Sooner or later, somebody is going to have to earn the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s starting quarterback job. But that doesn’t appear to be happening anytime soon.

Following a lackluster practice Wednesday morning at Finley Stadium, during which more than a few reads were missed and throws were poorly executed, Mocs coach Rodney Allison hammered home a message to the quarterbacks competing for the starting spot: it’s there for the taking.

“Somebody’s got to take the quarterback job. I mean that’s got to happen, and it’s not happening right now,” Allison said after UTC’s eighth practice of the spring.

Part of Allison’s frustration comes from the fact that UTC is now more than halfway through its 15 spring workouts and the quarterback situation is no clearer than it was when spring practice started on March 28. The three QBs on the roster during the 2007 season — Tony Pastore, Cody Romans and Sloan Allison — haven’t demonstrated an advantage despite their familiarity with UTC’s system. Meanwhile the two newcomers, junior college transfers Jare Gault and Michael McDonald, are clearly still trying to learn the offense.

“Some of (the problems are) from not knowing (the offense), but some of it’s from (not) studying, doing more, working harder and doing the little things,” he said. “Somebody needs to take it, run with it and separate themselves.”

There was some hope that Sunday’s 54-play scrimmage would provide an opportunity for someone to separate himself from the pack, but that didn’t happen. Pastore was picked off twice in his first five attempts, Gault was picked off once and threw too high on several attempts and the rest of the quarterbacks also struggled at times.

“You can be as good as you want to on offense, defense, skill positions, but you’ve got to have consistent quarterback play,” Allison said. “That’s no secret, and we’re not getting that right now.”

Gault said he’s spending as much time as he can in the film room watching what he does in practice and trying to get better.

“You can’t ever have too much film,” Gault said. “Seeing yourself on film helps a lot, just seeing what you did wrong, what you did right. Everybody has a bad day, but you can’t make it an all-the-time thing.”

After studying the scrimmage on film, offensive coordinator Carmen Felus said he saw a mixture of good and bad plays, and he said he wasn’t going to judge any of the quarterbacks’ viability as a starter based on one scrimmage. At the same time, he said, the interceptions are a concern.

“Our guys need to do a better job of protecting the football,” Felus said. “What we’re trying to stress the rest of spring practice is learning how to take care of the football — learn how to operate within the system, within the scheme and learn how to make plays.”

The first one who does might just be the starter when UTC opens the 2008 season at Oklahoma.

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