KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee knew this day was coming. And the Volunteers prepared for Josh Dobbs’ graduation and departure to the NFL as best they could.

Now, four months and 15 spring practices into the post-Dobbs era, the reality of the quarterback battle between Quinten Dormady and Jarrett Guarantano is now into the important stage with only three months remaining until fall camp.

Summer workouts are all that remain until fall camp kicks off with the biggest UT quarterback battle since 2004 when Erik Ainge and Brent Schaeffer began their careers essentially as co-starters, in pursuit of replacing Casey Clausen.

Throughout spring practices, Butch Jones and his staff have talked well about the quarterbacks and the Orange and White spring game showed that both signal-callers are competing and getting better.

Spring stats won’t determine the starter, but Dormady was a perfect 10-for-10 passing, throwing for 121 yards and two touchdowns. “That’s always the goal,” the junior quarterback said following his spring game performance. “To complete every ball and score points, I think we did a good job of that today.

“I’m confident in my abilities. Like I’ve said all spring, just go out and compete, have fun and everything will workout in the end.”

His counterpart, Guarantano, played well, too. He completed 4 of 5 passes for 41 yards, and did not throw any touchdowns or interceptions.

“I think we all had a pretty good day,” the redshirt freshman said. “I don’t know what the stats were, but I know Quinten did really well.

“I think this spring was a great learning experience for me. There were definitely a lot of new things that I didn’t get a chance to run and get done last year. So it was good learning reps and also good repetition with just going with the first and second team on times. Going into the summer, the focus is just to continue to get better, continue to work with film study, and just try to get live reps and reps on air and all those types of things.”

With any quarterback battle, the most-oft asked question after “Who will win the job?” is when will it be decided?

For Jones, “there’s no time-frame.”

“I don’t ever believe that you give yourself a set time when you have to name a starting quarterback,” Jones said. “I want them to compete. I think competition is extremely healthy, and I think they’ve all elevated their games because of that competition. I want them to compete, we have no timetable.

“I was really pleased with the way they performed. But, again, there’s no timetable.”

Quarterbacks in the run-game

Jones’ offense has been successful when he has had a quarterback who can also be effective on the ground.

Dormady and Guarantano have provided examples that they are efficient in the passing game, but what about as a dual-threat, too, on the ground?

For Guarantano, as the 2016 nation’s No. 1 dual-threat quarterback (247Sports Composite), his running presence is no secret. Even though spring rules prevented fans from seeing all he has to offer during the spring game.

“We didn’t really have any quarterback run game, we didn’t have any of that, we had short whistles,” he said. “We had different things that I’m able to do, extend plays that I wasn’t able to do today.”

On the flip side, with Dormady there is a perception of the junior quarterback not having a running presence. Dormady said he “definitely” is aware of that reputation.

But he didn’t necessarily agree with it.

“I don’t think I get much credit for being athletic, I don’t know why,” he said. “But I think I’ve proven I can move the ball however it needs to be moved. So I think I am more athletic than people believe.”

Will he get the chance to show fans in September? Or will it be Guarantano? Stay tuned.