At this point, it does appear that Butch Jones is sticking with Quinten Dormady as his starter, and that’s one of the few things he’s doing right. Dormady made a few mistakes for the Vols against the Florida Gators.
But the coaches never should have put him in certain positions. He’s the guy for Tennessee football this year and the one who can potentially save Jones’s job.
Going into Saturday’s game, Dormady will need to do something he hasn’t done all year, though: make the plays early.
Again, Tennessee starters need rest, desperately. That means Dormady needs to torch UMass early and often to help lead the main guys to the bench. As we already said, this is a terrible UMass team that should not even be able to hang with the Vols for a half.
However, with their 0-4 record, they have been okay defending the pass at times. The defense is not as atrocious as it should look given that record.
So this isn’t like playing air for Dormady. He’s going to have to focus a little bit and make a few key plays.
But UMass overall should still be no match for this Tennessee football offense or what Dormady could do. As a result, he needs to find Marquez Callaway and Ethan Wolf early to put this team away with some big plays.
And if he can do that, the Vols can get everybody out of the game by halftime so they can prepare for the Georgia Bulldogs.