Each Southeastern Conference football coach fielded virtually the same question from media outlets around the country Tuesday during a post-spring practice teleconference.
“What’s going on with your team’s quarterback?”
University of Tennessee, which finished with a disappointing 3-5 SEC record, flip-flopped between quarterbacks Erik Ainge and Rick Clausen last season.
Ainge finished the season with a win as the starter against the University of Kentucky and will continue as the starter for the Vols’ opening game at home against the University of California. He completed 45.5 percent of his passes in 2005, passed for 737 yards and threw five touchdowns with seven interceptions.
“It was a strange, strange year, and I think a lot of things contributed to Erik not having the kind of sophomore season we all expected him to have,” Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer said. “We all saw the talent he had, and I think he is much closer to being that kind of player.”
Fulmer said the addition of offensive coordinator David Cutcliffe helped Ainge improve his skills.
“David added a lot to this staff as far as experience and knowledge of the game,” Fulmer said. “Fundamentally, he did a great job of getting our quarterbacks back to where they need to be or at least closer to where they need to be.”
Cutcliffe rejoins Tennessee after his head coaching stint at Ole Miss ended in 2004. Fulmer and Cutcliffe coached together for 17 years at Tennessee before Cutcliffe left to take the Ole Miss head coaching position in 1998.
Closer to home, LSU also has their own quarterback puzzle to solve.
Despite junior quarterback JaMarcus Russell sitting out the entire spring practice with a shoulder injury, LSU coach Les Miles said he is not yet ready to rename his 2006 starter.
“We’re going to play the best guy certainly, and JaMarcus, if he returns healthy, may very well be that guy,” Miles said.
Russell’s competition includes redshirt freshman Ryan Perrilloux and junior Matt Flynn, whose eye-opening Dec. 30 performance in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl against Miami prompted fans to strongly lobby for Flynn to retain the starting job in 2006.
Flynn was 13-for-22 passing for 196 yards and two touchdowns against the Hurricanes.
“If in fact JaMarcus Russell is our best quarterback, and he comes back healthy and ready to go, then we’ll get the best play from our quarterback,” Miles said. “I’ll be the first one to tell you that we have to look at the guy that won 10 games the year ago first.”
While LSU and Tennessee are left juggling the starting quarterback position among players with some experience, teams like Georgia, Alabama and Vanderbilt are forced to start from scratch.
Each of the three schools 2005 starting quarterbacks graduated and the teams are turning to new, inexperienced players to fill the voids.
Georgia coach Mark Richt said senior Joe Tereshinski will be the No. 1 guy heading into fall practice.
Tereshinski, who started his only game of the season against Florida and lost 14-10, completed 8-of-21 passed in the game for 100 yards and one interception.
“Eight practices out of our first ball game against Western Kentucky, we’ll have to have it narrowed down to at least two [quarterbacks] at that point,” Richt said. “Joe really practiced better than he’s practiced [before], and this was his first chance to be with the one unit the entire time.”
Richt said he did not see spring practice as a competition between his teams potential starters but pointed to the fall session as the time the competition at quarterback will unfold.
For Alabama the Tide must replace Brodie Croyle, who led the team to a 10-2 overall record and a Jan. 2 win against Texas Tech in the AT&T Cotton Bowl.
Alabama coach Mike Shula said sophomore John Parker Wilson ended spring practice as the No. 1 quarterback.
“The best thing that happened to him was last spring he came in and took all the reps in spring ball too, then,” Shula said. “He went through the season and didn’t play probably as much as we would have liked him to play but did a nice job when he came in.”
Coming into this season, Shula said he expects Wilson to make typical young quarterback mistakes but said he maintains his confidence in Wilson’s ability.
“In the spring game at the end of the first half, he was 13-of-14 [passing], and in the second half he came in and threw an interception and forced a ball,” Shula said. “My point is, he’s going to make some plays for us, and he’s going to make some mistakes because he’s young, and he’s going to get better with experience.”
In the SEC East, Vanderbilt has to overcome the loss of potential first-round NFL Draft pick Jay Cutler.
Cutler finished the 2005 season with 3,073 yards passing and 21 touchdowns and led the Commodores in a season-finale win on the road against Tennessee, a place where Vanderbilt had not won since 1975.
Vanderbilt coach Bobby Johnson pointed to sophomore Chris Nickson as Cutler’s possible successor.
“Nickson we think is an excellent football player,” Johnson said. “He is very mobile but also has a good arm, so we feel he is very capable.”
Johnson conceded that losing top-notch quarterbacks is an inescapable problem every school experiences.
“It’s just a fact of life in college football,” Johnson said. “It happens every year to some programs, and it works out a little better for some.”
 
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