Junior QB Quinten Dormady reportedly 'contemplating future' with Tennessee
Believe it or not, things can get worse on Rocky Top. According to Jesse Simonton of Volquest, starting quarterback Quinten Dormady is “contemplating” his future with the program.
Just when things looked to be heading in the right direction, too, as Butch Jones stated Monday that the team was coming off one of the best bye weeks of his five-year tenure. No word yet on how this decision will affect Dormady’s accumulation of leadership reps he gained over the previous three seasons in Knoxville.
With Dormady reevaluating things, redshirt freshman Jarrett Guarantano will receive the first start of his college career Saturday at home against South Carolina. Even if Dormady does leave the team, Guarantano appeared poised to start the game vs. the Gamecocks anyway this week.
BREAKING: Jarrett Guarantano will make his first-career start vs. South Carolina, Quinten Dormady now contemplating future at Tennessee.
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— Jesse Simonton (@JesseReSimonton) October 10, 2017
After backing up Joshua Dobbs the last two seasons, Dormady had started all five games for Tennessee this season. During that time, the junior threw for 925 yards, six touchdowns and six interceptions. He currently leads the SEC in individual turnovers.
The highlight of his career, and Tennessee’s 2017 campaign thus far, was the comeback he engineered against Georgia Tech in the opener. Down 14 in the fourth quarter to the Yellow Jackets, the Volunteer offense scored two touchdowns and looked unstoppable in overtime. The Vols won the game in double overtime.
Of course, this wouldn’t be the first time a player has quit on Butch Jones and Tennessee midseason, as starting running back Jalen Hurd famously did the same thing last season following a tough 24-21 loss at South Carolina.
Something about South Carolina week must bring out the quit in Tennessee.
It blows me away to see these successful mid level coaches leave a sweet gig to go to a big program and get ridiculed to death then get fired. Butch is just the last statistic who should have stayed where he was ,enjoy his success make a bunch of money and ride off into the sunset.
Jimmy Cheek and Dave Hart own this. Hell lets go hire a high school coach.
I mean let’s be real here. Dormandy probably isn’t all that great. However, if you sat behind Dobbs for who knows how long, finally get your chance to start and then suddenly all you’re hearing is how much your fanbase wants Guarantano to start instead of you and that your head coach is in a world of hot water mostly because of you…
Did anyone expect him to NOT reconsider? My ass would be out of town too, no 20 year old football player needs to have that kind of pressure on his head.
If you play bad you get the hook. That’s just the facts. Everywhere not just UT. If u think you can start somewhere else then most do the same thing. Jawja will be dealing with that soon but for very different reasons. Good reasons if your a dawg.
He didn’t get the start…so he is ready to throw in the towel? That is the attitude that is plaguing this team. QB is not an entitled position. Be there for your team, work hard to win your job back, don’t be a quitter when times get tough. I am excited to see this change and to see how the team responds. I am not ready for Butch to leave yet…this is the change I was hoping for. Dormandy has had sparks but no yet a flame. I hope Guarantano rises to the occasion and fills in as the leader this team needs.
I stopped reading when you said “I’m not ready for Butch to leave yet”. I was ready for him to leave at the beginning of last year. It’s way past his time to go.
Yep exactly. My thing is, go all the way back to Pig Howard. Something Jones is doing is causing all these players to leave. How can you replace Dormandy with JG? JG did everything but pout during the GT game. Did everyone see him sitting by himself? JG has done nothing in games. I dont blame Dormamdy just like Hurd. Eventually it will come out what happened between Hurd and Jones. There is a riff in the team and IMP Jones has lost the team. Remember when Dooley lost it. The team gave up. I feel Saturdays game will be just like Georgia. All the true Tennessee fans wanting another year from Jones either dont live in Tennessee or jumped on the bandwagon and do not Tennessee football.
I heard a rumor that a few of these “injuries” we’ve had this year weren’t actual injuries.. They were cover-ups for other issues. Similar to Hurd’s “injury” last year.
Go back to Pig Howard, North, Hurd, and so on. Theh where not injured. I believe Jones ego butted heads with those players that left IMO. It will all come out.
I’ve seen us go down the coaching road so many times. It is frustrating to be here again. If we lose to SC or Vandy or Kentucky or LSU, sure…let’s go down that road again. At this point though, I am curious to see the team under a different QB, and just see if JQ can build some momentum as starter. I hope he succeeds and we can finish strong. I am not Writing Dormandy off, but let’s give him time to get his mind right after Georgia and UMass. Maybe there is turmoil and he is just thinking about his future…but I want to see players start thinking about the teams future. Last year, Hurd left…Kamara more than picked up the slack and is gonna be a force in the NFL. Now Kelly and Chandler are doing really well. Team Chemistry and Leadership from players…that’s all I’m saying.
We are here AGAIN because of past ADs and trustees at UT screwing up good hires. This has nothing to do with players or fans. Bama went thru same 10 year period. If fans are satisfied with lack of coaching and player development, then Tennessee will be the new Vandy. Plain and simple.
A word of caution: Dormady may be contemplating a transfer for reasons other than the possibility that Guarantano may move ahead of him on the depth chart. One could be the abysmal performance so far of the Vols offensive line, which to date has rarely provided the QB with adequate protection. Another could be a loss of confidence in Jones, whose program is in tatters and with little relief in sight. Can’t be sure, if course, but Dormady does not appear a prima donna to me, nor a selfish player. He simply may be disgusted with the chaos and incoherence he sees around him….and who could blame him?
I believe thats what is going on. Jones is starting JG in fear of his job. Well Jones lost his job way before all of this. I personally feel Jones has an ego problem. I believe he belittles his players and causes friction amoung them. Jones is not digging this hole with a shovel, but with a backhoe right now. I firmly believe hardly any of his players trust or believe in him.
Sumlin was able to cause enough turmoil a 2-3 years ago to drive off three 5 star QB’s, 2 within 5 days of each other. The locker room is a hard thing for some coaches to manage, and dynamics are strange. Just when you think the guy can’t manage a QB, he finds a high school guy with not really fantastic numbers, recognizes potential, and that 18 year old faced is showing incredible improvement game to game……. just sayin’, locker rooms and QB issues are probably linked more than just getting reps. Agree with Bamajama, most likely more stuff going on. Turmoil like this is not good for any team.
Which I will add that Jones didnt start rebuilding the o-line until his 2nd year. Instead of going to the JUCO ranks to shore up and depleated o-line, he just went with what he had. Tennessee is still feeling the effects of that kind of thinking and coaching after 5 years. Just dumb decisions like that ,bad cosching, and very little player development.
OldArmy and bryanchip with their comments below are right on point, and collectively sum up the problem. If this season were a “one off” with Butch and the terrible things happening were relatively out of his control, well, that would be one thing. But his entire tenure at UT has been characterized by one preventable blunder after another – in planning, managing, and coaching. Either he’s too stubborn to self-correct or he simply doesn’t possess the skill set necessary to be effective at the highest level. Either way, he’s been in Knoxville too long for people to continue to try to explain away his deficiencies or make excuses for his subpar performance. Losing to Georgia 41-0 at home in 2013? Well, OK, you’re new and still rebuilding the program. But in 2017, five years in?