A freshman quarterback will start the opener. A fourth-string tailback, who has three more productive players ahead of him, might start.

This is not University of Tennessee football as you know it, and I doubt you're complaining. UT football needed a spark. And a couple of freshmen quarterbacks have provided it.

As good as Brent Schaeffer and Erik Ainge have looked in preseason, you can't be certain they will be as effective in games. Nonetheless, they at least offer hope for better days ahead - if not this September, in the months and seasons to come.

In most cases, a true freshman starting at quarterback for a top-25 football program would be unsettling for fans. This isn't most cases. UT has won 18 games the past two seasons, yet its offense hasn't been nearly as good as its won-lost record.

A change was needed. The two freshmen have provided it.

In fact, you have to go all the way back to Condredge Holloway in 1972 to find a UT quarterback change as dramatic as this one. It's not just the youth. It's the style.

Schaeffer, like Holloway, is an electrifying runner when he has room to work. That's not to say he's as good as Holloway. Holloway ran spectacularly in games throughout his college career; Schaeffer has done it for one preseason.

Schaeffer eventually might not be the best of UT's two new quarterbacks. Ainge has a stronger arm, quicker release and the 6-foot-6 size that NFL scouts cherish.

But with the season opener a week away, UT doesn't need to know who its next top pro prospect is. It needs to know who's most capable of beating Florida, Auburn and Georgia in the first half of the season.

There's no time for a couple of freshmen - no matter how precocious - to master a college offense. Legs mean more at this stage of their careers. And Schaeffer has the best legs.

An offense that has suffered from a lack of creativity won't have to rely on its coaches thinking outside the box. Schaeffer can scramble outside the box.

So you would expect him to have more impact initially. That could change in the heat of battle. But no matter which player emerges as the better quarterback this season, UT fans should have more reason to be optimistic about an offense that has grown stagnant.

A change at tailback should engender more optimism. If nothing else, it indicates coach Phillip Fulmer isn't just standing pat or paying homage to seniority. UT's most experienced tailbacks - Cedric Houston and Jabari Davis - have been surpassed by less experienced backs, Corey Larkins and Gerald Riggs, each of whom has demonstrated more playmaking potential in preseason.

Preseason optimism aside, this doesn't look like a championship team. No offense with a freshman quarterback - regardless of his talent - is going to sail smoothly through an SEC season. No defense as inexperienced as this one will withstand every challenge.

You also have to wonder about that old intangible standby, team chemistry.

In the past, UT has placed great importance on seniority. Now you have team veterans falling behind less established players before the season ever starts. Talent and production should prevail over seniority, but that doesn't mean the veterans will see it that way, particularly since seniority seemed to be a higher priority when they were breaking in.

Whatever problems arrive, the schedule should help. Third-ranked Georgia in Athens is by far the toughest assignment. The other games against preseason top-25 teams Auburn and Florida are both in Neyland Stadium.

If the Vols can break even against Auburn and Florida and avoid an upset at South Carolina, they should finish 9-2 with a bid to the Citrus Bowl.

John Adams may be reached at 865-342-6284 or adamsj@knews.com.