Next time your buddies mention the two-quarterback system at Tennessee, ask which duo they mean.

Erik Ainge and Brent Schaeffer?

Or Jim Bob Cooter and Rick Clausen?

Maybe you've spotted the Vols' two backup quarterbacks during games as they stand side-by-side near offensive coordinator Randy Sanders.

Cooter and Clausen are constantly in motion, using hand signals at the same time to relay the plays to Ainge or Schaeffer on the field. Why is a two-quarterback system necessary for the signals?

"One of them is live; one of them is dummy,'' Sanders said.

By "dummy," he means one of the sideline quarterbacks is giving fake signals to deceive opponents in case they are trying to steal the play-calls.

With Tennessee playing its first road game of the season Saturday at Georgia, the signals from Cooter and Clausen take on added importance in a hostile environment as the Vols try to keep intact their record of not having a delay-of-game penalty this season.

Ideally, Sanders said Ainge or Schaeffer will come to the line before the 25-second play clock ticks into single-digits.

"If you have motion or a potential audible situation, then you need them up (at the line of scrimmage) with 15 seconds left,'' Sanders said. "If there's no motion or no audible, then 8 to 10 seconds is probably OK."

How easy are the signals to steal?

A stir was created two years ago when former UT quarterback Heath Shuler mentioned on a television show that he knew some of the Vols' hand signals because they were the same as when he played 1991-93. Internet message boards lit up with worry-warts concerned that if Shuler knew the signals then every defensive coordinator in the SEC must know them as well.

Sanders says that's not the case.

"The hand signals are not the same as they were (during the early 90s),'' Sanders said. "A lot of signals that people see from the stands are dummy signals that don't mean anything.

"We change them from week to week. One week a signal may mean a curl route. Two weeks later, the same signal might mean a take-off route. We have three, four or five signals for the same thing during the season. The only thing that doesn't change much is the signal to get the personnel on the field."

Sanders said the last time he can recall having two players giving signals was in 1999 when Joey Mathews and A.J. Suggs relayed the calls after hearing them from Sanders over the headphones. At that time Sanders was high above the field in the coaches' box.

Sanders works from a sheet of plays he carries on the sidelines, and says he's always looking at least one play ahead. He said the toughest situations come from penalties and loss of yardage.

"By the time the play is over, you better be spitting out the next play if you are going to allow the quarterback time to get to the line and check,'' he said.

"If you fumble the snap and lose 4 yards, instead of second and 6, you have second and 14 and then you have to change gears pretty quick."

Gary Lundy may be reached at 865-342-6274.