Vol offensive coordinator Mike Bajakian speaks with members of the media.
Photo by Reed Carringer.

KNOXVILLE—The Vols open spring practice Saturday with several position battles worth watching. With the early departure of Tyler Bray, Tennessee is without a proven commodity at quarterback and will have just two scholarship QBs on the roster this spring—Justin Worley and Nathan Peterman. Four-star signees Joshua Dobbs and Riley Ferguson and 3-star invited walk-on Charlie High won’t arrive on campus until this summer, so Worley and Peterman will have a clear advantage in the race to be Tennessee’s signal-caller this season.

Justin Worley: Worley put up insane numbers in high school, throwing for 13,385 yards and 157 touchdowns in his career. At the college level, he is certainly Tennessee’s most experienced quarterback. He has played in nine games the last two seasons, and earned three starts, but his numbers have been a bit underwhelming— 738 yards, one touchdown, and five interceptions. However, the stats don’t reflect Worley’s potential, and he wasn’t always put in a position to succeed by the previous staff. He is accurate with the football, has a nice touch to his passes, and has all the tools to be successful starter in the SEC. Worley was chosen as a team captain for the Volympics by his teammates, and is respected by his peers.

Nathan Peterman: Vol fans haven’t seen much from Peterman yet. He enrolled early in 2012 but dislocated a finger on his throwing hand and didn’t get much work last spring. A 4-star prospect coming out of high school, Peterman was recruited by Butch Jones at Cincinnati, and likely would have played for the Bearcats had he not chosen the Vols. He completed over 63% of his passed his senior year, and threw for 2,932 yards and 36 touchdowns. Like Worley, Peterman has an extremely high football IQ, and he is respected by his peers. When the Volympics rolled around last month, he was selected as a captain by his teammates. One area Peterman edges Worley is his mobility. He ran for 319  yards and five touchdowns his senior year, and has impressed his coaches with his athleticism since arriving on campus last season. Peterman also throws an excellent deep ball, but Bajakian’s offense doesn’t rely as heavily on the vertical passing game as the offense Vol fans saw Tyler Bray star in the past few seasons.

So who wins? Worley will open spring practice as the favorite in the minds of many, while Peterman seems like a slightly better natural fit for Jones’ offensive system. Regardless of fit, Vol offensive coordinator Mike Bajakian has repeatedly stated they’ll go with the best quarterback, and that they’re not opposed to starting a pure pocket-passer. Worley has the edge in experience, while Peterman is more mobile and has a stronger arm. This will be an extremely close battle, and whoever has the lead after spring practice closes will still have work to do to solidify their position as the likely starter this season. Don’t rule out one of Tennessee’s three QB signees starting either. The Vols have a history of starting true freshmen at quarterback (Peyton Manning, Casey Clausen, Erik Ainge, Tyler Bray, etc, etc, etc). For now, Peterman’s ability to run more of the playbook gives him a slight advantage over Worley, so don’t be surprised if he barely edges the UT junior QB as the leader for the job at spring’s end.