early turnovers and had minus-21 yards after their first 19 plays. Tennessee finished with 657 yards compared to Western Kentucky’s 83.

Rainey had the Hilltoppers’ only score on a 19-yard run with 2:41 in the third quarter that made it 35-7.

The win was the Vols’ easiest since a 70-3 victory over Louisiana-Monroe in 2000. Their 380 yards rushing were the most since 2004.

The Vols were also joined by former Vols and current Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning, who before the game announced a $1 million gift for a new athletic training center.

Though the attendance in the 100,011-capacity Neyland Stadium only reached 98,761, the fans turned out in droves as Kiffin and the Vols made the traditional “Vol Walk” from their buses to the stadium before the game.

“I really had to make sure that I did not go up and down today, because that’s what I talked about with our team a long time last night _ dealing with the emotions of a wonderful scene like the Vol Walk, a wonderful event like running through the ‘T’ and playing in front of 100,000 people,” Kiffin said.

The Vols and Bearcats are set to play Sept. 10, 2011, in Knoxville.

UT previously was scheduled to host Southern Mississippi on that date, but the Golden Eagles asked to move the game to a future season. Tennessee now plays Southern Miss in Knoxville on Sept. 2, 2017.

“We were contacted about the possibility of Southern Miss moving its game to a future year,” UT athletics director Mike Hamilton said. “For us, that was contingent on finding a suitable replacement, as Southern Miss is obviously a quality opponent.

“We worked with our partners at ESPN and were able to schedule the University of Cincinnati, the defending Big East Conference champions. We’re very pleased with how things turned out and excited about welcoming coach Brian Kelly and the Bearcats to Knoxville for that game.”

UT and Cincinnati have met five times, all in Knoxville, with the most recent outcome a 40-0 Vols win in 1992. The other four meetings occurred between 1904 and 1942, and Tennessee leads the overall series 4-1.

Cincinnati (11-3) captured the Big East championship last year and played in the FedEx Orange Bowl. Kelly is entering his third season as head coach of the Bearcats.

“Our philosophy is to play the best possible out-of-conference schedule,” Kelly said. “The University of Tennessee’s football tradition and geographic location make it a great matchup for us.”

Tennessee’s future slate of games already announced now includes: 2010 - UT Martin, Oregon, UAB, at Memphis; 2011 - North Texas, Cincinnati, at North Carolina, Middle Tennessee; 2012 - N.C. State (in Atlanta), North Carolina; 2013 - at Oregon, South Alabama; 2014 - at Oklahoma; 2015 - Oklahoma, at Connecticut; 2016 - at Nebraska, Connecticut; 2017 - Nebraska; 2018 - at Ohio State; 2019 - Ohio State.

2010 SCHEDULE
Sept. 4 vs. UT Martin
Sept. 11 vs. Oregon
Sept. 18 vs. Florida*
Sept. 25 vs. UAB
Oct. 2 at LSU*
Oct. 9 at Georgia*
Oct. 23 vs. Alabama*
Oct. 30 at South Carolina*
Nov. 6 at Memphis
Nov. 13 vs. Mississippi* (HC)
Nov. 20 at Vanderbilt*
Nov. 27 Kentucky
Dec. 4 SEC Championship Game, Atlanta

2011 SCHEDULE
Sept. 3 vs. North Texas
Sept. 10 vs. Cincinnati
Sept. 17 at Florida*
Sept. 24 at North Carolina
Oct. 8 vs. Georgia*
Oct. 15 vs. LSU*
Oct. 22 at Alabama*
Oct. 29 vs. South Carolina*
Nov. 5. vs. Middle Tennessee
Nov. 12 at Arkansas*
Nov. 19 vs. Vanderbilt*
Nov. 26 at Kentucky*
Dec. 3 SEC Championship Game, Atlanta

*-SEC Opponent

Kiffin said the competition between Crompton and junior Nick Stephens was decided by the slimmest of margins.

“It really came down to Jonathan was a little bit more accurate. Both guys made a number of plays during camp, both protected the ball very well with very low interception numbers, (and) very good numbers in general in all preseason games combined.

“Jonathan had a slight edge for accuracy.”

Kiffin added that his comfort-level is strong with either signal-caller, and praised Stephens for stepping up his game since the wrist injury he suffered during winter workouts.

“It’s weird to say it but if you listed the five most improved players from spring, Nick would be one of them even though he didn’t win the starting job. If something were to happen to Jonathan, I feel very confident that Nick would come in and do a great job for us.

“I think we’ve got two really good quarterbacks.”

The Vols practiced for nearly three hours Monday after taking the previous day off.

“It was another long practice,” Kiffin said. “It was good to have them back out here, although I thought we took a little bit of time to get going.

“We really tried to put a lot of conditioning into practice with long drives as the last thing of practice, so it’s pretty much like the fourth quarter. We continue to have a lot of work to do.”

Injuries were a topic of interest following practice, and Kiffin addressed those concerns.

“Bryce (Brown) pushed through and did almost everything today, so that was really good. Josh McNeil, his knee has been bothering him so we sent him to get his knee checked. Gerald (Jones), we’re still evaluating (high ankle sprain). We’ve heard anything from three weeks to six weeks.”

McNeil’s questionable status comes at a tough time in his battle for a starting spot at center, with fellow senior Cody Sullins competing stride for stride. Kiffin says the final decision has not been made.

“We’ll see how Josh comes back from his injury and then make a decision. Hopefully, we’ll have good news and (Josh) will be able to play for us. His knee, maybe eight or nine days ago, he came down weird on it and then kept playing through it. It’s been bugging him some more and really was an issue for him Saturday.

Jones’ injury has really thinned the receiving ranks heading into the Sept. 5 opener against Western Kentucky (Vol Network, SEC Network).

“Today, I think we had five scholarship receivers healthy and three of them were true freshmen,” Kiffin said. “So we’re going to need guys to step up.”

The Vols temporarily solved their personnel shortage at wide receiver by moving redshirt freshman Rod Wilks over from the defensive secondary. Wilks played both positions while leading Smyrna to consecutive state championships in Tennessee’s largest high school classification.

“There’s no free agency to go to or trades, so we made a deal with the defense and went to Rod Wilks,” Kiffin said. “We made a deal with the defense and brought him over. That’s hard to do, bringing a guy over this late. But it does give us another body over there and someone who’s played receiver in the past. We’ll see what he can do.”

The Vols practice again Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon at Haslam Field.