About the only thing that has gone according to plan during Antwan Stewart's college football career was his redshirt freshman year.

After that, the defensive back has learned to expect the unexpected.

The former Prepstar All-American played in every game and started five for the Vols in 2003, a year after sitting out his true freshman season to adapt to the college game.

Stewart made 25 tackles and six pass breakups in 2004. He closed out the season with one interception in each of his last two regular-season games and was named to the News Sentinel's All-SEC freshman team.

Then, disaster struck.

Stewart suffered a severe left knee injury during spring practice on April 3, 2004. His anterior cruciate ligament was torn. Despite UT's best efforts, he never played a snap the following season.

In 2005, Stewart was moved to strong safety, where he started every game for the Vols. Suddenly, safety seemed like home to Stewart, who was described by coaches as an overachiever.

Then, misfortune stuck.

Free safety Jonathan Hefney was the most likely candidate to replace right cornerback Inky Johnson last week when Johnson suffered a severe shoulder injury against Air Force on Sept. 9.

The Vols announced Hefney would make the move to play Florida.

Then, the path was altered once again.

UT's coaches decided they preferred Stewart at cornerback late last week. With just days of practice under his belt, Stewart was back at his original home: cornerback.

Stewart, however, didn't celebrate the move. He didn't even issue an opinion this week when asked which position he preferred, safety or cornerback.

"It doesn't matter, just as long as I'm out there with my teammates," said the soft-spoken Stewart. "I don't want to sit out again so whatever they put me out there to do, I'll do.

"Just to be out there is a blessing to me because I had to sit out a whole year and didn't know when I was going to be back out there."

Stewart won't admit it. But senior cornerback Jonathan Wade will; Stewart is happy to be back.

"He likes it," Wade said. "He likes playing corner. That's what he used to do. That's what he was once comfortable doing. It's going to take him a couple of weeks to get completely in the swing of it, but he likes it."

Stewart doesn't just like the move because it's the more glamorous position in the secondary, as most defensive backs will claim.

The return to cornerback is more than that. It's proof that he is almost completely recovered from the knee injury that threw his promising career into turmoil.

"I said this to him the other day, 'Man, it looks like you've got your legs back,' " defensive backs coach Larry Slade said. "He still deals with it but he's getting closer to that 100 percent."

Said Stewart, "It's been a long road but I'm getting close to where I was before. I still got a little ways to go."

However far Stewart has to go, his progress won't be hampered by a lack of work ethic.

"He's just a tremendous worker," Slade said. "He is an overachiever. He came in here and people questioned if he would ever play, that just motivated the heck out of him.

"There are times that people said, 'Well, this guy should beat him out.' If you're going to beat him out, you better bring your lunch pail."

That lunch pale mentality has made Stewart an overlooked candidate for UT's defensive MVP. Not only will he play cornerback in Saturday's homecoming game against Marshall at 4 p.m. (TV: Pay-per-view), he's also expected to play safety when the No. 15 Vols (2-1) use the nickel and dime package.

Slade's teachings, in particular versatility in the secondary, are paying off.

"We would be in a mess right now if we had guys that could only play corner or could only play safety," Slade said. "The thing that Antwan did — and what we miss even a little bit now — as a safety is that he was to the point where he was making adjustments.

"You miss a little bit of that when he's not at safety."

Don't expect Marshall (1-2) to feel sorry for Stewart's career gone awry. Don't expect the Thundering Herd to give Stewart a break just because his career seems to have returned to its original path.

Florida didn't make Stewart a target. The Gators wanted to spread the ball around. Marshall might just test UT's new cornerback

"If they do," Stewart said. "I'll be out there. I'm not going anywhere."