Vols' Crompton plays well for his Bulldog mom

By DAVE LINK

For the AJC

KNOXVILLE -- If Tennessee quarterback Jonathan Crompton needed a boost of confidence, he got it Saturday afternoon -- with an assist from the Georgia defense.

Crompton, booed by Tennessee fans in previous games, threw for a career-high 310 yards in the Volunteers’ 45-19 victory over Georgia at Neyland Stadium.

It was just the kind of game Crompton needed to fend off the boo-birds.

“First of all, you talk about [Georgia’s] defense,” Vols coach Lane Kiffin said. “What happened in the game was, you’re going to give Jonathan a lot of credit today, which is deserving. But I’ve sat up here and told you before that whenever you win, the quarterback gets too much credit, and whenever you lose, he doesn’t get enough and gets killed.”

Crompton completed 20 of 27 passes with one interception and four touchdowns.

When the game ended, Crompton leaped into the stands where his parents, David and Janet, were sitting.

“My mom’s from Georgia,” Crompton said. “She grew up a Georgia fan, so it was big for her and kind of a personal game. Some people say you play harder for the people you love. I played more for them [my parents] than myself.”

Crompton, a senior from Waynesville, N.C., made Georgia’s pass defense look porous and started from the game’s opening play, when he threw an 18-yard pass to Quentin Hancock. On the next play, he threw a slant pass across the middle to tight end Luke Stocker.

At least one Georgia defender was caught off guard by Crompton’s early passing.

“We were very surprised,” strong safety Bacarri Rambo said. “We didn’t think he was going to come out and start throwing the ball like that, but he found receivers open and they were finding holes in the zone and making plays and stuff.”

By halftime, Crompton was 12-of-15 for 205 yards and three touchdowns.

Much of his passing yardage came on rollout passes.

“I would have to think 80 percent of the [passing] yards they had was off the naked [rollout], off the bootleg [rollout] action,” Georgia coach Mark Richt said. “When you’re geared to stop the run, you’re vulnerable to that. We didn’t adjust very well to that.

“We might have done a little better job in the second half, not a whole lot better job, so when the quarterback is running free and the receivers are running free, you’ve just to got to put it on ’em, and Jonathan did a good job doing that.”

Crompton’s abilities were no surprise to Richt, who recruited the Tennessee quarterback.

“We tried to sign him,” Richt said. “He has the ability, and he showed it today.”

It was just the kind of game Crompton needed.

“I felt a lot of energy out there that guys were playing for everybody,” he said. “That’s a good thing.”