Tag Archives: Quinten Dormady

Gameday Today: The Vols quarterback battle continues

The Vols quarterback battle continues, a happy pack of Wolfs, a host of quick hits, and a video roundup, all in today’s Vols link roundup.

Quarterbacks

Quarterback Jarrett Guarantano, who is reportedly running a close second to Quinten Dormady for the starting job, reportedly had a really good practice the other day. Some believe that practice is not especially conducive to what Guarantano does best, which is to run and evade tacklers, so news that he’s a bit of a gamer shouldn’t surprise. Guarantano does seem a bit indecisive on whether to embrace the label, though:

“I don’t want the label ‘gamer,’ but I want people to know that I am a gamer,” Guarantano said Sunday afternoon during Tennessee’s annual media day. “I think that when those bright lights are on, I’m able to really play some ball.”

Everybody wants the Vols QB to be a winner, of course, but identifying a winner before the game is played is the classic chicken and egg problem, so quarterbacks coach Mike Canales is left with what he believes is the best criteria on which to judge Dormady and Guarantano. Here’s what he’s looking for:

“You’ve got to be physically tough, you’ve got to have mobility, you’ve got to have arm strength, the ability to process information quickly,” Canales said. “I mean those things have to happen because you’ve got to be able to process what defenses are doing. I’m very into seeing how much the kids (we) recruit can process that information. I like to get to know them a little more, so you know if they can or not.

“Everybody wants the Tom Brady, the Peyton Manning, you know, the Aaron Rodgers. Everybody wants that. But they’re all unique in their own special way. They all have special strengths. It’s finding a young man that fits what you’re looking for and has great character.”

Canales did acknowledge that something “clicked” for Guarantano the other day and also insisted that he’s still a candidate to start.

And in case you think that whatever decision is made first is made forever, John Adams pipes up with a little Vols quarterback history to remind us that the guy who starts isn’t always the guy who finishes.

Eli Wolf earns a scholly

You may not have known this, but tight end Ethan Wolf’s younger brother Eli, also a tight end for the team, didn’t have a scholarship until a couple of days ago, when this happened:

That guy he was supposed to go up against in the Circle of Life drill was his brother, and Eli said that once the whistle blew he was only thinking about “puttting him on his butt.” Ethan was also surprised by the announcement, and Dad enjoyed the moment, as well.

Quick Hits

Video roundup


 

Gameday Today: Sensible quotes on Rocky Top, but no plans for Dubai

Gameday Today is awestruck at all of the sensible things said on Rocky Top over the weekend and disappointed at news the Vols will not be playing in Dubai anytime soon. This and more in today’s Vols link roundup.

Football

So the Vols hire a public relations expert and suddenly everybody’s saying all of the right things.

Bob Shoop falls on his sword, taking responsibility first:

“[M]aybe [I] was a little bit stubborn right there . . . I really wanted to force-fit, this is my style of defense or whatever. I probably didn’t do a great job at times of tailoring things.”

But ending on a positive note:

“The bowl game was the one game we really put together that looked like my vision for the defense.”

And then he’s making music when talking about the linebacker position as well:

“Kirkland had a good spring,” Shoop said before Saturday’s Big Orange Caravan Stop at Chattanooga’s First Tennessee Pavilion. “He’s hopefully the Derek Barnett, the alpha male of the defense. He’s vocal. He’s a good leader. He’s good high football intelligence. He’s smart, tough, unselfish and he wants it. I think he’s a little bit like Kongbo and myself.

“I mean, I don’t think 2016 went the way Darrin Kirkland, Jonathan Kongbo and Bob Shoop wanted. We talk about that all the time, and Darrin’s got a chip on his shoulder and he’s really determined.”

Offensive coordinator Larry Scott also gets in on the action with this sensible tone-setter for the incoming guys:

“Let’s start by being on time and being where you’re supposed to be when you’re supposed to be there, and then making sure that when you’re there, you’re 100 percent locked in and you’ve giving the very best effort you have.”

Even new athletic director John Currie managed to deftly walk the narrow ledge in voicing his opinion about Butch Jones:

“I believe you look at what has been accomplished and where we stand today versus where we were four years ago,” Currie told GoVols247. “We’ve made incredible progress in our program — academically, athletically, talent, engagement. There’s no measure where we’re not better than we were four years ago.

“We want to win every single game. There are going to be some years, eventually, where we do win every single game. But we have to make sure that the fundamentals that are in place to continue to build towards those championships that we all want to win, we have to make sure that those fundamentals continue.

. . . .

“I’m very impressed with recruiting organization. I’m impressed with the energy. I’m impressed with creativity and thought.”

And coach Jones, well, he answered questions about the quarterback battle by saying nothing and keeping his feet far away from his mouth. One interesting note in that article is that Quinten Dormady is practicing with NFL quarterback Jeff Christensen and Jarrett Guarantano is practicing with George Whitfield Jr.

More good news

The defensive line is healing up quite nicely, thank you.

Shoop thinks that the late addition of graduate transfer Shaq Wiggins is going to make a big difference, and he’s excited about all of his options at linebacker.

Tennessee will be getting its new QBs (and its secondary) a little extra practice by allowing some 7-on-7 drills this summer.

Breaking news

The Vols will not be playing in Dubai.

Hoops

Rick Barnes thinks SEC basketball is ” probably in the best shape it’s been since back in the early 2000s.” John Fulkerson, though, is not yet back from injury.

Miscellaneous fun stuff

We’ve already been over oddsmaker Danny Sheridan saying that he thought Kentucky would beat Tennessee this fall, but this article from 247Sports orders the guy’s quotes in a way I found amusing. Paraphrased: “I was wrong last year. I can confidently say what’s going to happen this year.”

Class of 2020 Receiver Leonard Manuel has committed to Tennessee. Yeah, he’ll be a sophomore in high school this year.

There were nearly 1,000 people at the Big Orange Caravan in Chattanooga Saturday.

VFLs  Chad Clifton, Willie Gault, Haskel Stanback, Graham Vowell, and Al Wilson were all enshrined into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame Saturday.

Here’s a look at the new-look Big Orange Caravan:

 

Post-Spring Projections: Quarterbacks

As we enter what I call the dark days of summer because we’re just weeks removed from spring practice but months away from actual football starting, we’ve got to fill our minds with visions of orange-and-white grandeur to pass the time, right?

That’s why you see esteemed Internet sites like this fill pages with projections, because, really, that’s why you’re here. You want to read about Tennessee athletics, and considering it’s almost as if the Volunteers don’t have a baseball team [or one worth watching, anyway] we’ve got to fill the space with football hopes and dreams.

Spring practice — like most all the springs before of the Butch Jones era — didn’t tell us much. But after what we saw and read, we can make some prognostications about what we may see, or at least expect to see, once fall practice starts. So, over the course of the next couple of weeks, I’m going to break down position-by-position what we saw, what we read and what I’ve heard about to project who’s gonna play where come opening weekend against Georgia Tech.

We’ll start this series at the most important position on the team: Quarterback.

QUARTERBACKS

I saw that half of football. Now, I’m a believer.

There are a lot of folks who want to go out on a limb and make crazy assumptions and logic leaps about the Tennessee quarterback battle following Quinten Dormady’s brilliant 10-of-10 spring game performance where he threw for 120 yards and culminated two scoring drives with touchdown tosses.

That doesn’t diminish anything Jarrett Guarantano did this spring; not in the least. By all accounts, the redshirt freshman who entered the spring as the fan favorite to win the job [even though there’s no indication he’s who the coaches favored] did nothing but help his cause this spring. He may have experienced moments and even days of inconsistency, but his skill set is immense. Guarantano is not as shifty or as brilliant in the open field as Joshua Dobbs, but he arguably has better straight-line speed. Once he realizes when to take off and when to stay put in the pocket, he’s going to be fun to watch.

Guarantano also has next-level arm strength. He probably has the best arm of any Tennessee quarterback since Erik Ainge, and that’s not an exaggeration. The ball literally jumps out of his hand, and though he hasn’t completely harnessed it yet, the “arm talent,” as analysts like to call it, sets him apart from a lot of other players.

The problem with Guarantano is experience. He simply doesn’t have any of it, and when you factor in he missed half of his senior season of high school with an injury, he’s just raw. He’s an elite talent, but he’s not ready to be the starting quarterback yet.

This spring was more about what Dormady showed me than what Guarantano didn’t.

For the 2017 season, the Vols need to start out at least with somebody who has taken some live bullets. Thanks to Dobbs’ incredible durability over the course of the past two seasons, Dormady hasn’t played any meaningful snaps, but he has at least gotten in games. In those games, other than flashing his own great arm strength, he hasn’t done a lot to muster immense excitement. Then again, when you’re used to seeing Dobbs’ magnificence when plays break down, Dormady looked almost statuesque [side note: He’s not]. In actuality, the kid is athletic, he’s got a great arm and he’s been in the film room for two years. That cannot be overstated. This was already his third spring practice at UT, and that gives him an advantage.

When Dormady took the reins in the spring game, he showed that he has the ability to take it up a notch. Now, of course, spring games aren’t real games, and two-hand touch isn’t the best environment for a quarterback to showcase his talent. That’s why nobody is anointing new Auburn quarterback Jarrett Stidham as the first-team All-SEC quarterback. But because of his showing in the A-Day game coupled with how good he looked in limited action while he was at Baylor, there’s justifiable excitement. The same goes for Dormady. It’s the same palpable excitement we all felt when Dobbs was dynamic throwing the ball to Josh Malone three springs ago. We thought, “This kid looks like he can be a great player.” That turned out to be true.

As I’ve already mentioned in articles before, the best thing about the Orange & White Game performance of the 6’4″, 216-pound junior from Boerne, Texas, was not his perfection. It wasn’t his statistics. It was his ball placement on his passes. If he puts the ball in position for his receivers to make plays, that’s the best UT can hope for. The offense won’t look the same without Dobbs’ dual-threat ability, but Dormady has the opportunity to upgrade UT’s passing efficiency considerably. That’s not taking anything away from Dobbs’ dynamite senior season; but Dormady’s differences from Dobbs could actually be assets as UT flips to the Larry Scott era.

Dormady’s leadership could be an asset. With the offensive line expected to be a team strength in 2017 and with the depth new assistant Walt Wells enjoys at the position following the [much needed] ouster of Don Mahoney, the Vols don’t need a quarterback who can run for his life. He shouldn’t have to. John Kelly has proven he can be a very good SEC running back, and though there are depth questions behind him, UT has the talent to outfit the running back position nicely. Tennessee is unproven at the receiver position behind junior Jauan Jennings. So, they need a strong-armed, accurate passer to make them look good.

I’m not saying Dormady is that guy, but he has the ability to be that guy. We saw that flash in the spring game even though it was a small sample set.

So, when it comes to quarterback depth, I’m going to say Dormady is your starter to open the season. If you have to adjust accordingly, that’s OK. It’s also just fine if Guarantano gets in the game in certain situations and if the Vols can balance a two-quarterback system of sorts based on different schemes and defensive looks. But Dormady looked all spring like a starting quarterback, and so he gets the nod, because of experience but also because when the time came to showcase his skills, he took advantage of it. No matter what Jones says publicly, that had to give him the upper-hand.

With Sheriron Jones transferring, that elevates true freshman Will McBride to third-string quarterback behind Guarantano. If the Vols add Adrian Martinez to go along with Michael Penix in the 2018 recruiting class, UT’s quarterback situation could be a strength for a long time to come, even with the Vols striking out on Emory Jones, Trevor Lawrence and Justin Fields.

Prediction: Quentin Dormady starter. Jarrett Guarantano 2nd string. Will McBride 3rd string.

Next: Running Backs

Orange & White Game Becomes Q-School

With Joshua Dobbs heading to the NFL after leading a prolific offense the past couple of years for Tennessee, it’s only natural to want things to stay fairly close to the same.

Why fix something that isn’t broken, after all?

That’s one of the reasons we’ve all heard so much about former stud recruit Jarrett Guarantano this spring. Fans are enamored with his dual-threat ability, live arm and New Jersey swagger. His game is a little bit Dobbs-esque, even if we don’t know how it’ll translate once the games start. The former top-ranked dual-threat quarterback in the country as a 2016 recruit has a lot to offer entering his redshirt freshman year.

All that’s fine and good, but Saturday’s Orange & White Game belonged to junior Quinten Dormady.

The Boerne, Texas, signal-caller was sharp all day in a storm-shortened spring finale, completing 10-of-10 passes for 120 yards and a pair of touchdowns. The first one went to Jauan Jennings, and he followed that up with a perfect pass to the pylon to Eli Wolf on the wheel route for the final scoring strike.

It was as impressive a performance as you could want. Not only was Dormady perfect on the stat sheet, many of his passes were. As dynamic as Dobbs was with the ball in his hands throughout his career, his ball placement wasn’t always the best. On Saturday, Dormady got the ball upfield and put the ball in the ideal place for his playmakers to make the next football move.

Yes, it was only a scrimmage, but Dormady looked terrific. He even nailed the Jauan Jennings Hail Mary Challenge, which was a cool twist on the QB competition that took place, replicating the Dobbs-to-Jennings game-winning touchdown over Georgia last year.

In Guarantano’s defense, he wasn’t bad, either. Also, in an environment that was essentially two-hand touch on the quarterbacks, that’s not the best place for a runner like Guarantano to shine. His big arm was on display a couple of times, but he wasn’t as poised or confident as Dormady. To be frank, one of them looked like he’d seen game action before; the other didn’t. 

Though Dormady has only gotten in games in mop-up duty so far in his career as Dobbs’ backup, game action is important. It helps once the live bullets start flying. Once he got his chance to shine in a semi-game environment as “The Man” Saturday, he looked like he could be a big deal under center for the Vols. 

With new coordinator Larry Scott now at the helm of the offense, it’s going to change at least some. Alvin Kamara is gone, and Preston Williams is, too. Also, no matter who winds up starting for UT in 2017, he probably won’t be as dynamic as Dobbs. So, there’s nothing wrong with a fresh start. 

Dormady may not be anywhere near the runner that Dobbs or even Guarantano are, but he isn’t immobile back there. He’s athletic, and he also possesses an NFL arm. He can make all the throws, and the South Texan didn’t hang around Knoxville to watch from the sideline for another couple of years. He believes he can be the starter, and his play backed that up. He was brilliant.

Listen: One half of a scrimmage [two drives] does not a season make. This competition is nowhere near over, and UT coach Butch Jones said again Saturday there is “no timetable” for naming a starter. To anoint either guy as the winner of the competition to take the season’s first snap right now would be puzzling at best and crippling at worst. What if the other guy is frustrated and transfers? What if the team saw something different and there’s a rift much the way the Rick Clausen-Erik Ainge conundrum went back in the day?

Let them battle through the offseason, through drills, through film sessions, through the weight room and into fall camp. Heck, if you think playing both of them give you the best chance to win come September, do that, too. 

But for one day at least, this was Dormady’s team and Dormady’s show. The Vols have two very capable quarterbacks, and while the junior may be a smidge overlooked in this race because of all the hype surrounding Guarantano, he hasn’t let that phase him a bit. He made all the throws on Saturday, and he has the kind of arm talent that can accomplish that consistently. This type of showing can give him confidence he needs to head into the offseason believing this is his team. When that happens, it can elevate play.

Nobody is anointing Dormady a star or even the starter. That eye-bleeding O&W game format was so difficult to watch that it was mercifully over after a half. Seriously, why take the fun out of a game like that?? Oh well, that’s beside the point. While there wasn’t a whole lot to take away, Dormady’s performance was exciting. With the post-Dobbs era upon us and the worries and wondering about what the offense is going to be like now that such a play-making signal-caller is gone, there was hope in the form of Dormady’s strong arm and poise on Saturday.

It’s enough to make us all want to keep reading about this healthy competition all through the offseason.

Gameday Today: On players becoming bullies and Caravans becoming Corollas

Football

That quarterback competition between Quinten Dormady and Jarrett Guarantano? It’s still a competition and probably will be for much longer than you want it to be. Meanwhile, Trey Smith is looking like he’s well on his way to becoming only the fifth true freshman to start a season opener on the Tennessee offensive line, which by the way, is intentionally conditioning itself to be a bully this season. I am generally anti-bullying thanks to a guy named Brad Smith (maybe not his real name) who will forever be an extremely huge and mean sixth-grader in my mind, but I like my offensive linemen to push people around, and if a little attitude helps them in that task, I am all for it.
 
Oh, look. The Big Orange Caravan is apparently downsizing to a couple of Corollas with car magnets and car flags road tripping to Nashville, Memphis, and Chattanooga with an old school foldable paper map. Tri Cities, y’all are out of luck, and they don’t care how much money you spend at the Strawberry Plains exit every Football Saturday.
 
A bit of good news, that game that Tennessee is supposed to play against Georgia Tech at the new Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta to open the season? It’s going to be held at Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta. And the odds of the retractable roof just outright falling off and squishing both teams in the middle of the second quarter diminishes just a little more every day!
 

NFL Draft

Yeah, Jon Gruden says that Josh Dobbs is a “great sleeper” in this year’s NFL Draft. I don’t think he means that he has great sleep technique, which is something Derek Dooley might have meant. And speaking of Dobbs, Todd McShay thinks he could even sneak into the first round of the NFL Draft. That thing I said about McShay over-thinking things? Never mind. Oh, and Tennessee defensive end Darrell Taylor is getting all crunk just watching all of the attention Derek Barnett is getting.
 

Recruiting

Two of Tennessee’s commitments for the 2018 recruiting class are in the ESPN 300: 4-star offensive tackle Cade Mays and 4-star receiver Alontae Taylor. And in hoops recruiting, wing Yves Pons and power forward Derrick Walker both got bumps in the final Top 247 rankings for the Class of 2017.
 
And finally, the Vols have offered 4-star defensive end Cameron Latu from Salt Lake City.