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Tennessee football: Vols 5 worst seasons with a junior starting quarterback

By Caleb Calhoun

KNOXVILLE, TN - OCTOBER 19: Justin Worley #14 of the Tennessee Volunteers throws a pass in the first half of the game against the South Carolina Gamecocks at Neyland Stadium on October 19, 2013 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TN - OCTOBER 19: Justin Worley #14 of the Tennessee Volunteers throws a pass in the first half of the game against the South Carolina Gamecocks at Neyland Stadium on October 19, 2013 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /
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Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images
Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images /

1. 2008

Starting quarterback: Jonathan Crompton

5-7 (3-5)

The 2012 season with a junior quarterback got an upstart head coach fired. But the 2008 season with a junior quarterback resulted in a legend losing his job, and that hurt more than anything for people on Rocky Top.

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Tennessee football had just won the SEC East in 2007, but offensive coordinator David Cutcliffe was leaving to take the head coaching job with the Duke Blue Devils. Dave Clawson then came in for him, a national replacement done by Phillip Fulmer when he should have just promoted Trooper Taylor to the role.

On top of that, Jonathan Crompton, the last redshirt junior to start for the Vols if you want a comparison to Jarrett Guarantano that concerns you, was taking over for Erik Ainge. The new offense combined with Crompton’s style of play made for immediate disaster.

UT lost its opener in a shocker to a very bad UCLA Bruins team in overtime. Two weeks later, they were 1-2 after not even being competitive with the Florida Gators, their fourth straight loss in the series at the time. Then they had a horrendous offensive performance to lose 14-12 to the Auburn Tigers.

At this point, the coaches yanked Crompton and put in Nick Stephens, which could have kept this off the list. But Stephens, while beating the Northern Illinois Huskies and Mississippi State Bulldogs, lost to the Georgia Bulldogs and Alabama Crimson Tide while digging a deep hole agianst the South Carolina Gamecocks.

Crompton came back in against S.C. But the damage was done. Three days later, Fulmer was fired effective at the end of the year. As the starter the next week, Crompton was part of the worst UT performance in history in a 13-7 homecoming loss to the Wyoming Cowboys.

He then saw limited action against the Vanderbilt Commodores and Kentucky Wildcats, so he played in two thirds of the games to qualify for this list. Crompton did at least finish 6-of-8 for 101 yards and a touchdown to beat UK, but he finished with an abysmal 4 touchdowns to 5 interceptions.

Next. Projecting the Vols' 2019 2-deep depth chart. dark

What made the season worse was it signified the end of a legend’s career on Rocky Top, and it sent Tennessee football into a decade of futility. They are still climbing out of it now, making the long-term results of this season more disastrous with time. So with a junior quarterback, it’s clearly No. 1 on this list.

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