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Tennessee Football: First Day of Spring Practice Signals that Quarterback Battle is Really Only a Two-Man Race

By Caleb Calhoun

Nov 14, 2015; Knoxville, TN, USA; Tennessee Volunteers quarterback Quinten Dormady (12) drops back to pass against the North Texas Mean Green during the second half at Neyland Stadium. Tennessee won 24 to 0. Mandatory Credit: Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 14, 2015; Knoxville, TN, USA; Tennessee Volunteers quarterback Quinten Dormady (12) drops back to pass against the North Texas Mean Green during the second half at Neyland Stadium. Tennessee won 24 to 0. Mandatory Credit: Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports /
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Tennessee football’s first day of Spring Practice sent a signal that the Volunteers quarterback race is just between Jarrett Guarantano and Quinten Dormady.

Going into the 2017 season, the Tennessee football quarterback battle to replace Joshua Dobbs always seemed to come down to Jarrett Guarantano and Quinten Dormady.

But the conventional wisdom was that all the quarterbacks on the roster would have a chance to compete for the job.

That includes redshirt sophomore Sheriron Jones, who was also a four-star recruit and actually threw more passes last year than Guarantano, and true freshman early enrollee Will McBride.

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Oh, and there’s walk-on Zac Jancek. So there are five quarterbacks on the roster.

However, after the first day of Spring Practice, Butch Jones’s moves signal that the race truly is down to just Dormady and Guarantano.

Jones sent both quarterbacks to talk to the media on Monday after practice. Those two answered questions along with Emmanuel Moseley and Jashon Robertson.

Maybe we’re reading too much into this, but sending those two quarterbacks to talk to the media should send a clear signal that Jones has tabbed them as the frontrunners for the starting position just like the rest of Vol Nation.

And that appears to leave Jones behind.

McBride and Jancek being left behind is not a huge surprise.

Still, you would think that Jones would go in giving everybody the same look. And maybe he is. But this move hints that we should only be focusing on Dormady and Guarantano for now.

Click here for the video of the players.

Butch Jones, of course, gave nothing to hint at this. He just complimented their approach and gave standard coach talk.

Obviously nobody is even close to winning the job after the first day of practice. But we learned a bit more with this move than we knew the day before.

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