ORONO – Ron Whitcomb goes into Saturday’s opener at Nebraska in his third season as the starting quarterback for the University of Maine football team.

That doesn’t mean he’ll have the position entirely to himself during 2005.

Senior backup Chris Legree also is expected to see considerable action against the Cornhuskers as part of the Black Bears’ plan to utilize the talents of two quarterbacks this fall.

The seed was planted late last season, when Legree was inserted into the mix in a handful of situations. During the spring, UMaine began implementing a plan to take advantage of what Whitcomb and Legree have to offer.

Whitcomb is an established signal-caller and passer who has directed the Bears to 11 wins over the last two seasons. Legree, a fifth-year player who knows the offense intimately, is more of a run threat, but also can throw the ball.

“I think coach [Bobby] Wilder’s always been very good at featuring the strengths of the players that we have and putting them in situations where they can be successful,” said UMaine head coach Jack Cosgrove. “That’s really the goal of the whole offense.”

Wilder, the Bears’ associate head coach and offensive coordinator, explained the two-quarterback system arose from a desire to get the best players on the field and a need to diversify the ground attack.

“Losing Marcus Williams [to graduation], we need that other dimension [Legree] in our run game right now,” said Wilder, who made sure to clarify the situation a bit further.

“There’s no question Ron is our starting quarterback,” Wilder said. “He’s the guy. We’re going to win and lose with him.”

Wilder said Whitcomb rates talentwise with former UMaine standouts Mickey Fein and Jake Eaton. With 4,746 passing yards in his first two seasons, he may well eclipse the school-record 8,491 passing yards amassed by Mike Buck from 1986 to 1989.

Whitcomb is expected to take between 70 percent and 75 percent of the snaps, while Legree will handle the other 25 percent to 30 percent. Those numbers are not set in stone.

“We know what we’ve seen from both of them, they certainly can run the offense,” Cosgrove said. “As to how often, how much, that’s something we’re going to learn.”

The Bears expect their offense to be nothing if not multiple. They’ll build on their foundation of running the ball with senior tailback Montell Owens, but UMaine will employ numerous personnel groupings and motions while going through their repertoire of plays.

Wilder figures the more pieces of the puzzle the Bears present to opposing defenses, the more difficult it will be for them to solve that puzzle.

Whitcomb agrees.

“We offer the package that I’ve been running the last two years and now we’ve got where Chris kind of runs the option look out of shotgun,” Whitcomb said.

“You’re going to see a lot of people on the field and an offense that can do a lot of different things,” he added.

Wilder even plans to run some plays in which Whitcomb and Legree will be on the field simultaneously.

Legree considers himself sort of an extra running back in his package, although he can run some option and throw play-action passes.

“We’ll line Ron up at wide receiver sometimes; we’ll line Chris up at wide receiver,” Wilder said. “We’ll line Chris up at running back and Ron at quarterback.

“People will have to figure out who’s the quarterback,” he laughed.