Tennessee football: White dominates Orange in Vols 2019 spring game
Tennessee football’s 2019 Orange and White game saw a 28-10 blowout win for the Volunteers in White, which had the first-team offense.
After a defensive struggle early on, Tennessee football saw some sparks fly with its starting quarterback in the Vols’ spring game. That resulted in the White beating the Orange 28-10 to close out Jeremy Pruitt’s second spring practice.
Jarrett Guarantano threw for four touchdowns and had no interceptions. He wasn’t highly efficient, completing only 19-0f 37 passes for 198 yards, and he missed an easy deep touchdown pass to Josh Palmer at one point. But he didn’t make too many mistakes.
Meanwhile, he hit a few big plays, including one to Marquez Callaway over the middle to set up the first touchdown. Those big plays were enough for him to be named spring game MVP. Josh Palmer earned most improved player on offense for spring practice, and Daniel Bituli earned most improved defensive player.
Early on, in a defensive struggle, he was sacked by Matthew Butler and Nigel Warrior separately and struggled to get things going under Jim Chaney’s offense. But Brian Maurer, on the other side, led the Orange to a 3-0 lead off a no-huddle drive. That was enough of a spark to get Guarantano going.
He had touchdowns passes to Dominick Wood-Anderson, Jauan Jennings on a fade route, and Josh Palmer over the middle with no time on the clock at the end of the first half to give the Orange a 21-3 lead.
They held on in the second half and extended the lead to 28-3 after Guarantano hit Jennings for their second TD connection of the day late in the fourth quarter. The Orange closed out the scoring on a drive that finished with JT Shrout hitting tight end James Brown for a touchdown to cut the score to 28-10.
Despite the first-team offense getting the win, Tennessee football’s spring game was all about the defense. The White scored 14 of their points off of interceptions from newcomer Jaylen McCullough, who started for the second-team defense.
Overall, the second-team defense held the Orange to 10 points and forced three turnovers. Meanwhile, the first-team defense only allowed 14 real points from the offense. Palmer got banged up late but was able to get up, so he should be fine.
There wasn’t much in the running game on either side, and the trenches played roughly to a draw, a shock given how ahead of the defensive line the offensive line was throughout the spring. But, to be fair, part of that was due to the numerous blitz packages Derrick Ansley saw,
In the end, it’s hard to gauge exactly where Tennessee football stands after this spring game, but there were some notable standout plays, and to nobody’s surprise, the receivers stepped up. What happens in Fall camp when the newcomers arrive could change everything.