KNOXVILLE - Tennessee's quarterback competition received a new entrant Thursday night when Stanford graduate transfer Keller Chryst indicated on Twitter he will use his final season of collegiate eligibility with the Volunteers.
Chryst, who was 11-2 as a starter in 2016 and 2017 at Stanford, is expected to graduate in June and would join Tennessee in time for preseason practices.
The 6-foot-5, 234-pounder - who finished his high school career in Palo Alto, Calif., where Stanford is - has the pedigree, experience and intangibles to compete for the starting job in new Vols offensive coordinator Tyson Helton's pro-style scheme.
To win the job, he will have to beat out Jarrett Guarantano and Will McBride, who are entering their sophomore seasons and will have the benefit of going through spring practices with Helton and first-year head coach Jeremy Pruitt beginning this month. A fourth quarterback, December signee J.T. Shrout, would become part of the mix after his expected enrollment this summer.
Competition is nothing new for Chryst, the son of veteran NFL assistant Geep Chryst and nephew of Wisconsin coach Paul Chryst.
In 2016, Chryst went 6-0 after taking over Stanford's starting quarterback job midway through the season. The former four-star recruit tore the ACL in his right knee during Stanford's Sun Bowl win over North Carolina that year.
The injury raised questions about his readiness to start the 2017 season, but he was named a captain during the preseason and started seven of the first eight games before losing the job to K.J. Costello with the Cardinal 6-2.
Costello had filled in as a starter for one game after Chryst was injured in the fourth game of the season. The redshirt freshman took over the job after Chryst completed just 16 of 33 passes in a 15-14 Stanford victory over Oregon State.
Stanford finished the season 9-5, and with Costello still the starter, Chryst indicated he would seek to use the NCAA's graduate transfer rule to play his final season elsewhere.
Chryst completed 78 of 144 passes for 962 yards with eight touchdowns and four interceptions last season, and he finished his Cardinal career 160-for-289 with 19 touchdowns and six interceptions.
His size and experience make him a potential match for Helton, who has a track record of helping quarterbacks improve statistically. During Tyson's two seasons at Western Kentucky as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach in 2014 and 2015, Brandon Doughty led the nation in passing yards. In his first year in Helton's system, Doughty completed 68 percent of his passes for 4,830 yards after throwing for 2,857 yards the year before.
Chryst's commitment to the Vols came after Quinten Dormady announced in January that he will graduate from Tennessee and play his final season elsewhere. Dormady began the 2017 season as the starting quarterback before losing the job to Guarantano as the offense struggled. Dormady then underwent season-ending shoulder surgery.
Guarantano flashed potential as a redshirt freshman in 2017, but he also dealt with an injury that forced then-coach Butch Jones to burn McBride's redshirt.
Chryst is pursuing a degree in science, technology and society at Stanford, according to information on the school's athletic website. He earned Pac-12 All-Academic honorable mention in 2016 and 2017.
Contact David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @DavidWCobb and on Facebook at facebook.com/volsupdate.