Vols won’t rush to pick top QB

KNOXVILLE — When Dave Clawson coached at Villanova, the same thing always happened when Brian Westbrook was on the field.

“His team always moved the ball down the field,” Clawson said.

Westbrook, now a star with the Philadelphia Eagles, was a tailback. No matter which quarterback put the ball in his hands — no matter even if the quarterback ran wrong plays — Westbrook’s teams almost always scored more points.

Clawson, now in his first spring as Tennessee’s offensive coordinator, hasn’t forgotten that. He won’t pick the Volunteers’ starting quarterback until Jonathan Crompton, Nick Stephens and Chattanooga’s B.J. Coleman get plenty of looks with the team’s best and lesser athletes.

“If you want to evaluate guys, you’ve got to let them go with different groups,” Clawson said after Saturday’s first spring scrimmage. “You’ve got to let guys throw to Gerald Jones, and to Josh Briscoe, and to Austin Rogers. Sometimes another player can make a play on his own, not necessarily because of execution, but because he was greater than the play.

“I want to know who can best execute the offense.”

Clawson and head coach Phillip Fulmer might have set a timetable to select a starting signal-caller, but they’re not saying much outside of their offices. The quarterbacks claim not to know anything.

“I haven’t really thought about it like that, and I’m really not asking questions like that,” Crompton said. “I’m going out there every day expecting to leave the field better than when I went on it. That’s all I can do.”

Said Coleman, a former McCallie School star: “You just kind of have to go with it. All that matters is how much better we get every day as a team.”

Clawson has set a default depth chart from last fall. That would put rising fourth-year junior Crompton on top, followed by rising third-year sophomore Stephens and the redshirted Coleman.

All three got plenty of snaps Saturday in Neyland Stadium, but none seemed to separate from the pack. Then again, Clawson has installed only about one-third of his offense. He hopes to put another third in this week and said the final process won’t be completed by April 19’s Orange and White game — and that will be kept conservative.

“We’re going to keep it simple,” Clawson said. “We want the players to be able to play fast in that game, and we don’t want to show too much, either.”

All three players had their moments Saturday. Crompton completed just seven of 15 passes for 55 yards, and he threw the day’s only interception before rallying to throw the day’s only touchdown pass — a 7-yard lob to tall tight end Luke Stocker in the corner of the end zone.

Crompton also had the day’s only botched snap, but he recovered the ball.

“It wasn’t bad, but the first scrimmage is always the roughest,” he said. “Some things are going to go well, but some things aren’t. You’ve got just go with it and get better for Tuesday and Thursday, and then be better next Saturday.

“That’s where you see how good you’ve gotten, from the first to the second scrimmage.”

Stephens might have been the day’s most accurate passer. The sturdy, strong-armed Texan finished 5-for-8 for 65 yards, and he was the only quarterback Fulmer mentioned by name.

“Nick’s worked hard, and he played pretty well,” Clawson said. “I thought he had a good day, but I hate to say things like that. Every time that I make a comment about how well somebody plays after a live scrimmage, I go back and watch film and I couldn’t have been more wrong.”

Several players and coaches noted how Stephens sustained several drives.

“Obviously, we just started,” Stephens said. “But it felt good for the confidence of me and the confidence of the team that we were moving the ball.”

Coleman had the biggest numbers — 9-for-15 for 95 yards — but he also got crossed up with a receiver and threw a pass that bounced off cornerback Art Evans’ stomach at the goal line. Confusion caused Crompton’s pickoff also, as safety Demetrice Morley said he “just looked up and saw the ball coming right at me.”

Josh Briscoe was the beneficiary of the day’s longest play, slipping down the sideline and snagging a well-thrown Coleman pass for 48 yards and a near-score. Austin Rogers took a Crompton pass and got even closer to the end zone, but he was ruled out of bounds at the 1 despite diving through a tackler and glancing the goal post with the nose of the ball.

Rogers and Briscoe started together in January’s Outback Bowl, but they’re not guaranteed anything other than a chance to re-earn those roles. Clawson expects injured All-SEC wideout Lucas Taylor to join Rogers, Briscoe, Jones, Quintin Hancock, Denarius Moore, Ahmad Paige for a seven-way fight for first-team rights in preseason camp.

“I have no expectations,” Clawson said. “I just want to see guys play, and play hard.”

But the quarterbacks have been advised to think like Clawson. Their position coach claims to analyze video like he was under center, and the first and biggest thing he looks for on every passing play is which direction the ball goes.

For now, interceptions intended for the proper receiver aren’t necessarily worse than touchdowns thrown to the wrong target. A Rogers run or Jones juke won’t decide who starts at quarterback.

“If the ball should be going over here and it goes over there, then we’ve got problems, and they don’t even understand what’s going on,” Clawson said. “But if the ball is supposed to be going there, and it goes there — even if the ball gets knocked down, or the receiver ran his route a yard too deep, or the secondary kid made a good play — we’ve still got a base that we can build from.”