Things click Vols' way on video

Erik Ainge grabbed the video game controller and leaned forward in his chair.

He looked up at the big-screen projection and zipped a quick pass to Quintin Hancock.

"That's six points," Ainge said.

Tennessee's senior quarterback had just burned California's secondary for a touchdown on Tuesday with his first throw on the XOS PlayAction Simulator during a demonstration of the new technology.

Things have come a long way since Ainge grew up using Kansas City Chiefs running back Christian Okoye to dominate on Tecmo Super Bowl.

Now real-life Ainge is at the controls of a computer-generated Ainge.

He still has to make the right decisions.

And he still has to read defenses and pick his best options — or he flunks the test.

"It can really help you see coverages and it's a video game, so it's competitive,' Ainge said of UT's newest high-tech tool. 'You can't compete watching film."

Offensive coordinator David Cutcliffe helped spearhead the project.

With the help of XOS Technologies and EA Sports, Tennessee coaches and players have taken your basic NCAA Football '07 video game and turned it into a 3D learning tool.

UT's sports video coordinator Joe Harrington worked side by side with first-year graduate assistant Jim Bob Cooter to iron out the wrinkles with XOS vice president of advanced research Albert Tsai.

It's especially useful for young quarterbacks like freshmen B.J. Coleman and Nick Stephens.

The guys who don't get as many reps during August two-a-days can hit Cutcliffe's office to get simulated reps testing their decision-making ability.

They study the plays and can run UT's offense against every defense imaginable.

After a certain amount of time, Cooter sets up a testing system to see how well the young quarterbacks are learning their assignments.

"It's amazing," Cutcliffe said. "It's instant feedback video-wise.

"I've never been a big fan of the video games and think young people play too much. I'd rather see them outside playing, but because of the age we're in and the technology we have, this is what's coming."

The players picked it up quickly.

Already familiar with the controls for games like Madden NFL and NCAA '07, this is simply a more detailed extension of those games.

Cooter was one of those guys who sat in his dorm room and inserted UT's plays onto the Madden system four or five years ago. He started to realize it was helping him make the right decisions during live practice work.

"This was a perfect project for me," he said. "I've been a big football strategy guy my whole life and played video games my whole life.

"It's a learning process and we're just getting started, but I'm excited and I think it'll help our guys."

They're actually just beginning to scratch the surface of possibilities with this new gaming technology.

"We can take our opponents each week and customize the defense to our opponent," Cutcliffe said. "Once we do that, we've got our starters sitting there and executing our gameplan over and over and over.

"It's a new world. It's as close as we can come to getting live reps without working up a sweat or taking hits."

In the future, receivers will be able to take the controls and make decisions on hot-routes and blocking assignments.

Linebackers will be able to control their side of things and learn to read offenses.

Eventually, XOS and EA reps say players will be able to put on virtual-world goggles and actually run plays with five-step drops and throwing a football instead of using a game-system controller.

"Young players are going to come to Tennessee and say, 'Wow, this is a technology edge,' " said EA Sports representative Rob Moore. "I'm a little worried about it because I'm a Florida grad.

"We may be in a little trouble in a month or so."