Top Right: Senior quarterback Vann Millican, center, follows through after releasing a pass during Wednesday's second round of two-a-day practices. Above: Head coach Joey McQueen addresses his squad at the end of a two-hour practice session. Vann Millican and Colton Perkins have lots in common.

Both are guards on the Badgers' varsity basketball team.

Both are avid golfers, and both are solid students in the classroom.

At the moment, however, the most important similarity is both are competing for the starting quarterback position come opening day, and with two weeks separating Lampasas from its season kickoff against Manor, the decision is still up in the air.

While most position battles were already decided coming into Monday morning's first round of two-a-day practices, the fight for supremacy under center was still wide open.

"I wish I knew right now," Lampasas head coach Joey McQueen said. "Neither one has looked like a spotlight out there where they've just outshined the other. Both have been consistent, both have done their job and [both] do a great job of managing the huddle.

PHOTOS BY CLAY WHITTINGTON "They're really even keeled young men. They want to be successful, and I like young men like that."

According to the coach, the deciding factors will be based on who develops the best team chemistry and who displays the most leadership.

"I really feel like captains and quarterbacks of the team need to be the right hand of the coach," McQueen said. "I should never have to tell a quarterback to take charge of the huddle, because that's what is expected of them. These two young men know that."

Regardless who receives the starting nod from the coach, one thing that is certain is that there will be no rotating quarterbacks based on down and distance.

McQueen wants whoever starts the season as his quarterback to finish the season as his quarterback, unless injury or a significant loss of leadership on the field forces him to make a switch.

The major advantage Millican brings to the table is that he is a senior with starting-quarterback experience and plenty of snaps at the varsity level already under his belt. Perkins, on the other hand, is a hungry and talented junior coming up from the junior varsity squad.

While McQueen still has time to weigh the pros and cons of each player, he feels the dividing line between the two could be drawn starting today when the team takes to the practice field in full pads after working out in helmets and shorts for the first four days of two-a-days.

In the end, once all the practices are wrapped up and the first and only preseason scrimmage against Glen Rose is in the books, the ultimate deciding factor will be who gives the Badgers the best opportunity to win. Period.

"[With] the state of the program we are in right now, I need people who want to be out here with a passion for football and want to hit people," McQueen said. "If they don't then they need to hug me, we'll say we love each other, and [they'll] go do something else.

"It's time to get things changed."