Quinten Dormady Shines in Shortened Orange & White Game

A severe thunderstorm warning canceled the second half of the Orange and White Game, but not before Quinten Dormady made his case to be the favorite at quarterback this fall.

The Vol junior got the first reps and made the most of them: 10-for-10 for 120 yards and two touchdowns. Dormady looked especially dialed in with Jauan Jennings and both Wolf brothers (the Wolves?) at tight end. He connected with Jennings on a short touchdown pass in one-on-one coverage, then tear-dropped one to Eli Wolf from 19 yards away for his second score. It’s just a scrimmage and we didn’t see anything deeper than that from him, but you can’t complain about no incompletions on 12 yards per attempt.

Kyle Phillips and Jonathan Kongbo were out, but Darrell Taylor didn’t do anything to make you think he won’t be part of the solution at defensive end with two sacks, even in the spring game. In a sideline interview defensive backs coach Charlton Warren directly praised Justin Martin and Nigel Warrior for their efforts this spring as well. And Trey Smith did get some reps with the first team offensive line.

From here, it’s a long wait to see if all these new faces can produce a better result than the pair of 9-4’s their predecessors delivered. The Vols will still be searching for answers at number two wide receiver, which linebackers will emerge next to Darrin Kirkland, and which group of five it’ll be in the secondary. But if the answer at quarterback is indeed Dormady and not Jarrett Guarantano - 4-of-5 for 41 yards and one should’ve-been-picked - today was some solid evidence to support that case in the face of Guarantano’s superior recruiting rankings. We’ll see where it goes from here, but today couldn’t have been better for Quinten Dormady.