BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Ole Miss coach Ed Orgeron runs the most high-risk offense in the SEC.

It makes the spread option seem as conservative as the Straight T. It's more bi-coastal than West Coast.

It stretches from Florida to California and everywhere in between that quarterback Brent Schaeffer tries to pick up academic credits.

How risky is it?

Imagine a coach announcing he will run an I offense without knowing whether he has a tailback. It's riskier than that.

Orgeron has assigned Brent Schaeffer to run his offense without knowing whether he has Brent Schaeffer.

Schaeffer is one of the few quarterbacks in SEC history to win a starting job by signing his name. That tells you a couple of things. One, Schaeffer has potential; two, Ole Miss has no other quarterback with college experience.

Tennessee fans know about Schaeffer's college experience. He started as a true freshman, lost the starting job to fellow freshman Erik Ainge at mid-season and suffered a broken collarbone to end his season.

Once Schaeffer signed, Orgeron announced him as Ole Miss’ starting quarterback.

It was a simple story — recruit quarterback, sign quarterback, start quarterback — until academics got in the way. Now, it's late July and academics is still in the way.

Schaeffer didn't have enough credits when he left the College of the Sequoias. So he returned home to Florida and took correspondence courses. Then, he returned to the College of the Sequoias to acquire more credits.

And you thought he was a scrambling quarterback at UT? He has gone west, east and back west for credit. How's that for great lateral movement?

There's nothing unusual about an SEC student-athlete taking a circuitous route to eligibility. But it's rare for a coach to bet his entire offense on the student-athlete succeeding.

"We've been in touch with Brent daily," Orgeron said Thursday at SEC football media days. "We have a plan in effect and we think it will work."

I wonder if the SEC will check out Orgeron's plan. After all, the league office supposedly is becoming more involved in the academic eligibility of the conference's student-athletes. And Schaeffer's summer-school education raises red flags from coast to coast.

A couple of questions come to mind. Why did Schaeffer leave the College of the Sequoias in the first place if he hadn't met his academic requirements? Why did he return to the junior college after enrolling in correspondence courses this summer?

Orgeron at least answered the second one.

"We decided it was best for Brent to go back to the College of the Sequoias, because there was an ending date, August 2 or August 3," Orgeron said. "When you take correspondence courses, they're open-ended. And some of the courses are taking too long to complete. I didn't know if he could complete them before camp started."

Even if Schaeffer weren't chasing credits from one coast to another, he wouldn't be termed a safe bet to lead your offense. Remember the off-the-field incident which preceded his departure from UT? Hint: It involved a baseball bat.

When you're a second-year coach desperately trying to stay out of last place in the SEC West, you don't have the luxury of placing only safe bets. So you gamble that a promising quarterback will stay out of trouble when he arrives on campus — if he arrives on campus.

Maybe it's time to revive an old nickname. Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville used to be known as the "Mississippi Gambler" when he was the head coach at Ole Miss.

But not even Tuberville entrusted his offense to a quarterback he didn't have.