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football Edit

The quarterback race post-spring

Spring practice is over at Tennessee as coaches are hitting the recruiting road. This week we look back at the Vols spring drills. Today we look at the position everyone is talking about – the quarterbacks.

JESSE'S VIEW

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To me it’s rather simple: Quinten Dormady exceeded expectations this spring, but outside of overwhelmingly outperforming Jarrett Guarantano (which he didn’t do) he was never going to win the job in April. Nobody was.

Perhaps that’s not fair, but Dormady wasn’t going to lose the job with just an ok spring, either.

Ultimately, it’s not a surprise that a smart kid with a big arm would perform well in his third spring. Dormady clearly has a good command of the offense and his steadiness — from Day 1 to Day 15 — has put real pressure on Guarantano. Tennessee’s junior played confidently on Saturday and his touchdown throw to Eli Wolf was a dime.

Throughout the spring, Dormady leaned and excelled on his strengths. He stayed within himself. If his footwork and leadership improve, he could legitimately be Tennessee’s next starting quarterback.

Still, it’s just April.

The case for Dormady is easier because he looks like the safer option and his floor is higher than Guarantano’s, but the Vols have the luxury of determining this summer if Guarantano’s flash and talent is too much to pass up. The tools are clearly there.

The redshirt freshman must improve his field awareness (a difficult proposition over the summer) and continue to learn the offense. How they both handle the leadership responsibilities and make sure there's no divide on the team will be very important, too.

It's going to be a long an interesting summer in Knoxville.

AUSTIN'S VIEW

There is no question that Quinten Dormady had a great spring. From the first day, he has carried himself like a veteran who is ready to run the offense. He's been cool, calm, collected and frankly just impressive. The tough part for Dormady is the fact they were never naming a starter coming out of spring. As for Jarrett Guarantano, he's been good, but it's clear to see that he doesn't process things as fast and that's due to the fact it's his first spring versus the third for Dormady. He's shown plenty of promise and if the game slows down for him between now and August then it's going to get interesting. You can't simulate a game playing two hand touch and that clearly takes Guarantano's skill set away with his legs.

Go back to Saturday, when Dormady got two very easy confidence building throws with the first unit to begin his drive. Whereas, Guarantano ran on the first two plays with the second team and had a walk-on receiver fall and fail to get out of his break on his first throw. The coaches know that and they are very aware of the overreaction to Dormady's perfect spring performance. It's far from over, but the Texas native has been really good and at this point has a small leg up in the race.

ROB'S VIEW

Butch Jones kept the lid on tight when it came to the quarterback battle, at least insofar as we didn’t get to see a lot of live work. Some days we didn’t even see them throwing balls to wideouts during open periods of practice.

Nevertheless, word kept leaking out that Quinten Dormady was quietly having himself a very solid spring. That was on display for everyone to see in the abbreviated Orange & White game when Dormady went a sizzling 10-for-10 for 120 yards and tossed a pair of touchdown passes on his only two drives of the game. His day was highlighted by a pair of wheel routes to tight ends in the red zone that were pure perfection in terms of touch and accuracy, one that went a score to Eli Wolf and another to his brother Ethan that put the ball on the goal line.

In short, Dormady looked as sharp as possible in that setting last Saturday, but it’s dangerous to place too much emphasis on one outing in those kind of controlled conditions. It’s hard to think that Dormady isn’t exiting spring practice with at least a slight edge but it also doesn’t seem like Butch Jones is any hurry to declare this battle over.

As for Jarret Guarantano, I probably put too many expectations on him this spring. I still think his ceiling is higher than Dormady’s, but I think I underestimated how much of an advantage two years in the program and actually having gotten some live game reps would be for Dormady.

Guarantano hasn’t been in college for a calendar year yet and it’s also worth remembering that as the third string guy last fall, he got few meaningful practice reps once the season was underway.

I think his eyes got opened a little bit this spring by just how much he had to learn and the level he needs to play at to win this job. He’s undoubtedly a competitor though, and I would be surprised if he didn’t make some real strides in the summer and make this quarterback battle an intense situation once camp starts in August.

BRENT'S VIEW

I agree with Rob in that I probably didn't give Quinten Dormady enough credit for the experience he has. Dormady's experience showed up throughout the spring. He carried himself as a veteran. He was consistent and had his best 15 days of work since arriving at Tennessee.

Now that doesn't mean Jarrett Guarantano's spring was bad because it wasn't. Again, I agree with Rob is that the expectations for him were probably too high. He hasn't been on campus for a year yet and this spring was a new experience and had some good learning lessons for him. Guarantano's talents are undeniable and he has tremendous upside.

The next step for Guarantano is for the game to slow down a bit. How do you slow the game down in the summer when there are no practices or scrimmages? I'm not sure how but that's his next step.

As for Dormady it's about continuing with his consistency and it's about continuing to improve his athletic ability.

Collectively, what's going to be most interesting to watch is whether or not anyone emerges as a leader or if players gravitate to one quarterback over the other.

That could be the biggest factor in who wins the quarterback race in August.

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