Two-QB system breeds controversy

As long as a coach is winning consistently, he is able stick with two No. 1 quarterbacks because it's hard to quarrel with success.

"It's a nice little scenario right now if we can keep growing on it,'' Fulmer said during his Sunday night teleconference.

The scenario wouldn't be so nice if Wilhoit's field goal hadn't sailed through the uprights.

The guess here is that it will take a key loss or two for the Erik Ainge-Brent Schaeffer co-pilot scheme to come unraveled. Remember, defeats are what made the Peyton Manning and Branndon Stewart situation so explosive as they rotated in and out of the lineup the first half of 1994.

"I think this team is probably better than when Branndon and Peyton were freshmen,'' Fulmer says. "It's a lot different situation."

"Brent is different (than Stewart). He's a better passer than Branndon was and he's probably a better runner than Branndon was."

During the Manning-Stewart controversy, UT was struggling with a 3-4 mark after the first seven games. There are several reasons you don't keep alternating quarterbacks when you're struggling.

Foremost, you look wishy-washy to your players as a coach if your team is losing and you can't pick a starter. Many players, regardless of what they say in interviews, tend to take sides and have a favorite quarterback. There are factions and cliques on most football teams just like there are in most business offices.

However, success acts like glue to hold it all together. The 1994 team didn't have that success.

"The most unsettling thing that can happen at quarterback is to have a 1-A and 1-B,'' Manning wrote in his autobiography "Manning."

"Pepper Rogers, the former coach, says it's like having a wife and a girlfriend. He says, 'when you've got two quarterbacks, you've got none.' . . . when there are two, the players will take sides, the media will take sides and everybody will suffer.

"One time while the issue was still in doubt I called Dad and said, 'Can you find me Fred Jackson's phone number?' Jackson was the coach who recruited me for Michigan. I said, 'Keep it handy. I might need it.' "

Fulmer made a point Sunday to say Schaeffer and Ainge are "fine right now," meaning he doesn't sense any frustration or unhappiness.

A couple of things jump off the play-by-play sheets from UT's first two games.

Ainge has directed 11 possessions lasting 77 plays. The result: five TDs, a field goal and 470 yards total offense.

Schaeffer has directed 10 possessions lasting 70 plays. The result: five TDs and 477 yards total offense.

With Schaeffer on the field, an astounding 80 percent of Tennessee's plays (63 of 77) have been runs. Also, 30 percent of his 10 drives have ended with a lost fumble.

That suggests he tends to either hit a home run or strike out.

Ainge, on the other hand, fits the more conventional mode of a quarterback. The ratio of plays with Ainge on the field is 53 percent passes, 47 percent run. The ratio of his possessions ending with turnovers is nine percent (1 in 11).

"The turnovers we have to address,'' Fulmer says. "The throw by Erik was way off from what he can do as he showed later in the ballgame. Whatever happened on the reverse (Schaeffer-Derrick Tinsley fumbled exchange), you can't quite tell on tape. That shouldn't happen."

Schaeffer didn't return to the game after he was sacked and fumbled on UT's first possession of the second half.

Fulmer said the staff hasn't discussed which quarterback will start Saturday's game against Louisiana Tech. As long as the Vols are winning, there probably won't be any quarterback controversy, regardless of who the starter is.

That all changes if UT loses a game or two.

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