Avery Journal-Times
KNOXVILLE- If Saturday was any indication, the Tennessee Vols will be a team to reckon with. Behind the arm of Johnathon Crompton and a brusing running attack, the Vols got their first win under new head coach Lane
Kiffin as they crusied past Western Kentucky 63-7."At one point, they way they came back after that first quarter, scoring 63 points in three quarters was good to see," Kiffin said. "But we have a long way to go and a lot of work to do. Today there were a lot of things that reminded us of how much work we have to do. But to get our first game under our belt, it was exciting."
After a slow start in the first quarter, Tennessee exploded for 28 points in the second quarter alone. Freshman Bryce Brown opened the scoring with a two yard run. After UT recovered a Western Kentucky fumble, Luke Stocker was on the recieving end of a Crompton pass seven seconds later to give UT a 14-0 lead. Before halftime, Quintin Hancock and Brandon Warren were both on the recieving end of Crompton touchdown passes as UT took a 28-0 lead into the locker room.
Crompton ended the game 21 of 28 for 233 yards with five touchdowns.
While the passing game was effective, it was the rushing attack that dominated. The Vols had 380 yards on the ground with Montario Hardesty leading the way. Hardesty had 18 carries for 160 yards and had a touchdown. Brown also had an im
pressive debut in Orange as he had 104 yards on 11 carries with the touchdown.Tauren Poole and freshman David Oku had 62 and 43 yards respectively while Oku had two touchdowns in the second half..
Not to be outdone by the offense, the Volunteer defense showed they are worth the hype as they held the Hilltoppers to 83 total offensive yards for the game, 66 of which was on the lone WKU scoring drive against a defense that had subs mixed in.
"I was very impressed with our style on defense for most of the day, but especially early on," Kiffin said. "At one point halfway through the second quarter, I think they had one first down and five penalties. So I am excited about the way we played on defense, especially early."
For Kiffin, it was quite an experience just to be in the Tennessee
Football environment."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. "That's to our advantage in a lot of ways, but we have to manage that with our players. So if I'm out of whack and I'm up and down, they're going to respond to that. So I had to make sure I stayed really even throughout the day."
