Tennessee football: John Kelly suggests Vols know their starting QB
Tennessee football running back John Kelly suggested that the Volunteers already know who the starting quarterback is going to be for the 2017 season.
Related Story: 4 reasons Quinten Dormady should be Vols starting QB
Do Butch Jones and the offensive coaches already know who the Tennessee football starting quarterback will be? They haven’t named anybody yet. But a hint came out that suggests they have already picked the guy.
According to Patrick Brown of GoVols247, junior running back John Kelly seemed to suggest the Vols have their guy in an interview Friday. Kelly, the feature back, is probably very close to the situation.
After all, the guy is going to be next to the quarterback the whole year. Here’s his exact quote, according to the article.
"“I mean, we know who’s going to be the starting quarterback,” he added, “but it’s going to be a good one.”"
That certainly sounds like he knows who the guy is going to be. And it contradicts what Jones, Larry Scott and Mike Canales have been saying.
Of course, Kelly didn’t say exactly which quarterback will be Josh Dobbs’s replacement. He could be referring to Quinten Dormady, Jarrett Guarantano or even Will McBride.
Either way, if this is true, it should come as no shock to anybody. We said in this post why Jones would be making the right decision to wait to name a starter, even if he knows who it will be.
Doing such a thing keeps opponents on their heels and defenses guessing. On top of that, Paul Johnson is doing the same thing with the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.
An article by Ken Sugiura in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution said that Johnson has his replacement for Justin Thomas, but he’s not going to name him. If he’s going to try to get that advantage, why shouldn’t Jones do the same thing?
At the same time, Jones could carry that into the Florida game since the Indiana State Sycamores follow Georgia Tech.
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As a result, we tend to believe Kelly in what he’s saying about Tennessee. It’s likely the Vols have had their starting quarterback for a while. But the Tennessee football coaches have enough intelligence not to say anything at this point.