Any news yet on Worley? Starting QB?

Last I heard was they were still evaluating Worley, and it would be whoever had the best week of practice this week. Lord, please be Dobbs.

And 247:

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1. WORLEY BIRD NOT CHIRPING (AND BY CHIRPING WE MEAN THROWING). Senior quarterback Justin Worley was on the practice field Tuesday, but conveniently none of the quarterbacks threw passes during the two practice periods open to reporters. Just watching Worley move around, though, makes it look pretty clear that he’s not even completely comfortable doing that. As expected, he doesn’t look to be anywhere close to ready to return in time for Saturday’s game at South Carolina. It would be nothing short of stunning if anyone not named Joshua Dobbs started Saturday in Columbia.

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Also this is what Jones said to day regarding Worley:

"It's how his body handles the rehabilitation and does his body continue to improve, which it has shown a little bit slowly or does it not," said Jones. "Then you're talking about surgery and other things like that. We're trying to get him ready for this game. There is a chance that he could be but you never know. It's still early on in the week, so we'll see. But if he's ready to play, he's going to play. We'll see how that goes."

^I really wish they could provide a transcript with the actual question being asked because that's about as clear as mud. However as best as I can translate it means something like this: Worley has a shoulder injury and we've yet to determine how bad it is. We're giving him a chance to get game ready to see if he can play through it even if he only plays a couple of downs because it's his senior year but he may need surgery and how his rehab goes will determine whether or not he'll be able try and play one last snap for his senior season or even part of the bowl game or if he needs to go ahead and get the surgery now. It's his last year so we're going to give him all the time he wants.

Y'all think I'm in the ballpark in translating that?

I hope you're right, for Justin's sake to get a send off but that line about "but if he's ready to play, he ll play" scares me a little. Maybe Butch is still trying to keep everything in the dark to confuse our opponents. This should be Dobbs team now, nothing against Justin but this is big time college football and you have to go with the best chance to win

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He must think Dobbs if he isn't concerned enough about Worley to know whether he's hurt 4 days before the game

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^That comment was pretty telling.

It's one game but even so:
Football Time in TN ?@FootballTimeMag
Dobbs’ 81.7 QBR vs. Bama would rank 10th nationally for the season – ahead of Jameis Winston (12th with an 81.4), Golson, Knight & others.
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I don't know how you focus on anyone but Dobbs when that rating is coming against Bama's D which is a Top 5 defense. Dobbs led Tennessee to the most rushing yards any opponent has been able to put on Bama all year. He had 192 yards through the air and rushed for 75 on the ground (if you minused out the 2 sacks he took he would've personally rushed for 100 yds). And to do it all mid-season against Alabama without having taken a snap all year?

I think a lot of folks are so focused on the QB scenario and that our offense had a pulse that the fact that Alabama has a top 5 defense (three spots higher than OM's defense is ranked) might've escaped us but there's no way that escaped Jones or Spurrier or hell any other coach with sense. After burning that redshirt and a performance like that you don't look back (not with the way Worley performed against OU, UF and OM) but Jones also has to make sure it's known that he's not throwing Worley away just because of an injury.

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Agreed, and I'm all for giving Worley his due for his 4 years. Get a chance to get him some plays in garbage time, take a knee on senior night, maybe start the first play on senior night. Stuff like that, I would love, kid has busted his arse for this program through some really bad circumstances

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No doubt. Worley really suffered with Dooley stunting his development and burning his redshirt for no apparent reason. He wasn't developed at all by Dooley while at the same time Dooley wasted a year that he really could've used. He showed enough improvement this year that I think had he had an extra year with Jones he'd have been a lot better than he was able to show. I just hope he can catch on somewhere - Sims did and Worley's better than him, imo. I also think Justin would make a great coach if he doesn't get another chance to play.

I thought this a pretty telling quote from Coach Mahoney:

Patrick Brown ?@patrickbrownTFP 2h2 hours ago

#Vols O-line coach Don Mahoney on how Dobbs impacted the line against Bama: "Josh (was) helping make us right at times when we were wrong."

They faced him last year and knew they'd see him on Saturday just as most fans did. Their was plenty of film on Dobbs from last season and he's not the first or mobile QB they'll see this year. So while they didn't have much tape on him in terms of how he is today - the bigger, faster, stronger Dobbs they definitely knew what he was capable of. He burned them last year on runs (that's Dobbs in my avi from last season burning one of their touted starters). If Kirby Smart and Saban actually thought that we'd play much of Peterman instead knowing full well how bad Peterman is then they're dumb as posts.

So honestly, I think Bama game planned for him whether they want to admit it or not. They may have miscalculated thinking he wouldn't be as improved as he was but they also had halftime to adjust.

I agree though that this game will definitely be telling about whether or not Dobbs can sustain that success, especially given the problems we still have on offense. But given the deficits we had on the field -- our atrocious OL and poorly ranked offense (we're ranked #113th on O) versus their top 5 D -- I think there's reason for optimism. Dobbs is gonna make mistakes given he's not been starting or even taking snaps and we may lose against USC (they do have a good offense) but I see a lot of reason to be optimistic about Dobbs.