There are quarterbacks and backup quarterbacks.

Which makes for quarterback competitions.

Which can lead to quarterback controversies.

Unless, of course, you just want a ''quarterback situation.''

The situation with the University of Akron's quarterbacks is this: There will be no in-season competition, and therefore, no controversy.

There are just two guys, close in ability. One had to start, but the other deserves to play. So the starter will start Saturday night in the season opener against Army in Cleveland Browns Stadium, and the backup will play in the second quarter.

But the job is the starter's, and he need not look over his shoulder. Because there will be no short leash.

UA coach J.D. Brookhart made that clear as he discussed the upcoming season.

Chris Jacquemain will start. He earned that right with his play in fall practices.

Carlton Jackson will be the backup. He didn't exactly drop the eggs in his effort, though, so he will play as well. Brookhart said Jackson will get the first series of the second quarter.

Better make the most of it, because that's all he's getting.

''I had them both in,'' Brookhart said. ''And I just told them: 'Understand that this is not going to be a competition. I'm not making any promises. Just because you start the season doesn't mean you're going to finish it, but don't think that in the first three or four weeks that if you make a mistake, if you throw an interception, that I'm going to be pulling you. That's not going to happen.'

''Give him a chance to mature and develop in the system.''

Brookhart knows the pratfalls Please see UA, C3

of the two-quarterback approach because he has lived it. In 1999 at the University of Pittsburgh, the Panthers used two and went 5-6.

Brookhart will not let that happen at UA, where the Zips are coming off a 5-7 season and trying to rebound in the Mid-American Conference with three redshirt freshmen starting on the offensive line. The effort starts with the game Saturday.

Imagine being this coach, going from Charlie Frye to Luke Getsy to two sophomores who have not played a lot, with a freshman behind them.

In the spring, injuries hurt the quarterbacks' ability to showcase themselves. So Brookhart continued the ''competition'' through the fall.

Both improved beyond what Brookhart expected.

But someone had to start, and Brookhart wanted the guy who he thought would make fewer mistakes.

So he picked Jacquemain.

Jackson will get his series.

This is not a two-quarterback system. Brookhart promised.

''That doesn't give a good voice to the team,'' he said.

Coaches since the day of the printing press have vowed not to allow a two-quarterback situation to split the team. Many have failed.

Brookhart approached the situation with his pair directly.

It might sound as if Brookhart is using the same words everyone uses code words that inevitably lead to trouble if one guy struggles. But he's doing it this way precisely because of what he went through at Pitt. He does not want to repeat it, so he is making it clear this is the way it's going to be.

Which is about all he can do. If the Zips don't win which is not the plan, by the way Jackson could get the call.

But Jacquemain will play with assurances that the job is his to keep.

''Who knows which way this will go? The good thing is we have two,'' Brookhart said.

Offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead said the choice came down to the staff thinking Jacquemain gives UA the best chance to win.

Brookhart talked of getting a text message from a disappointed Jackson saying he was 100 percent behind whatever the coaches decided.

''They are very respectful of each other,'' Moorhead said.

Which is a good thing.

Because nobody needs the ''situation'' to grow into something different.