Orgeron admits promise to Schaeffer was bad move

HOOVER, Ala. — Ole Miss football coach Ed Orgeron won’t yet name Brent Schaeffer as starting quarterback for 2007 — and wishes he hadn’t named Schaeffer his quarterback for 2006 before he ever set foot on campus.

Schaeffer, the athletic but erratic senior who started his career at Tennessee, has to beat out Seth Adams in camp to reclaim the starting job he held all of last season.

“Brent is a great athlete,’’ Orgeron said Friday at SEC Media Days. “He’s a guy that can change the game.

“But he’s very inconsistent. He has an inconsistent lifestyle that leads to that.’’

Schaeffer was a part-time starter at UT as a true freshman in 2004. Dismissed from the team, he played the next season at a California junior college then signed with Ole Miss.

Orgeron immediately named Schaeffer as the starter, even though academic issues kept him from getting to campus until the opening of practice in August.

“I wish I wouldn’t have done it,’’ said Orgeron. “I did it for recruiting purposes. It was a ploy, but I probably made a mistake in doing that.’’

Schaeffer started every game for the Rebels last year, but completed only 47 percent of his passes and threw more interceptions (10) than touchdowns (9).

Adams, a senior, has been a starter only one season in his career, at Hinds Community College in 2005. He appeared in six games last year for the Rebels.

It was Adams who had the best spring practice. He was 16-of-20 for 159 yards in the spring game.

“Seth is not as good an athlete,’’ said Orgeron. “But Seth is always there. He’s a leader.

“He brings a style that can be consistent on offense and we can trust him.’’

Asked to elaborate on Schaeffer’s “inconsistent lifestyle,’’ Orgeron talked about leadership and class attendance.

“It’s nothing that is any law-breaking activity,’’ Orgeron said. “He’s been on his best behavior.

“We tell our team that everything you do counts from the time you get up in the morning until you go to bed.

“Whether it’s attending class, going to weight workouts, how you act in meetings, how you treat coaches, if you’re the quarterback at the University of Mississippi, you have to grade a hundred on all those things to be the type of quarterback that we expect.’’

Orgeron doesn’t want to use a two-quarterback system. This is Schaeffer’s last chance to get his act together. How he responds to having to win his job back in the next month remains to be seen.

“We’re fixing to find out,’’ said Orgeron.