Kiffin Might Have Gotten Too Much Praise

Quarterback Jonathan Crompton looked a lot better in 2009 than he did in 2008. Running back Montario Hardesty looked more fresh in 2009 than any other time in his career. The offensive line performed incredible this past season, as opposed to the season before. Defensive tackle Dan Williams turned from a nobody into a first round draft pick. Those were some huge positives for former University of Tennessee head coach Lane Kiffin. A lot of praise has been thrown in his direction for creating such a mass turnaround. How much of that praise does he actually deserve, though?

Coming out of high school in 2005, Jonathan Crompton was ranked the 2nd best pro-style quarterback in the country according to Rivals.com. Crompton came into a quarterback shadow from day one at the University of Tennessee. In 2005, his freshman year, Crompton red-shirted. In 2006, starting quarterback Erik Ainge sustained an ankle injury against LSU early in the first quarter. Crompton stepped onto the field for his first significant minutes of his college career. Previously in the season, Crompton had played scrub minutes against California and Memphis, going 4-4 for 44 yards. Versus LSU, Crompton was 11-24 for 183 yards. Crompton also threw two touchdown passes and one interception.

Ainge was unable to play in the next game against Arkansas, so Crompton got the start. In a losing effort, Crompton was 16-34 for 174 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception. These are not bad numbers for a red-shirt freshman quarterback against SEC competition. Unfortunately, those were the pre-Dave Clawson days.

The entire offense struggled in 2008 under the guidance of former Richmond head coach Dave Clawson. In 2007, under David Cutcliffe, Tennessee's offense finished ranked 30th in the country in total offense. In 2008, under Dave Clawson, Tennessee's offense finished ranked 116th out of 120.

In Jonathan Crompton's first two years in UT's system he threw 78 passes and had a career passer rating of 116.2. In 2008, Crompton's passer rating was 98.3. I tend to think Jonathan Crompton's talent did not decrease.

I blame Crompton's poor performances in 2008 on Dave Clawson and Phillip Fulmer. Clawson brought in a system that no one on the offensive side of the ball for Tennessee could understand, and Phillip Fulmer played musical quarterbacks virtually all season long.

Kiffin should earn praise for sticking with Crompton through the bad times early into the 2009 season but not for making Crompton better. Crompton has always had the talent, he's just not always been able to put it on display.

Montario Hardesty sure made a turnaround in 2009. This is a running back that was seemingly about to be replaced by Lennon Creer or Bryce Brown or David Oku or Tauren Poole going into the 2009 season. Hardesty proved himself early in the season to earn a co-starting postition with Bryce Brown. Lennon Creer transferred, David Oku played limited minutes in the backfield, and Tauren Poole completely disappeared from the picture.

In 2009, Hardesty led the Vols in rushing yards with 1345 yards with 13 touchdowns. Hardesty had a spectacular senior year, dazzling fans with beautiful spin moves that looked straight out of a video game. Hardesty has always been capable of performing at this level but had been set back on several occasions because of injuries.

Hardesty played in two games his freshman year in 2005 before tearing his ACL and receiving a medical hardship. In 2006, he became the first running back since Travis Stephens (2000) to score a rushing touchdown in four consecutive games, and started his first game of his career versus Florida. That year, he opened up the season with a 46 yard run against California. In 2007, Hardesty missed three games because of an injury. In 2008, Hardesty again battled injuries and actually missed the Wyoming game. The guy had health issues his entire career at UT. However, in 2009, he was Tennessee's guy and stayed healthy to have a season that would get him into the NFL draft. Kiffin does not deserve credit for keeping Hardesty healthy.

Defensive tackle Dan Williams was able to improve himself, as he has also worked his way into the NFL draft. However, the improvement hasn't been astronomical. Williams finished the 2009 season with two sacks. He also finished the 2007 season with two sacks. He finished in 2009 with 62 tackles. In 2008, he had 49. That's only a 13 tackle difference. Dan Williams has steadily gotten better every year he's been at Tennessee. Obviously, a steady improvement over his career had nothing to with Lane Kiffin, who didn't arrive until the end of the 2008 season.

These are some major examples of the improvements people talked about while Kiffin was still the head coach at the University of Tennessee. I do give Kiffin a lot of credit, however. He was able to put Tennessee on SportsCenter, he made Tennessee one of the least penalized teams in the nation, the overall GPA of the team was better than in recent years, and he was able to bring in some highly touted recruits. His time at Tennessee was needed to rejuvenate a fan base that had all but given up hope in the football program.

Kiffin is certainly creditworthy, just don't go overboard with it.