The Tennessee Volunteers control their own destiny in the SEC East with a large hill to climb this weekend against Heisman Trophy candidate Darren McFadden and his Arkansas Razorbacks.  Last year Arkansas defeated the Vols 31-14 in Fayetteville, with the highly touted McFadden rushing for 181 yards and a pair of touchdowns thus proving his meddle.  Jonathan Crompton played the entire game at quarterback for UT, as Erik Ainge sat out the contest with an ankle injury suffered two weeks before at South Carolina.

You can't convince me that Tennessee has fixed their problem and will be able to stop McFadden or the Hawgs passing game.  I just don't feel it in my heart.  So can Arkansas stop Tennessee?  That will be the question that decides the game.

  Arian Foster

“Getting back into the conference is a big deal,” Tennessee head coach Phillip Fulmer said. “We prepared well last week, worked a lot on fundamentals, and it showed.  Hopefully, it will carry over into this football game with Arkansas.”   “Our team knows that every week is a challenge.  We’re certainly capable of meeting the challenge, but we’ve got to have ourselves centered. We’ve done a good job of that the last couple of weeks.

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We have been here before.  Eric Ainge is hurt!  Will he play?  Or will Jonathan Crompton lead the Volunteers?  While it is certain Tennessee Football Coach Phillip Fulmer did not ask for this situation, it is just as certain that he is not going to show his entire hand to the California Golden Bear coaching staff either.

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From: utsports.com

Tennessee head coach Phillip Fulmer said Wednesday he expects his senior quarterback to play in Saturday’s opener at California, despite the latest news that Erik Ainge has a broken little finger on his throwing hand.

“He is going to play,” Fulmer said of Ainge. “He has thrown and it looks like he’s going to be able to throw just fine. I appreciate him showing the toughness to get himself back out there.”

Fulmer faced a similar situation last year when Ainge was injured late in an Oct. 28 win at South Carolina. Ainge started the next week against LSU, but Jonathan Crompton played most of the way in Tennessee’s last-season loss to the Tigers.

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“If it doesn’t work out great, then obviously Jonathan will have to be ready,” Fulmer said. “I have the utmost confidence in Jonathan getting the job done. We have said all along we’re going out there to win this football game as a team, and that’s exactly what we’re going to try to do.”

Crompton, a junior, has one career start in seven appearances. He has completed 47-percent of his career passes (31-of-66) for 401 yards. The Waynesville, N.C., product passed for 183 yards last year in the LSU game, then followed that with a 174-yard effort in his start at Arkansas. Crompton had two TDs and one interception in each of those games.

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