Tennessee's football coaches like to say the spring session is about the players, not the plays.

Good thing.

Cosmetically speaking, the Vols have been an ugly team this spring. They don't figure to look any prettier in Saturday's Orange and White Game at Neyland Stadium. Game time is 3 p.m.

An inordinately high number of offseason surgeries (22) and four suspensions have led to Tennessee pitting patchwork units against one another.

At least 27 scholarship players will be missing from the Orange and White game, which doesn't figure to be much of a game at all in the traditional sense.

"We don't have enough people healthy,'' UT coach Phillip Fulmer said. "We'll have a scrimmage and it will be ones versus ones the first teams will get 20 plays or so. From there, the second-team guys - or the "One-A's'' - are going to finish the scrimmage out.''

The offense ran more than 230 plays in scrimmages this spring before breaking through with a touchdown, and even then, the whistle was blown before the ball carrier crossed the goal line.

"Right now, the offense has zero continuity,'' UT offensive coordinator Randy Sanders said. "But that wasn't the objective going into the spring. Winning in scrimmages is like winning in solitaire. Who really cares?''

Not defensive coordinator John Chavis.

Chavis, like Sanders, has seen his unit limited by injuries.

"We didn't get to work any of our six-defensive-back package this spring,'' Chavis said. "I think cohesiveness will be big-time important for us this fall. You can't just have talent and expect to show up and play well.

"Have we got the talent? Yeah. But we have a lot of work to do.''

The flipside for Chavis and Sanders is both developed depth. Many young players received a high number of repetitions with others sidelined or limited.

"We were able to develop depth on the offensive line, and we needed to do that anyway,'' Sanders said. "We were able to add some new offensive dimensions, some of which we picked up when we visited Texas.''

Sanders said he was pleased with how UT's quarterbacks advanced, even if the scrimmage results weren't favorable.

"Erik (Ainge) and Brent (Schaeffer) made a lot progress,'' he said. "Brent made strides toward working on things he needed to improve. When Erik got hurt, he started working hard on the mental aspect of playing quarterback, and that's been obvious this spring.

"Rick (Clausen), to his credit, has done everything we've asked. He hasn't, by any means, handed over the reigns.''

Translation: the quarterback battle isn't settled yet. In fact, Fulmer and Sanders said the Vols could run another multi-quarterback system if the situation dictates.

The job at center isn't settled, but it has been solidified. Sanders said he'll leave the spring session confident that David Ligon can handle the duties until Richie Gandy returns from his knee injury to compete. Fulmer said Gandy, who suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament playing pick-up basketball, is on track to be ready to practice in August.

Tight end Brad Cottam also will be back this fall.

"One of my biggest disappointments was not having Cottam (shoulder) out there,'' Sanders said. "We had no opportunity to cultivate our tight ends because of the injury. But Cory Anderson and Chris Brown were able to interchange at fullback and H-back, and that will give us some flexibility.''

Chavis' defense also mixed and matched, with sophomores Jonathan Hefney and Roshaun Fellows playing cornerback and safety. Chavis insists the four best defensive backs will play, regardless of the position.

"Even with guys missing, we made progress in the secondary,'' Chavis said. "The guys flew around and made some plays. Finally, we got to go live and break on the ball, and you could see the improvement.''

Linebackers Daniel Brooks and Marvin Mitchell showed versatility as well, proving capable of playing defensive end after injuries dictated they put a hand in the dirt during scrimmages. Chavis singled out other back-up linebackers, Jerod Mayo and Ryan Karl, for their improved play.

"Scheme-wise, we got very little done,'' Chavis said. "But we had some younger guys grow up and get tougher.

"Spring's more about players than plays.''

So they say.