It’s officially two weeks to opening day for the University of Tennessee football team.

That means a couple of different things.

It means a major scrimmage is set for Neyland Stadium at 8 tonight.

It also means a lot of eyes will be on the quarterback play.

"Ashamed" isn’t the kind of emotion Erik Ainge wants to experience anymore.

The junior quarterback admitted Friday he didn’t take the right mental approach heading into the 2005 season.

"I’m ashamed I didn’t take this kind of action mentally between my freshman and sophomore season," he said. "If I had, there would have been a difference."

Maybe he wouldn’t have lost his starting job to Rick Clausen five games into the season.

Maybe UT wouldn’t have gone 5-6.

With a good memory, Ainge had all the incentive he needed to approach this season differently.

"I’m just spending extra time on my own to learn the game," he said. "You can’t play a game if you don’t know the game.

"I’m not saying I understand every single thing that goes on out on the field. I just find myself getting stuck or confused, one out of 30 plays, instead of one every four plays."

The Vols head into tonight’s scrimmage after what Ainge called a strong week of practice.

His comfort level with the offense is where Ainge feels he made the greatest strides comparing last year to this year.

"There’s really no comparison," he said. "Last year at this time, every once in a while I’d understand something and I’d make a great play with my mind, but for the most part I was just dropping back and trying to find guys open.

"That can work for you some games and kill you some games. You can’t be consistent doing that."

If offensive coordinator David Cutcliffe is stressing anything, it’s consistency and ball control.

Ainge completed 13 of 26 passes for 120 yards with no touchdowns and two interceptions in last Saturday’s first major scrimmage.

He thinks things will be better this time.

"I think ball-security wise, I’ve been throwing the ball a lot better," he said. "Every time I come out here, I feel more comfortable.

"We’ve still got things we’ve got to get better at — at quarterback and every position — but Coach Cutcliffe has been telling us how important this week was between the last scrimmage and this scrimmage. I think we’ve taken advantage of every practice."

Ainge certainly looked confident as he walked off the practice field on Friday.

His father, Doug, was present for the second day in a row and will be at tonight’s scrimmage.

"I just need to keep making progress in everything I’m doing — discipline, knowing exactly where to go with the ball every single time, protection," he said. "There are little things I’m getting better at, and I think I made a lot of progress this week, but I still need to make a lot of progress and keep going."

Fulmer and Cutcliffe are hoping for the same kind of progress.

The coaches say they’re still trying to pin down the true identity of an offense that ranked 101st in the nation with 18.6 points per game a year ago.

"We’re trying to find (our identity) from a philosophical standpoint, what we’re going to be best at doing," Fulmer said on Friday. "We’re pretty good at some of the stuff we’ve worked a lot on — the physical part of the running game and some of the perimeter game has been decent.

"Still, the consistency and the handling of pressure in drop-back passing is where we’ve got to really focus and get better."