By JIM STEELE
pressbox1.com

Last week, Tennessee football coach Phillip Fulmer challenged punter Chad Cunningham and hinted at replacement after a dismal outing during a 30-6 loss to Florida just over a week ago.

Cunningham delivered with 10 punts for 399 yards, a 39.9 average and provided the Vols primo real estate at Auburn Saturday.

But Tennessee's offense was anemic and the passing game virtually absent as the Tigers claimed a 14-12 victory on The Plains Saturday. To make matters worse, junior quarterback and senior running back Arian Foster botched a handoff exchange on their own 1, which rolled into the end zone and the waiting breadbasket of Auburn's Jake Ricks with 7:06 to play in the second.

It marked the second week in a row that an exchange during a crucial point of the game. Crompton fumbled on the Florida 1 last week, killing what looked to be a certain scoring drive.

Sunday, Tennessee football coach was somewhat exasperated by Tennessee's offensive ineptitude as his Vols dropped to 1-3 on the year, 0-2 in the Southeastern Conference.

"We have no conistency in the passing game," said Fulmer. "We get field position and couldn't take advantage of it. Crompton didn't play as well as expected."

Fulmer said the fumbled exchanged shouldn't have happened, especially two weeks in a row.

"The ball hit Arian's elbow and he didn't have it as high as he should have," said the coach. "It's unfortunate it happened but it's one of those attention-to-detail things that cost us a ballgame."

Crompton was 8-23 passing for 64 yards. He was sacked once. But some of his throws were puzzling, almost as if he and the receivers weren't on the same page.

"It was three, four, five different things," Fulmer said. "Sometimes the route was read the wrong way, sometimes it was throwing it away, sometimes it was not finding the receivers."

This week, practice will be interesting as Nick Stephens will share reps with Crompton as part of the first team and the job for starting quarterback has been thrown open.

"We'll chart their progress and make a decision," said Fulmer. "Whoever is most consistent in the passing game will get the start.'

Tennessee has been somewhat spoiled at quarterback going back to 1989 when Andy Kelly led the Vols to the Cotton Bowl. Then came Heath Shuler, Peyton Manning, Tee Martin, Casey Clausen and Erik Ainge. There have been instances when the Vols had to shift gears in mid-season with the quarterback. In 1994, Jerry Colquitt suffered a knee injury, which forced Peyton Manning, Branndon Stewart and Todd Helton into service. Manning, of course, emerged from that pack. In 2002, Casey Clausen suffered a shoulder injury and had to face Georgia and Mississippi State with James Banks. Erik Ainge suffered a shoulder injury in a 2004 loss to Notre Dame and had to be replaced by Rick Clausen.

In 2002, Joey Mathews, Casey Clausen and A.J. Suggs battled for the starting role, but once Clausen was healthy, he emerged as the starter. Fulmer has never had to re-think his quarterback situation this late into the season.

"We'd much rather have the quarterback we anticipated being the starter playing well," Fulmer said. "We have to take a look at our options."

Fulmer said in addition to Stephens, Gerald Jones, famed for his G-gun role, could enter the mix.

"I don't anticipate the announcement to be a game-time decision," Fulmer said. "We'll have to play that by ear."

The Vols host Northern Illinois Saturday. Kickoff is 6 p.m. Oct. 4 at Neyland Stadium. The Huskies are 2-2, having just defeated Eastern Michigan 37-0 in Ypsilanti, Mich. on Saturday.