When Western’s football team takes the field on Sept. 5 next season at Neyland Stadium against Tennessee, it’ll send a quarterback out on the field who has zero career starts.

It seems like somewhat of a daunting thought, but also ironic that as the newest team in the Football Bowl Subdivision, it’ll bring a very new quarterback.

Currently, junior quarterback Brandon Smith sits at the top of the depth chart. There are still three weeks of spring practice, followed by fall camp prior to Western’s game with Tennessee.

First-year offensive coordinator Walter Wells likes the thought of a quarterback race.

“It’s a great focus, and everyone looks forward to it,” Wells said. “I think all three of those guys that played (Saturday) did a good job. Brandon has got some experience and has some maturity, so some of the things come more naturally to him. Kawaun (Jakes) has done a really good job of picking stuff up, and (Anthony Sheppard) has the ability to make plays. All three of them do, but Shep has come in and done a good job.”

Six different quarterbacks threw passes last year – that includes senior punter Jeremy Moore, who was successful on two fake punt attempts, and senior wide receiver Jake Gabler who also threw one incompletion.

But quarterback races are kind of like recruiting. You can talk and talk and talk about how good one player is going to be, but until they actually produce – it’s all talk.

Take for example, Brett Favre. He was, at one time, listed as something like the seventh-string quarterback at Southern Mississippi.

I’m not even sure if Western has a seventh-string quarterback.

Maybe it could be me. If you like six-foot, three-inch quarterbacks, with a laser rocket arm.

Then put me in, Coach Elson. I throw a good bubble screen.

Actually, I grew up emulating Tom Osborne’s wishbone option offense in the front yard.

So I’d probably be better at handing it off to some fullback – or just the fumblerooskie, for that matter.

With the quarterback position, a player could go from bench warmer to the big man on campus in a matter of minutes.

There’s a wealth of opportunity at the quarterback’s reach this season, and all the quarterbacks that are candidates to play seem to be learning from each other.

“(Sheppard) might not learn the coverages faster than me, I might not learn a read faster than him, but we’re just trying to learn off of each other,” Jakes said.

Smith also said that learning everything is very important right now.

“How many quarterbacks did we play last year? If one goes down, especially in this offense, as much as the quarterback runs, we all have to be on the same page,” Smith said. “We’re only as good as our weakest link.”

Coach David Elson said that every quarterback’s throw during spring practice is charted and recorded as part of the quarterback’s evaluation process.

The good news is that whoever plays quarterback – because of experience – there won’t be high expectations for him.

And as we saw with the men’s basketball team, sometimes being doubted is the best motivation.