"Don't look back to the days of yesteryear. You cannot live on in the past, Don't look back." -- Van Morrison

No one has ever accused me of being a Chris Leak fan. Oh, he's a good quarterback, maybe a second string All-SEC quarterback. But he's not the strong-armed wunderkind that he was supposed to be coming out of high school in Charlotte.

While his play at Florida hasn't been Heismanesque, I still can't help but think that this year, in 2005, both he and Tennessee might have been better off if he'd just gone with his initial gut feeling and signed on the dotted line with the Vols.

Some of you believe that's heresy, I know. But take off those orange-colored glasses just for a second and re-trace this thing from the beginning.

"It's not what I did. It's what I didn't do." -- Steve Wariner

Leak was expected to be the heir apparent to Casey Clausen. The Vols had him all but wrapped up. Done deal.

But then a funny thing happened on the way to The Hedges in 2002. Clausen got hurt prior to the UT-Georgia game. Chris' older brother, C.J., was going to the get the start for the Vols and finally get a chance to prove himself.

But that's not quite the way it turned out.

Leak the Elder didn't look too good early on and the coaches turned to James Banks, who almost pulled out the win with his legs.

That was the beginning of the end for the Vol-Leak plans. Leak (and Papa Curtis) took some shots at UT coach Phillip Fulmer, with Chris even questioning the coach's honesty on a nationally known Web site.

Then came the news. Leak would be taking his arm to Florida. Florida ... a passer's dream. Fulmer's nightmare. Chris and Papa Curtis would show the Vols a thing or two.

"But I think I just made the biggest mistake of my life." -- The Rolling Stones

With Leak at Florida, the Vols were left scrambling to find a replacement for Clausen last year. In came true freshmen Brent Schaeffer and Erik Ainge.

Schaeffer got the early nod, but Ainge outplayed him by the midway point of the season. Ainge's arm and cool had some ESPN pundits comparing him, just a bit prematurely, to a young John Elway.

But then defenses began to show him different looks. Things started to get a little tougher for Ainge, despite big wins vs. Florida, Georgia and Alabama.

And then ... The Play. Ainge's shoulder was separated on a failed Hail Mary vs. Notre Dame (appropriately enough) and he hasn't looked the same since.

Schaeffer stopped hitting the books and going to meetings last spring and then transferred out, just as he had switched teams numerous times in high school.

This fall, Ainge has struggled to recapture the magic of his first six games at UT. Rick Clausen, though gutsy, has struggled when teams have sat over the top and refused to blitz him.

Meanwhile, in Gainesville, Leak has gone through two coaching staffs, two offenses and three of Florida's worst seasons since 1990. On top of that, he's taken a tremendous beating in Urban Meyer's "not ready for primetime" offense.

If Leak and Papa Curtis hadn't gotten so riled up and had signed with UT, would Chris be healthier and happier today? Would his NFL stock be on the rise in a QB-friendly system?

And would UT be struggling with overthrown and underthrown passes? Would teams still be daring them to complete passes over the top?

One decision, this year at least, might have made a world of difference.

"Operator, please connect me ... to 1982." -- Randy Travis

On a separate note, did you realize that Tennessee quarterbacks are averaging just 6 yards per pass this season? That's the third most-ineffective passing game at UT since Doug Dickey switched the Vols to the T formation in 1964.

The only two years that were worse were 1971 (Jim Maxwell led that team to a 10-2 finish behind the running of Curt Watson) and 1964 (Art Galiffa and Dickey were breaking in a completely new style of football).

There have been other years when the passing wasn't very effective, but very few compare to this year.

In fact, statistically speaking, the 1982 team is probably the closest comparison. Alan Cockrell and the Vols averaged about 6.76 yards per pass. They finished a mediocre 6-5-1. They lost at home to Duke and some offensive coordinator named Steve Spurrier.

And for the record, they were also the last UT team to lose to Vanderbilt.