There's a new offensive scheme at Florida, the third in five seasons. Look around the rest of the SEC and it's much the same.

Head coaches come and go. So do offensive coordinators. And with them, so do philosophies about the best way to light up the scoreboard.

Then there's Tennessee, where Phillip Fulmer has been ensconced since 1993, the equivalent of the Bronze Age by modern college football standards.

The prevailing wisdom is that the Vols' playbook is largely unchanged since the early 1980s, that Jeff Francis or Andy Kelly could step in Saturday night at Florida and not miss a beat.

Don't believe it.

"One day this summer, I was looking back at the game plan for the Fiesta Bowl against Florida State,'' UT offensive coordinator Randy Sanders said Tuesday, "and there's probably not four or five things that are still in there today.''

That victory in the 1998 national championship game was Sanders' debut as UT's coordinator. He's long since become the dean of his position in the SEC, just as Fulmer is of his.

"We've changed and tweaked things a lot,'' Sanders said. "There're very few plays we run now that we ran five, six years ago.

"Now I don't think there's any doubt the basic philosophy behind it hasn't changed much, and it's not going to as long as Phillip Fulmer is the head coach.''

Fulmer, who was UT's offensive coordinator from 1989-92, agreed that while the philosophy has deep roots, the manner of executing it adjusts to the Vols' personnel on offense and the trends on defenses it must face.

"There's not a lot of things we can't do,'' Fulmer said.

"We choose not to run the option because we haven't had those kinds of quarterbacks. If we had one of those guys, we'd look into that, certainly, and adjust pretty well.''

The idea is to be able to run the ball, but also spread out the defense to cover the passing threat. Ultimately, the offense can choose which of the two elements is most vulnerable to attack on any given play.

New Florida coach Urban Meyer and his spread offense have been the talk of the SEC. It's an unusual system that propelled Utah to a 13-0 record last year and quarterback Alex Smith to being the NFL's No. 1 draft pick.

Sunday in his weekly teleconference, Meyer said UT doesn't wow you with its system, but rather with its personnel.

Sanders didn't interpret that as a putdown.

"There's been a lot of offensive fads come and gone since Tennessee has had this philosophy,'' Sanders said. "It's a tremendous tribute that we've won more games than anybody in the Southeastern Conference in the last 10 years and it's been the same basic philosophy.

"And it's been that way whether Heath Shuler was the quarterback or Peyton Manning or whether it was a freshman like it was last year.''

That doesn't necessarily mean Manning would instantly recognize the play list UT will use Saturday.

The popularity of eight-man fronts and zone blitzes, to name a couple of trends, has dictated adaptation.

"There's things that have forced you to change more the last five or six years than in the 10 years before that,'' said Sanders.

"Our offense is pretty flexible,'' Fulmer said. "And it's fairly proven.

"We know it, understand it and recruit to it.''

And, he might add, no matter how they tweak the plays, they win a lot of games with it.