If you saw Doug Johnson's first start against Tennessee, then you shouldn't be surprised at his statistics after the first two games of his senior season.

	Doug Johnson will try to beat the Vols, as he did in 1997.

Johnson has completed 58.1 percent of his passes, thrown for eight touchdowns and averaged 278.5 yards per game passing in Florida's routs of Western Michigan and Central Florida. He has accomplished that in little more than five quarters of play.

His prowess and promise were painfully obvious to UT fans in September of 1997. In his third career start, Johnson completed 14 of 32 passes for 261 yards and three touchdowns as the Gators beat the Vols 33-20.

But the road between that start and his next one has been anything but smooth and straight. It has been fraught with turns, bumps and detours.

Three weeks after leading passing Florida to No. 1 in the polls, Johnson threw four interceptions in a loss to LSU. He was suspended for violating team rules and lost his starting job to Jesse Palmer, only to reclaim the position when Palmer suffered a broken collarbone.

Up and down and up again, Johnson's football career has gone. A severe shoulder injury, which required rotator-cuff surgery, threatened his football career. Another career threatened it as well.

How could coach Steve Spurrier trust his intricate offense to a part-time quarterback? How could a team follow a quarterback who spent his summers playing baseball and his college days lapping in the luxury of what a professional baseball contract could buy? How could a pro third baseman put college football first?

Johnson answered those questions this summer. He gave baseball an intentional pass and spent the summer in his hometown of Gainesville, where he once led Buchholz High School to the state semifinals, and where he grew up wanting to be a Gator.

Now, for the first time in his college career, he rooms with a teammate (center Zac Zedalis). He also was named one of Florida's co-captains.

But don't write the happy ending just yet. Florida quarterbacks are measured by championships. Danny Wuerffel, Johnson's Heisman-winning predecessor, won four SEC titles and a national championship. Johnson hasn't won any.

It will take an extraordinary performance to change that.

Based on its first two games, Florida's young, tender defense will place huge demands on its offense. UT's veteran offense will have a decided edge Saturday against a Florida defense that returns only one starter from last season and has four sophomores in a secondary that already has been exploited by a couple of directional schools.

Johnson doesn't lack for offensive support. He has more competent receivers than ever, a veteran line and a terrific young running back in redshirt freshman Earnest Graham.

UT counters with a wealth of defense, whose 13 sacks against Wyoming are a daunting statistic for a quarterback as stationary as Johnson.

He played poorly last November against Florida State, whose nasty pass rush pressured him into three interceptions and only 13 completions in 36 attempts. But given time, he can throw as he did against Syracuse (12 completions in 17 attempts for 195 yards and two touchdowns) before suffering a broken leg in last January's Orange Bowl.

Johnson was just as precise last Saturday against Central Florida, completing 15 of 23 passes for 271 yards in one half. After the game, UCF coach Mike Kruczek said he likes Johnson better than Purdue Heisman Trophy candidate Drew Brees as a drop-back passer.

"I'm not taking anything away from Drew Brees, believe me," said Kruczek, whose team opened its season against Purdue. "I believe as a drop-back guy, Doug is better mechanically. He's got a stronger arm. I think he's a better athlete."

Brees isn't the quarterback who comes to mind when you're trying to beat the Vols. Wuerffel never lost to the Vols. He rallied the Gators from a 30-14 deficit in 1995 and passed them to a 35-0 lead in 1996.

In Johnson's third college start, he was asked to follow Wuerffel and beat Peyton Manning. He proved then he could handle pressure.

Two years later, he has to prove it again.

(John Adams writes for The Knoxville News-Sentinel in Tennessee.)