Tennessee football: The case for and against each QB after three games

Amidst a 2-1 start and with SEC play set to begin, we’ve now seen all three scholarship quarterbacks for Tennessee football play in Josh Heupel’s new system. They’ve all been a mixed bag as well. What’s clear, though, is that nothing should be clear about this situation as the Vols begin SEC play this week at the Florida Gators.

Obviously, if Joe Milton III is still hurt, Heupel will have an easier decision to make. However, like with so many players, it’s likely he kept Milton out of the game against the Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles last weekend as a precaution. UT wasn’t losing to TTU no matter what.

Heading into Saturday, though, Tennessee football’s quarterback situation is much less certain than it seems. Milton, Hendon Hooker and Harrison Bailey truly all bring something to the table, even if Hooker and Milton to this point have seen significantly more action than Bailey. You could truly make a case for any of them.

In this post, that’s what we’re going to do. As Heupel tries to navigate this issue while still having to develop the rest of the team, we have enough to go on to break down each quarterback and why he should, or shouldn’t, be the starter.

We’ll close this post out with a final verdict, ranking how the depth chart should look on Saturday. Of course, against a team like Florida, there’s a chance that the competition still won’t be settled heading into next week either. After all, UF’s defense is likely to make any UT quarterback struggle.

On the other hand, what a QB does against Tennessee Tech is hardly a decent gauge for how they’ll perform in SEC play, as they could all be made to look good against such an opponent. Still, we’ve got enough information to dive in, so let’s go ahead and break these guys down. Here is our case for and against all three Tennessee football quarterbacks.