Ryan Callahan

In case he needs to play a backup quarterback at any point during Friday night’s season opener, Alcoa High School football coach Gary Rankin finally has figured out a way to decide on one.

“When I turn around,” Rankin said Thursday, “probably whichever one is standing the closest to me (on the sideline).”

Junior Austin Tallant will start tonight for the Tornadoes against Bell County, Ky., which won the Bluegrass State’s Class 4A championship last year. But neither senior transfer Ryan Stoutt nor sophomore Hogan Goodson has emerged as the clear-cut backup.

Stoutt was expected to be involved with some type of rotation with Tallant during the regular season.

Tallant now seems likely to take most — if not all — of the snaps.

“He’s going to play a long time before somebody else plays,” Rankin said of Tallant, a starting safety last season who also served as the backup quarterback behind then-senior Chase James.

Matchup problems: Rankin said Bell County presents a handful of potential problems for Alcoa, particularly with its power running game.

“They’re a pretty tough team for us to match up with,” Rankin said. “They can do some things that could hurt us. Running the football the way they want to run it could be a problem for us.”

Tornadoes senior tight end/defensive end Tyler Robinson reached the same conclusion after watching film of the Bobcats.

“We know they’re big,” Robinson said. “They’re going to try to overpower us on the front line, but they’re just not going to do that. We’ve got to try to stop them.”

Replacing players: Bell County lost 13 starters from last year’s undefeated team, according to the Middlesboro Daily News.

The Bobcats have only four returning starters on offense and six on defense.

First-year Tennessee football coach Lane Kiffin recently called senior left tackle Chris Scott perhaps ”the most improved guy from spring” practice.

There’s a reason for that, Scott said Saturday after UT’s second preseason scrimmage at Neyland Stadium.

“I think with me, it’s been more mental. I had to get a few things down and get my mind right — you know, change how I saw life,” said Scott, one of four seniors expected to start on the Volunteers’ offensive line.

“It was just a few things here and there I had to change with my mental aspect and how I looked at things. I changed that up, and I went into summer real fresh. I took it as a fresh beginning for everything. That was Day One, and then I went from there, and it’s zoomed.”

Scott said his confidence has “skyrocketed” under Kiffin’s staff.

“These coaches, they make you feel good,” Scott said. “With their enthusiasm, you’ve got no choice but to have it rub off on you. It rubs off on me, and I just go out there and try to play as hard as I can.”

An improved Scott could provide a big boost for an offensive line Kiffin has described as the team’s most improved unit since spring practice.

The 6-foot-5, 346-pound Scott, a former Parade All-American, is responsible at left tackle for protecting the blind side of whomever emerges from UT’s quarterback competition between Jonathan Crompton and Nick Stephens.

And he’s getting better every day, he said, from going head-to-head with junior defensive end Chris Walker, who was chosen by coaches as the team’s most improved defensive player during the spring.

“He’s really quick off the ball, and going after him every day in practice is making me better — and hopefully the other way around, too,” Scott said of Walker.

“He’s getting better, and he’s getting me better.”