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Tennessee football 2022 preview by position: QB

By Caleb Calhoun

Tennessee quarterback Tayven Jackson (10) takes a drink during Tennessee football spring practice at Haslam Field in Knoxville, Tenn. on Tuesday, April 5, 2022.Kns Ut Spring Fball 10
Tennessee quarterback Tayven Jackson (10) takes a drink during Tennessee football spring practice at Haslam Field in Knoxville, Tenn. on Tuesday, April 5, 2022.Kns Ut Spring Fball 10 /
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A huge reason for the optimism surrounding Tennessee football entering the 2022 season is who they have coming back at quarterback. If you’ve got an advantage at quarterback, it can overcome numerous limitations elsewhere, and the Vols have a quarterback guru leading the program in head coach Josh Heupel.

Rocky Top returns another quarterback who actually started the season last year. It also added multiple transfers and a highly touted recruit, so the depth combined with what’s at the top has generated a lot of hype behind the position entering this season.

As we get set to analyze the signal-callers at UT heading into the season, we’ll take into account what all of them can bring to the table. Slides are separated by who is gone, which starters are back, which backups are back, newcomers and biggest questions to close things out. This is our preview of Tennessee football’s quarterbacks for 2022.

Tennessee Head Coach Josh Heupel during a game at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tenn. on Thursday, Sept. 2, 2021.Kns Tennessee Bowling Green Football
Tennessee Head Coach Josh Heupel during a game at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tenn. on Thursday, Sept. 2, 2021.Kns Tennessee Bowling Green Football /

Who’s gone: Nobody on scholarship

Sully McDermott and Spencer Smith were walk-ons in the program last year, and neither is listed on this year’s roster. With the question about their status with the Vols up in the air, it’s hard to say definitively if anybody with the program is gone. However, they haven’t played any snaps since arriving on Rocky Top and weren’t going to.

Because of that, we’re just noting right now that nobody on scholarship is gone, and it’s pretty obviously no starter is gone, as both players to start games last year with the Vols are back. When you return a high-profile quarterback, you bring a lot of hype to the table.

Of course, in the middle of last season Tennessee football lost Harrison Bailey, and they lost Brian Maurer around fall camp. Both were in the race to start and entered the transfer portal when it became clear they wouldn’t win the job. You could technically count Bailey as a loss since he didn’t take any snaps last year, but nobody outside of that is gone.

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