Quarterbacks

If quarterback is the most glamorous position in all of sports, then the starting varsity quarterback has to be the most carefree student in all of high school. Right? As Lee Corso would say, Not so fast, my friend! You try juggling playbooks, textbooks and perhaps the most complex read of all - the book on earning one of the few college scholarships for quarterbacks. What these pressures mount up to is not a happy-go-lucky jock, but one stressed-out signal-caller.

There will be as many as five quarterbacks trying to wrestle the starting job from Matt Baker when Temple's football team opens spring camp next month. In his first two years as Temple's starter, the No. 1 job was handed to him. This year, he will have to earn it, coach Jerry Berndt said yesterday as he announced his first full recruiting class. Baker, who will be a fifth-year senior in the fall, was sidelined for the Owls' final 10 games last season after sustaining a severely separated shoulder in a season-opening loss at Western Michigan.

These days, coaches don't like to call it a quarterback "controversy. " They prefer words like "competition. " The problem is that competition is not always friendly - even at Paulsboro, where Jarod Claybourn and Vernon Sharper share the quarterback duties. "We always yell at each other, get mad at each other," Claybourn said. "We probably want to punch each other in the face. " The source of their hostility is practice. If Claybourn or Sharper believes the other is getting an unfair number of snaps - i.e., 50.1 percent - then the yelling ensues.

THIS HAS BEEN as maddening a year for quarterbacks as any in recent memory. A few have been good, many have been mediocre, but most have been disappointing. JaMarcus Russell has one fewer touchdown pass (four) than Peyton Manning, but that pales in comparison with the fact that Manning has thrown five interceptions to Russell's one. Think about that for a second. Then there's Brett Favre, who threw more touchdowns in one game than Derek Anderson (three) and Marc Bulger (two) have tossed this season.

There was a time not long ago when a Big 10 football game was about as exciting as watching a slug climb a hill. Any action that didn't occur between the tackles was either a busted play or an accident. It was 3 yards, a cloud of dust and a yawn. In the conservative Midwest, the forward pass was viewed largely as a figment of some anarchist's imagination. But that is no longer the case. The Big 10 has moved into the 20th century, and the move appears to be more than just a passing fancy.

Heath Shuler, one of the smoothest quarterbacks in the nation, and Jay Barker, one of the most persistent, will face off this afternoon when Tennessee takes on Alabama at Legion Field. Tennessee's Shuler, who already has set a single-season school record with 18 touchdown passes, is agile and has a fluid throwing motion. He provides the finesse for a rugged Tennessee offense. Barker, a fire-in-the-belly field general, often is unnoticed on an Alabama team that bristles with defensive weapons, but a look at his statistics can be startling.

With Michael Vick, coach Andy Reid is on franchise quarterback No. 3, following the Donovan McNabb era and the Kevin Kolb cameo. Will he take a shot on No. 4 this week? The NFL draft begins Thursday night with the Eagles holding the 15th overall pick, and most observers expect the team to use the first round to add an impact defensive player. There is a deep defensive tackle class, with Fletcher Cox at the top of the list, though the Eagles would probably have to trade up to get him. The team could also look for a big, top-tier cornerback such as Stephon Gilmore or Dre Kirkpatrick after trading Asante Samuel on Wednesday, while many fans have set their hopes on linebacker Luke Kuechly.

THE OFFSEASON NFL players lost to the lockout last year has been blamed for just about every unfortunate thing that's happened, this side of the "Twilight" movies. Eagles quarterbacks coach Doug Pederson threw another log on the fire Monday, when he opined that the falloff in QB Michael Vick's play last season had a lot to do with Vick not being able to review mistakes with coaches and fine-tune this time a year ago. "Honestly, I think it was the offseason," Pederson said during a rare NovaCare media session with Eagles offensive position coaches, minus offensive line coach Howard Mudd, who isn't in town.

DeSean Jackson addressed the biggest question in Philadelphia sports on Thursday: What happens to him and Michael Vick after this season? When asked what the explosive duo could do in their years together if both got contract extensions, Jackson laughed and said: "We're looking for them contracts. " "We know the contracts will come. We're just so focused on playing right now, and the better we do, the better it is for both of us," Jackson said. Jackson, who has one year left on his first pro contract, and Vick could fuel the Eagles' offense for years if they stay in Philadelphia.

The prevailing thought at the start of Penn State's football season was that coach Joe Paterno would have a firm No. 1 quarterback in place by the start of the Big Ten schedule. Well, with the Nittany Lions' conference opener Saturday at Indiana, there is absolutely no indication that Paterno and his staff have settled on someone calling the signals full-time. However, in talking to both quarterbacks, Rob Bolden and Matt McGloin, after Saturday's 34-6 victory over Eastern Michigan at Beaver Stadium, you get the feeling the drama about who is No. 1 has diminished somewhat.