Tennessee backup quarterback Gaston Moore remains aggressive and confident

How many times have you seen a backup quarterback come in and look super timid? Time and time again, the backup comes in and becomes ‘checkdown Charlie’, just trying not to make a mistake.

Tennessee doesn’t have that problem.

Gaston Moore, who has been with Josh Heupel throughout his college football career, has no shortage of knowledge about Tennessee’s offense. He may know that better than anyone at this point, which likely explains his supreme confidence in his arm and aggressive decision-making.

We’re talking about a guy who came off the bench for a snap against Alabama in a key spot, immediately took his shot down the field, and immediately got picked off. Completely unfazed by his next opportunity, he continued with the same confidence against Mississippi State, and perhaps more importantly, the playcalling certainly didn’t seem to change with Moore in the game.

Moore relieved Iamaleava to open the second half. He finished 5-8 for 38 yards, but took several shots downfield to keep the defense honest. One of those deep throws ended up resulting in a defensive pass interference call to move the chains.

“Good to see him work the way we know he can,” Heupel said. “Was a smart decision-maker, aggressive when it was time. Controlled everything from clock, play-calling, checks — did a really good job. When the guys found out he was going in, like they were excited about him, and they believe in him, you know, so they went out and played the way they had to to make his job easier for him, too.”

The redshirt senior has been in the spotlight this week with the injury situation for starter Nico Iamaleava, who is dealing with concussion-like symptoms. Tennessee has a massive game on Saturday with a chance to essentially eliminate Georgia from the playoff picture. The Volunteers would also keep their SEC Championship hopes alive with a win.

“I think the biggest thing is we have a lot of confidence in Gaston,” Tennessee center Cooper Mays said. “We didn’t really skip a beat mentally or physically, so yeah, it’s just the next man up mentality and I think Gaston has been ready for that all year.”

Could it be Gaston Moore who gets the call in Tennessee’s biggest moment of the year? We probably won’t get the answer to that question until Saturday. But for better or worse, we’ve seen that this offense isn’t going to change with him in the game — and Moore is going to push the ball down the field when he gets the chance.

Kickoff between Tennessee and Georgia is set for 7:30 PM ET on ABC.