Tennessee quarterback Gaston Moore is entering the transfer portal ahead of his final season of eligibility, 247sports Matt Zenitz first reported on Thursday morning.
Moore spent four seasons at Tennessee after originally going to Central Florida out of high school. The Hilton Head, South Carolina native followed Heupel from UCF to Tennessee and worked his way up the depth chart before serving as the backup quarterback in 2024.
The 6-foot-2, 212-pound signal caller completed 16-of-27 passes for 201 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions off the bench in 2024.
Moore played a handful of meaningful snaps for Tennessee during the 2024 season. He came in for one play in the first half against Alabama, throwing an interception on a third down deep ball. After Nico Iamaleava went into concussion protocol against Mississippi State, Moore came in at halftime and completed five-of-eight passes for 38 yards while also picking up a handful of pass interference calls.
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Moore also played garbage time snaps in Tennessee’s lopsided wins over Chattanooga, Kent State and UTEP. The walk-on quarterback played sparingly in his first three seasons at Tennessee but didn’t attempt more than 10 passes in any of those seasons.
Despite having already spent five seasons in college Moore still has one more year of eligibility remaining. The signal caller spent the 2020 season at UCF which didn’t count against his eligibility due to COVID-19 eligibility relief. Moore then redshirted the 2021 season at Tennessee meaning only three seasons counted against his eligibility.
Without Moore, redshirt freshman quarterback Jake Merklinger and incoming freshman George MacIntyre will compete for Tennessee’s backup quarterback spot behind Nico Iamaleava.
