Tennessee football’s five most concerning signs from 2022 spring practice

3. The race for No. 2 quarterback had no clear standout.

On paper, this may seem to contradict a positive that was mentioned surrounding Tennessee football’s spring practice. True freshman Tayven Jackson looked deadly accurate in the open scrimmage, going 11-of-13, and all signs pointed to Joe Milton III’s accuracy improving. He had a beautiful deep-ball for a touchdown in the open scrimmage.

However, it was clear that nobody really stood out to Josh Heupel and his staff. There were talks of Jackson playing better later in the spring, but there were no talks of a specific standout performer who surprised the coaching staff. Make no mistake, this is a concern.

Hendon Hooker uses his mobility as much as his arm, and he’s definitely prone to injuries. He was knocked out of two games last year due to injury, so it’s likely that Heupel and Alex Golesh will have to call on a backup quarterback at some point during the season.

Navy Shuler was awful in the spring game and never got a shoutout during the spring. The race is clearly down to Milton and Jackson but neither standing out is a concern. There was no talk of Jackson wowing the coaches with how ahead of the curve he is, and there was no talk of Milton dramatically improving. As a result, if somebody won the race, it was by default.