On Monday, Tennessee’s quarterback room got a little less crowded.
Rising senior Quinten Dormady announced on Twitter that he is planning to transfer from the Vols and play out his final year of eligibility at another school. He is currently recovering from a shoulder injury that occurred last year.
“I am excited as I look to the future and toward a great opportunity,” Dormady wrote in the post. “I am making great progress every day with the help of my family, my friends and doctors. I want to thank everyone for their support through rehab.
“My goal is to work my way back to the game as a post-graduate quarterback – stronger, sharper, ready to compete and be a good teammate. That is my single focus at the moment.”
While the decision was expected by multiple fans and analysts, considering that Dormady was benched for then-redshirt freshman Jarrett Guarantano halfway through the 2017 season, it still leaves a lot of questions to be answered.
Many of those questions center around which player will start at signal caller for the Vols in 2018, but the quandary of Dormady’s actual impact on Tennessee is still up for debate.
Dormady served as the backup to Josh Dobbs for two seasons, making several appearances in blowout games. His potential as an accurate pocket-passer excited many Vols fans in the short time that he saw the field.
Dormady won the starting quarterback position during the 2017 preseason, beating out athletically-hyped Guarantano. He struggled in the first half of the season opener against Georgia Tech but caught fire in the second, leading the Vols to a 42-41 overtime victory while throwing for 221 yards and two touchdowns.
But the rest of Dormady’s starting stretch wasn’t kind to the Texas native. The Vols’ offense struggled in a 20-26 loss to Florida, barely outscored UMass and was shut out by Georgia. He was benched six games into the season after throwing for six touchdowns and six interceptions.
After serving as the backup to Guarantano for several games, Dormady’s season was ultimately ended due to shoulder surgery. Left with only one year of eligibility and without a sure chance of getting on the field in 2018, Dormady finally announced his intentions to transfer out of the program.
Dormady finished his career at Tennessee with 1,282 passing yards, seven touchdowns and six interceptions. He also carried the ball 22 times for 21 yards, including a long rush of 13 yards.
He was arguably more of an explosive passer than Guarantano last season, throwing for two more touchdowns, but Guarantano’s ability to avoid forcing turnovers allowed him to keep the job once it was given to him. He threw four fewer interceptions than Dormady.
Dormady’s second-half heroics may have saved the Vols from a season-opening loss in Atlanta, but the offense’s inability to move the ball while he was the starting quarterback hurt his reputation as Tennessee’s answer at that position.
With Dormady now out of the picture in regard to the Vols’ depth chart, head coach Jeremy Pruitt will have to evaluate his current crop talent at quarterback and decide which player will start when the Vols face West Virginia at Bank of America Stadium on Sept. 1.
“I think the biggest thing is — you kind of look at roster management and where did the season end?” Pruitt said during a press conference on Dec. 10. “To me, it’s really based off numbers, not exactly the quality at the numbers. To me, it’s about the numbers that you have at the position so you can make it through spring ball.”
