By Matt Osborne
SouthernPigskin.com

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Tennessee quarterback Justin Worley improved both his play and overall leadership in leading the Vols to a season-opening victory.

Somewhat lost amongst all of the hype and excitement from Week One of the college football regular season was the fact that the Tennessee Volunteers, coming off of three straight losing seasons, looked very impressive in the season-opener against Utah State.

With every single starter gone from 2013s offensive and defensive lines, it was widely considered that this season would be another rebuilding year for Butch Jones and his staff.

In addition to the concerns in the trenches, the Volunteers also lacked a proven commodity at quarterback, which is frequently a veritable death sentence in the SEC. At one time, there was a legitimate four-way race for the starting quarterback position, with seemingly no ne signal caller stepping forth to definitively take the job.

Senior Justin Worley beat out his fellow quarterbacks to claim the job, but that still led to major concerns for the position. As a junior in 2013, Worley had completed just 55.6 percent of his passing attempts for 1,239 yards, ten touchdowns and eight interceptions, displaying plenty of inconsistent play in the process.

Against the Aggies, however, Worley appeared to have much better command of the offensive system. Despite being protected by an inexperienced offensive line, Worley completed 27-of-38 attempts for 273 yards and three scores. The performance was likely his best showing since late in the 2011 season, when he threw for 291 yards against Middle Tennessee State as a freshman.

Worley appeared to be keenly aware of the talents of his surrounding personnel, and he did his best to alter his game to fit in with the remainder of his offensive teammates. When the pocket collapsed around him, Worley was able to maneuver and scramble to buy additional time for his receivers. He also elected to throw many quick timing routes, which allowed his athletic array of receivers to get the ball in their hands with time to make something happen.

“Justin was calm and collected and he acted like he had been there before,d his head coach commented following his season-opening performance cHe was kind of a calming presence on the sideline. I thought our receivers, for the most part, did a good job of catching the football. They made some really good catches to extend drives and we haven’t had that in the past, so it was great to see as well.d

On a team with as much youth and inexperience as Tennessee, it is important that Worley take ownership of the offense and set an example for how things should operate.

Based off of just one game worth of returns, it appears that he has made significant strides in the leadership area. When combined with the natural physical improvements that come along with gaining experience at the quarterback position, there is no denying that Worley is in much better position to successfully lead the Volunteers in 2014.

Even with the 31-point margin of victory over a team that many expected to give Tennessee all it could handle, it still seems unlikely that the Volunteers will emerge as legitimate contenders in the SEC East.

Given the relative struggles of a few of the other divisional teams, however, there is no reason to think that Tennessee wont end its bowl drought this fall, even with a difficult schedule looming.

If that is to happen, it stands to reason that Worleys improved leadership and performance will be a major factor in the transformation.

It is still early, but Tennessee fans have to like what they are seeing out of their veteran signal caller.