Expect a starting Tennessee quarterback to be named some time this week.

And don't expect UT football coach Phillip Fulmer to flip a coin between Erik Ainge and Rick Clausen.

"I don't think I'm going to go into game week and decide on Monday or Thursday," Fulmer said. "I think I'd like to have it settled.

"If it's still even, what am I going to do, flip a coin? No. We'll figure something out."

The Vols had just completed their final major scrimmage of the preseason, a no-tackle situational workout, as the clock neared 11 p.m. on Tuesday.

One area of concern, however, got another scare late in the evening.

Rob Smith, converted from guard to center to fill a void left by injuries to Richie Gandy and David Ligon, left the scrimmage and had to have an ice bag put on his right hand.

"They said it's just a bruise," Fulmer said. "We'll X-ray it and find out."

Ainge had one of his better scrimmage outings, hooking up with Robert Meachem, Bret Smith and Chris Hannon on a couple of highlight passes.

He also had his second pass of the night intercepted by Roshaun Fellows on a long pass intended for Smith.

"There were some good things by both of them," Fulmer said. "Rick certainly seems in command right now. Erik seems to be pressing a little bit.

"But when you go and grade the film, and breakdown all the drills, those guys are even."

According to UT's stats, Clausen was 14 of 16 for 91 yards. Ainge was 9 of 19 for 132 yards.

Even though it's a big topic of conversation among Vols' fans, Fulmer will be the first person to tell you he isn't worried about it.

"We'll have to visit as a staff and see where we'll go," he said. "To me either one of them being in the game is just fine.

"I'm sure that's the conversation piece, but for us it's just a good situation to have. I'm more concerned about who's going to be the third quarterback than I am the first or second."

Ainge and Clausen split the 112-play scrimmage evenly, each taking half the snaps on every particular pre-scripted drive.

"We wanted to test them tonight and but I thought they handled it pretty well," offensive coordinator Randy Sanders said. "We got a lot of looks at a lot of things we needed to see."

Fulmer said he was pleased with the way Smith and Anthony Parker handled the center chores. He also said Ramon Foster was impressive stepping in at guard.

As far as the backup tailback situation goes, it's still a tossup.

Starter Gerald Riggs Jr. had 16 carries for 36 yards, but there weren't any tackles to be broken so it's not easy to get a read on what those numbers mean.

Redshirt freshman Arian Foster showed flashes and had 53 yards with the lone offensive touchdown on 10 carries. Freshman LaMarcus Coker had 13 yards on eight attempts and David Yancey 26 on six.

"Right now, we've got one good tailback and a committee basically," Fulmer said. "Those guys are going to work their way through it.

"I've seen Coker get tougher. Unfortunately, (freshman Montario) Hardesty hasn't been out there (quad bruise) and (redshirt freshman Ja'Kouri) Williams (knee) hasn't been out there. I've seen some good things from Foster."

As far as his defense is concerned, Fulmer wouldn't mind if the season started today.

"For a team to win a championship," he said, "you've got to be darn good on defense and I think we're headed in that direction.

"There's some speed, there's some depth and I'm really pleased. If we can carry the kind of attitude we've got defensively right now into the season, we'll find a way to get enough points to help us win."

Overall, the staff couldn't have been much more pleased with the way things went.

"Our coaches challenged them to make it as game-like as possible and I think they responded very well," Fulmer said.