Dooley has already been through the experience before and everything worked out fine for the Vols. But starting a true freshman at quarterback for the second season in a row is far from his ideal situation, even if he isn't afraid to make the move to Justin Worley and has shown no signs of second-guessing the decision to turn him loose against No. 14 South Carolina at Neyland Stadium tonight (TV: ESPN2, 7:15 p.m.).
"I'm not opposed to playing freshmen," Dooley said. "But at quarterback, you don't ever want to play a true freshman. There's no coach out there that says, 'I want to play a true freshman quarterback.'
"It's a venture into the unknown. Now, I say unknown, but I still expect Worley to go perform the way he performs in practice. And I'm not afraid of him not performing — you can't be."
That fearless approach worked perfectly when Tyler Bray was thrown into the mix last season, with the Vols (3-4, 0-4 SEC) winning all of his regular-season starts down the stretch to clinch a bowl bid and validate Dooley's decision to replace Matt Simms.
One year later, at nearly the same point in the schedule, a broken thumb for Bray and ineffective outings for Simms have put UT in a similar situation with the reigning Gatorade National Player of the Year now in line to take over against the Gamecocks (6-1, 4-1).
It's tempting and perhaps easy to draw parallels between the two scenarios, even down to the jump each player got on their careers by enrolling early and going through spring practice. But almost as soon as Worley's redshirt was removed last week and his expanded role leading the offense was confirmed, Dooley began stressing the differences between this year and last.
And he's also made clear that having gone through it before, even with success, won't make it any easier on him.
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