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KNOXVILLE -- So tell me again, who's this guy playing quarterback for Tennessee?

It can't be Jonathan Crompton, right?

Not with the way UT's passing game suddenly is firing on all cylinders. Not with the Volunteers throwing for 575 yards, five touchdowns and two interceptions over the last two games, which just happened to be against Southeastern Conference rivals Georgia and Alabama.

Sure, the imposter under center is wearing Crompton's No. 8 jersey. But he hardly resembles the senior from Waynesville, N.C., who started Tennessee's first five games this season.

The Vols now have a quarterback who's minimizing mistakes, throwing with pinpoint accuracy and making big plays for his own team rather than for the opposition.

Wait. That's really Crompton?

Had me fooled.

Throughout the first month of the season, first-year UT coach Lane Kiffin ignored critics who justifiably called for a quarterback change. He stood by Crompton, insisting that he remained confident in a starter who didn't seem to instill confidence in his teammates.

Now, when Kiffin talks about believing in Crompton, it hardly seems like a stretch.

"I think he's put together two-and-a-half games of playing really well, going back to the last half of the Auburn game," Kiffin said Tuesday. "We have a lot of confidence in the way that he's playing. ...

"He's playing as well as anybody in the conference."

For the skeptics who still might not believe that, Kiffin has another way of putting into perspective just how well Crompton has played.

"I believe he has four more touchdown passes than Tim Tebow," Kiffin said, offering perhaps the first-ever legitimate comparison between Crompton and Florida's senior quarterback, who won the Heisman Trophy as a sophomore.

For the record, Crompton actually has 14 touchdown passes, six more than Tebow.

This is the Jonathan Crompton everyone expected to see when he committed to Tennessee as a junior in high school, and when he eventually signed with the Vols in 2005 as a Rivals.com four-star recruit and the nation's No. 2 pro-style quarterback prospect.

This is the quarterback that former coach Phillip Fulmer clearly counted on having when he installed Crompton as the unquestioned starter at the beginning of the ill-fated 2008 season.

Don't let the numbers fool you. Crompton played as well Saturday against then-No. 1 Alabama as he has all season.

He put up only decent numbers, completing 21 of 36 passes for 265 yards, a touchdown and an interception. But the Crimson Tide entered the game with the nation's No. 1 defense and a reputation for wreaking havoc on opposing quarterbacks. Arkansas' Ryan Mallett, Kentucky's Mike Hartline and Ole Miss' Jevan Snead threw a combined two touchdown passes and eight interceptions in Alabama's first three Southeastern Conference games.

Crompton managed to do better than all of them.

"I think he's been doing a terrific job all year, but he's been playing really great these past few weeks," said redshirt freshman offensive tackle Aaron Douglas, a former Class 4A Mr. Football Award winner at Maryville High School. "It definitely gives our offense a boost."

Crompton made a number of big-time throws against Alabama, including a 23-yard strike to tight end Luke Stocker late in the fourth quarter that could have gone down as one of the best plays in UT history if Daniel Lincoln's last-second field goal had not been blocked by massive nose guard Terrence Cody.

Crompton took care of the ball, too, throwing only one interception on a pass across the middle that sailed over his intended receiver.

"They did a better job of covering us than Georgia did, so there weren't quite as many down-the-field opportunities in that game as there were in the Georgia game. But he played well again," Kiffin said of Crompton's outing against Alabama.

"He's increasing his draft value by the way that he's playing."

Really, that might be the best sign of just how far Crompton has come. Even before the start of the season, who would have discussed him getting drafted? Many believed he wasn't good enough to start for one of the SEC's worst offenses, so what NFL team would have wanted him?

For the moment, Crompton seems to be on the verge of reaching his enormous potential.

"He's our leader," Douglas said of Crompton, "and we stand by him through thick and thin, whatever happens."

Come to think of it, that's how Kiffin has handled Crompton all along.

And it's finally paying off.

Ryan Callahan covers University of Tennessee football. Write to him at The Daily Times, P.O. Box 9740, Maryville, TN 37802, e-mail him at ryan.callahan@thedailytimes.com or follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/DTsportsRyan.