KNOXVILLE — Four games into the 2017 season and it appears that Quinten Dormady is the starting quarterback going forward for Team 121.

Dormady has struggled on the field, going 71-for-121 for 861 yards with six touchdowns and four interceptions, but the biggest part of his game that needs to be corrected is his leadership.

He needs to become more vocal and take command of the locker room.

Tennessee lacked passion and energy in its last game against winless UMass, prevailing 17-13.

In order for Tennessee to have any kind of chance in its upcoming game against No. 7 Georgia at Neyland Stadium, Dormady needs to strike passion into his teammates and take command of the offense.

For a starting point, he understands that improvement needs to take place.

“As a whole, we didn’t play up to our standard, and we’ll get that fixed,” he said this week.

Dormady is taking notice of the lack of passion from his teammates and is calling for “more energy from the start” of the game.

The junior quarterback, who is set to make his fifth career start, mentioned that there are a lot of factors playing into the lack energy to kick off games.

“Each drive is different,” he said. “There is penalties in there, there is turnovers, things of that nature. Having a turnover in the second drive of the game on my part, kills the energy.

“That is probably part of the reason we didn’t have much energy going forward throughout that (UMass) game. I think that is probably the biggest thing, is my turnovers, and then penalties throughout the drive that puts you behind the chains.”

Butch Jones eventually turned to redshirt freshman Jarrett Guarantano with under 3 minutes remaining in the third quarter as the offense could not make a difference on the scoreboard.

“We weren’t playing up to our standard,” Dormady said of being replaced by Guarantano. “We didn’t have enough energy and were kind of flat. That was Coach’s decision. I am here to win games, and whatever the coaches think is the best decision, I will go with that.”

Still an identity has to be formed for the Vols to make any improvements offensively.

Offensive coordinator Larry Scott said he wants “to play to our style of play, all of the time, no matter what that is.”

The problem is that through four games, it is unclear what the style of play is to the Tennessee offense. One thing is certain, running back John Kelly is the focal point. But the offensive line must get better to handle upcoming SEC defensive lines.

“We want to by physical,” Scott said leading up to the showdown with Georgia. “We want to run the ball and find ways to run the ball. I don’t care how creative we have to be to do that,” Scott said.

Do not count out wildcat packages to help create a spark.

The first-year offensive coordinator said he understands in the SEC that you have “to line up and be able to run the football.”

But he also understands to be successful in the conference that you have to be productive by stretching the field and keeping defenses honest.

That is something Dormady will need to improve on.

“When you have to throw it, when the defense dictates that, we want to be able to have guys that can go make plays in the passing game,” Scott said. “Identity is really style of play. We want to represent a brand of football that is just tough. No matter what that is, we want to have a certain level of toughness with that.

“Offensive football is about moving the football and finding ways to move the football and put the ball in the end zone and get first downs. That’s what we want to do on offense. We figure that out each and every week.”

In order to stretch the field with the passing game, Dormady will need to get in a flow and rhythm with his receivers.

“As far as receivers go, Brandon (Johnson) obviously had an outstanding (UMass) game, and I think we are continuing to improve as far as our rhythm and timing goes,” Dormady said. “That’s always good, but we didn’t play up to our standard. I have been having too many turnovers, and that’s something I need to fix going forward.”