Tennessee’s Shuler to Play, but Will He Stay? : Citrus Bowl: Junior quarterback will lead Volunteers against Nittany Lions, but he is thinking about making himself available for NFL draft.

The question being asked these days around here is not who will win today’s Florida Citrus Bowl--it’s a foregone conclusion that Tennessee is better than Penn State--but how good will the Volunteers be next season?

And conversely, how good will the L.A. Rams be?

These seeming non sequiturs of playing performance are inexorably tied to one individual, Tennessee’s junior quarterback, Heath Shuler.

Shuler is contemplating skipping his senior year and making himself available for the NFL draft. He plans to make his decision known on Jan. 9, the day before he would have to apply. Tennessee Coach Phillip Fulmer asked Shuler to make only one statement about the subject to avoid distractions.

Of course, it would be a distraction only if Shuler were not coming back, leading many to believe that Shuler’s last college game is today.

As for the Rams, can you think of a position where they--to put it delicately--stink? Did you say quarterback?

The Rams’ season of bumbling and stumbling leaves them with a draft pick no worse than fifth, and that’s if they win Sunday. More realistically, the Rams will probably settle around second or third. Cincinnati will most likely draft first, but the Bengals already have a young quarterback in David Klingler. It leaves the Rams in an enviable spot.

Shuler said the factors for him staying in school would be Tennessee’s chance at a national championship and playing another season with his brother, freshman receiver Benjie. Shuler also has his eye on the Heisman Trophy. He finished second in the balloting this season.

“On the other hand, there is the excitement of playing in the NFL,” Shuler said before taking his Christmas Eve vow of silence on this subject. “The money would likely be about the same from one year to the next. But there is the injury factor (if he stays in college). People talk about insurance, but I don’t know how well that would work when it comes to a quarterback.”

Fulmer said he will support Shuler in whatever decision he makes. Any guess which way Fulmer wants it to turn out?

Shuler’s credentials are impressive. He threw a school-record 25 touchdown passes, led the Southeastern Conference in passing with 2,354 yards and completed 184 of 285 passes for a remarkable 64.6%.

But it’s his size, at 6 feet 3 and 212 pounds, that makes him attractive to the pros. He is projected to be the first quarterback taken, if not the first player taken.

As for today’s game (10 a.m., Channel 7), Tennessee (9-1-1) arguably is the best team in the SEC. It is ranked sixth, ahead of Florida (eighth) and Alabama (18th). But those were the teams the Volunteers couldn’t beat, losing at Gainesville, 41-34, and tying Alabama at Birmingham, 17-17.

“We were unfortunate not to win the (Florida) game,” Shuler said. “But we came away from that knowing that we could play with any team in the nation.”

But is Tennessee the best in the SEC?

“Let’s just say, I’m sure they wouldn’t want to play us again,” Shuler said.

Meanwhile, 13th-ranked Penn State (9-2) comes in a big underdog. It lost at home to Michigan, 21-13, and at Ohio State, 24-6. The Nittany Lions did beat USC, 21-20, but didn’t play Big Ten champion Wisconsin.

Despite those credentials, the Penn State coaching staff is clearly uptight about what could happen today.

The first sign came when Coach Joe Paterno decided to bring his team to Florida on Dec. 20 and conduct three days of intense workouts about 40 miles from here in Melbourne.

Once the team got to Orlando, Paterno groused about the number of amusement parks the team had to attend. He picked a Tuesday barbecue party for disadvantaged children to spout off about the rigors of local attractions. Reporters here did their best say-it-ain’t-so-Joe routine, indicating that he was missing the point of the bowl game. He apologized the next day. And the day after that.

Paterno’s record in Florida bowls has been horrible. In 1985, he lost to Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl, in 1987 to Clemson in the Citrus Bowl, in 1990 to Florida State in the Blockbuster Bowl, and last season his team played a pathetic game against Stanford in the Blockbuster Bowl, losing, 24-3.

If stopping Tennessee’s offense wasn’t tough enough, there is the Volunteer defense, which has given up only 27 points in the last four games.

“They’re probably as good a group on defense as anyone we played all season, and I’m not Lou Holtzing you,” said Fran Ganter, the Penn State offensive coordinator.

And finally, there is the Nittany Lions’ quarterback, Kerry Collins. He replaced John Sacca, the Penn State starter who was benched after disagreements with Paterno. Sacca subsequently left school.

Collins threw for 1,605 yards and 13 touchdowns and is most remembered for rallying his team for 21 points in five minutes to beat Michigan State, 38-37. But his play has been erratic.

At one of those nettlesome local functions Penn State had to attend--the annual kickoff luncheon--Collins was called upon to throw two footballs into the audience as prizes.

He did so, then Paterno jumped to the microphone.

“You have just seen something historic,” Paterno said. “You have just seen Penn State hit two passes back-to-back. . . . Right, Kerry?”

Paterno was kidding. Well, maybe.