Why Tennessee quarterbacks will be better next season

Tennessee should have a better quarterback next season than it did last season.

I’m not basing that on the planned transfer of Stanford graduate Keller Chryst. I’m not even sure he will beat out returning starter Jarrett Guarantano.

Instead, my expectations are based on the hiring of Tyson Helton as Tennessee’s quarterback coach and offensive coordinator.

If UT is willing to pay him $1.2 million a year to run its offense and mentor its quarterbacks, he must be an upgrade. Last season, the Vols paid first-time offensive coordinator Larry Scott $655,000 and quarterbacks coach Mike Canales $300,000.

And they got what they paid for.

The Vols ranked 124th nationally in total offense. To put that in perspective, the only teams below them were Wyoming, Illinois, Kent State, Rutgers and UTEP. Not exactly a who’s who of college football.

Since the Vols’ offense struggled terribly in 2017, it’s hardly surprising that Tennessee would be willing to pay its new offensive coordinator almost double what its last one made.

Another good thing about Helton: He at least knows what a good college quarterback should look like.

When spring practice begins Tuesday, the first thought to cross Helton’s mind might be: “Sam Darnold isn’t my quarterback anymore.”

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As the co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Southern California last season, he had a couple of things going for him.

First, his brother, Clay Helton, was the head coach, which means it’s unlikely Helton would have been fired even if his USC’s offense has been as dreadful as Tennessee’s. Also, he had Darnold for his quarterback. Darnold likely will be one of the top five players taken in this spring’s NFL draft.

Unless you have blocked out all memories of UT’s 2017 season, you know that it didn’t have a quarterback of Darnold’s caliber. Nor did it have a quarterback of Joe Webb’s caliber.

Webb was a backup quarterback for the Buffalo Bills last season. He has hung around the NFL for eight years since leaving UAB, where Helton was his position coach and where he became the first quarterback in NCAA history to pass for more than 2,000 yards and run for more than 1,000 yards in consecutive seasons.

Another quarterback on Helton’s resume is worth mentioning. Brandon Doughty, who is currently on the Miami Dolphins roster, passed for almost 10,000 in his last two seasons combined at Western Kentucky when Helton was the offensive coordinator and Jeff Brohm was the head coach in 2014-2015.

Since Brohm has such a great offensive reputation, it’s reasonable to be skeptical about how significant Helton’s role was in the offense.

But Western Kentucky athletic director Todd Stewart, a former graduate student at UT, said Helton figured prominently in that offense. He also said that Doughty raves about Helton as a quarterback coach.

You should value Stewart’s opinion of coaches because he has been so good at hiring them since he became Western Kentucky’s AD in 2012. Brohm, now at Purdue, was his second football hire. Bobby Petrino was his first.

Tennessee fans can form their own opinion of Helton this fall. But my guess is that when spring practice begins spring, UT will have a better offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.

And by next fall, it will have a better quarterback – no matter who that is.

John Adams is a senior columnist. He may be reached at 865-342-6284 or john.adams@knoxnews.com. Follow him at: Twitter.com/johnadamskns.