Tennessee Vols: Former UT QB Nathan Peterman To Start For Bills

Former Tennessee Vols quarterback Nathan Peterman is moving on up in the NFL.

The Buffalo Bills announced on Wednesday that former Tennessee Vols quarterback Nathan Peterman will start on Sunday against the Los Angeles Chargers.

Peterman is starting over Tyrod Taylor, who was benched after he was ineffective against the New Orleans Saints. It will be Peterman’s first career NFL start.

The former Vol started his career at Tennessee, before transferring to Pittsburgh where he flourished and was eventually drafted by the Bills.

A lot of folks expected Peterman to be the starter in 2013 at Tennessee. Peterman, a redshirt freshman at the time, was recruited by Butch Jones when he was the head coach at Cincinnati. It made sense that Peterman would be Jones’ guy when he got to Tennessee.

But that wasn’t the case. Jones went with Justin Worley instead.

Jones eventually gave Peterman a shot to be Tennessee’s starting quarterback, but it was on the road against Florida — not exactly the best scenario for your first career start.

Peterman looked horrible in that game and was replaced by Worley. He got another start in 2014, against Alabama, but he was replaced in that game, after a few series, by Josh Dobbs.

After the 2014 season, Peterman transferred to Pittsburgh. As a graduate student, Peterman was allowed to play immediately.

Peterman threw for just under 3,000 yards as a senior in 2016. He threw only 15 interceptions in his 26 career games with the Panthers.

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The Bills and the Chargers play at 4:05 PM ET on Sunday afternoon. The game will air on Fox (regionally).