Brandon Warren could be the poster child for coach Phillip Fulmer’s last team.

Warren is the local kid made good in football. He left East Tennessee for Florida State, where he became a freshman All-American tight end in 2006.

Then, he decided to come back home – to be close to his mother, who had a bout with cancer, and to play for the Vols. Under NCAA rules, he had to sit out a year.

He didn’t realize he would have to sit out two years.

That has nothing to do with the NCAA. That’s all about his transition to UT football.

If Warren had gone from Alcoa High School to UT and played sparingly as a freshman, his time on the bench this season would have been understandable. But he starred at Florida State as a freshman.

Now, it’s all he can do to get on the field at UT.

I have heard offensive coordinator Dave Clawson’s explanation about Warren’s lack of impact. He said Warren was asked to do too much in preseason (i.e., play both a conventional tight end role as well as the hybrid wide receiver/tight end role for which he was best suited).

That was too much for Warren, yet he could make the transition from high school to Florida State with ease? It just doesn’t add up.

Player development has long been an issue at UT, where the post-season rankings rarely have approached the glorified heights of the recruiting rankings. Warren has become a glaring example of that, because he didn’t just prove himself in high school, he proved himself in another BCS program as a true freshman.

His lack of playing time this season is magnified by UT’s incredibly shrinking offense. The Vols rank 116th out of 119 teams in total offense.

But they can’t find a way to utilize Warren.

Maybe he shouldn’t have transferred quite so close to home. Maybe he should have gone to Kentucky.

Another former Alcoa star did. And look how it has worked out for him.

Randall Cobb is starting as a true freshman quarterback at Kentucky. In fact, in last Saturday’s narrow loss to Georgia, the Wildcats designed their entire offense around Cobb.

Kentucky had a different plan for Cobb initially. It began the season using him on special teams, as a wide receiver and in its version of UT’s “G-Gun” package.

The plan changed when the offense struggled behind first-year starting quarterback Mike Hartline, who, in fairness to him, wasn’t blessed with a great supporting cast.

But the offense perked up when Cobb made occasional appearances at quarterback before he suffered an early-season ankle injury.

However, after losing leading receiver Dicky Lyons Jr. to injury, Kentucky needed Cobb at wide receiver almost as much as it needed him at quarterback.

Nonetheless, the Wildcats decided Cobb could have a greater impact at quarterback. And they were right.

I wonder if UT would have been that creative with a 5-foot-11 true freshman.

Then, I think about Cobb’s former high school teammate languishing on the UT bench, and I don’t wonder at all.

Sports editor John Adams may be reached at 865-342-6284 or adamsj@knoxnews.com.

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.