DEFENSE, DEPTH HIGHLIGHT FINAL VOLS SCRIMMAGE

Aug. 22, 2006

The Tennessee offense is still improving.

But sometimes the Vols' defense makes it hard to see.

The UT defense dominated the final scrimmage of the fall Tuesday night at Neyland Stadium, consistently pressuring the quarterbacks and forcing a handful of turnovers in the two-hour session. The scrimmage is the last for UT before the Vols open the season against California on Sept. 2 in Knoxville.

"There will be some good things to see from the tape," head coach Phillip Fulmer said. "Hopefully, we'll close that gap a little bit from our first team to the second. Our depth needs to improve. We definitely have to address that."

Linebackers Ryan Karl and Marvin Mitchell teamed up for the defensive highlight of the evening, as the junior Karl tipped a pass by Bo Hardegree behind the line of scrimmage that the senior Mitchell returned 23 yards for a touchdown.

Jonathan Wade almost matched Mitchell's score on the next drive, picking off a sideline route and nearly returning it for another defensive score.

Adam Myers-White and Antonio Wardlow also picked off passes for the Vols, who also racked up seven sacks.

"It's exciting," Fulmer said of his defensive unit. "In the first scrimmage they had two or three picks and two other take-aways. Today, we tried to run Cal stuff as close as we could on both sides and it was good to see them get their hands on the ball that much."

When the quarterbacks had time, the UT offense looked much sharper than they had in the first two scrimmages. Starter Erik Ainge finished 3-for-7 for 41 yards and a touchdown in limited action, and freshman Jonathan Crompton completed 11-of-17 passes for 129 yards and two scores.

Most importantly, neither of the top two UT signal-callers tossed an interception for the second consecutive scrimmage.

"It was kind of like a professional preseason exhibition," Fulmer said. "The first-team quarterback gets 15 snaps or a quarter and then the second-teamer gets some. (Jonathan) played with the ones 12-15 snaps and then he did a good job with the twos. He had a nice day overall."

Freshman wide receiver Quintin Hancock hauled in both touchdowns from Crompton. The 6-2 target grabbed a 12-yard pass from Crompton in heavy traffic in the end zone for his first touchdown and later added a touchdown that covered five yards to wrap up a productive day for Crompton and a busy fall for Hancock.

Hancock finished the fall with four receiving touchdowns in the Vols' three scrimmages to lead all UT receivers.

"Quintin Hancock is a guy that definitely will be in the mix," Fulmer said. "He still has some alignment things and occasionally runs a route where he doesn't read it. But he really doesn.t physically look like a freshman and it's exciting to see a young guy do that well."

Ainge led off the scoring with a three-yard strike to Robert Meachem, and Jim Bob Cooter capped the evening with a five-yard pass to Luke Stocker for the last preseason touchdown.

Starters
Offense -- Eric Young; Anthony Parker; Josh McNeil; David Ligon; Arron Sears; Jayson Swain; Erik Ainge; Arian Foster; Cory Anderson; Chris Brown; Robert Meachem.
Defense -- Turk McBride; Justin Harrell; Matt McGlothlin; Antonio Reynolds; Rico McCoy; Ryan Karl; Marvin Mitchell; Jonathan Wade; Inquoris Johnson; Antwan Stewart; Jonathan Hefney.

Rushing Leaders
Player	No.	Yds	TD	Long
Roy Olasimbo	12	82	0	26
David Yancey	11	31	0	9
Arian Foster	4	28	0	12
LaMarcus Coker	9	26	0	7
Montario Hardesty	6	13	0	6
Ja.Kouri Williams	6	10	0	11

Passing Leaders
Player	Cmp-Att-Int	Yds	TD	Long
Jonathan Crompton	11-17-0	129	2	28
Bo Hardegree	8-17-4	46	0	18
Erik Ainge	3-7-0	41	1	21
Jim Bob Cooter	2-13-0	12	1	7

Receiving Leaders
Player	No.	Yds	TD	Long
David Yancey	6	35	0	14
Quintin Hancock	4	36	2	12
Austin Rogers	3	36	0	18
Bret Smith	2	43	0	28
Robert Meachem	2	20	1	16
Jeff Cottam	2	14	0	8

Defensive Leaders
Player	Tackles	TFL	FF	FR	PBU	Sacks	Int
Dorian Davis	7	-	-	-	-	-	-
Ryan Karl	6	2(-9)	-	-	1	1 (-8)	-
Ellix Wilson	5	-	-	-	-	-	-
Antonio Gaines	4	-	-	-	-	-	-
Adam Myers-White	4	-	-	-	1	-	1 (1)
Dan Williams	4	1 (-2)	-	-	-	-	-
Demonte Bolden	3	1 (-6)	-	-	-	1 (-6)	-
Jonathan Wade	3	-	-	-	-	-	1 (27)
Ricardo Kemp	3	-	-	-	-	-	-
Marvin Mitchell	2	-	-	-	-	-	1 (24-TD)
Antonio Wardlow	2	-	-	-	-	-	1 (30)

Punting Leader
No.	Player	No.	Avg.	Long
Britton Colquitt	2	44.5	46

Field Goal Leader
Player	Att.	Made	Long
James Wilhoit	2	1	23

University of Tennessee Athletics

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