Five observations from the Orange and White Game on Saturday, where the Orange (defense) pulled out the 70-63 victory.
Passing Game Progress: The options were limited as the Vols dressed just three scholarship wide receivers (Preston Williams, Cody Blanc and Jeff George) and had some other injuries coming into the game at quarterback and offensive line, but Joshua Dobbs and Quinten Dormady still found a way to make some plays down the field. Dobbs (5-of-9 for 116 yards) hit Ethan Wolf for a 57-yard gain and followed that up with a perfectly-placed lob to Preston Williams for 22 yards to set up the first touchdown for the offense.
Quinten Dormady (10-of-15 for 95 yards, TD) also had a good day throwing the football and even pulled it down one time for a 17-yard gain on the ground.
“I thought we threw the ball fairly well today,” Butch Jones said. “We’ve had too many drops. I don’t look at completion percentage, that’s a lying stat…I don’t look at that, I look at pass efficiency – are we doing the right things, are the quarterbacks making good decisions with the football? I thought the quarterbacks were able to do that.”
Quart’e Sapp steps up on defense: Linebacker Quart’e Sapp was one of the standouts of the spring over the past few weeks as he got extra reps with Jalen Reeves-Maybin out with an injury.
Sapp ended spring with a bang, leading the Vols with nine tackles on Saturday during the Orange and White Game with eight of them being solo and one behind the line of scrimmage.
“The game started to slow down for him in the last week and a half,” Jones said of Sapp. “I’ve been very pleased with his development.”
Kelly carries the run game: Jalen Hurd and Alvin Kamara combined for just 13 carries, and mostly weren’t “live” during Saturday’s Orange and White Game. That left sophomore John Kelly to carry the load in the run game, and just as he has for much of the spring, he delivered, leading the Vols in every rushing category with 15 carries for 65 yards (4.3 ypc) and a touchdown .
“Again, the volume of reps is how you learn, and having him being able to get the valuable reps not just running, but in pass protection and route running,” Jones said. “Towards the end of the year we felt very comfortable having him in the game, and he’s an individual who loves football….You can see him getting better and better and better.”
Surprise dud: There was a lot of anticipation throughout the week when Butch Jones said that there would be a couple surprises during the Orange and White Game – one coming at the end of the quarterback competition and the other in the form of an announcement at halftime.
Fans left fairly disappointed by that element. The surprise announcement was the implementation of permanent captains for the 2016 season: Alvin Kamara, Jalen Reeves-Maybin, Cam Sutton and Joshua Dobbs. It’s the first time that Jones has named permanent captains at UT, going with rotating captains in the past.
The QB Challenge ended with a reenactment of one of Peyton Manning’s great throws from the 1996 Georgia game. It looked like they planned at some point on Manning being in the building, but it didn’t work out. Backups Quinten Dormady and Zac Jancek tied for the win in the QB competition after both made that final throw. Joshua Dobbs, who was in the lead, missed the final throw.
The Vols did have an impressive announced crowd of 67,027 – good for the third-largest Orange and White Game in UT history. Four of the top five attendance figures have come during Jones’ tenure at UT. They might’ve been a touch generous on the crowd estimate, but it was a nice crowd none the less.
Injuries: Jones said 24 total players sat out due to injury. Receiver Josh Smith, who Jones said earlier in the week should be back, didn’t go on Saturday, leaving the Vols especially thin at wide receiver.
Jones said there would’ve been some years where they couldn’t have held a spring game due to the quantity of injuries.
Tennessee did appear to get out of the game relatively unscathed in terms of new injuries. Right tackle Brett Kendrick went down on a 4th-and-goal from the 1 situation and limped off the field, but Jones said it looked like a sprained ankle at this point and nothing more serious than that.
Final stats: pic.twitter.com/4au1ZSN6s5
— Rocky Top Insider (@rockytopinsider) April 16, 2016
One Response
Hey Daniel, my name is David Frank, and yesterday when we were leaving the stadium Coach Majors was standing outside on Peyton Manning Pass all alone and what seemed to me, a little lost. Although he was gracious to have his picture with few fans, when I left, he pretty much was looking overwhelmed. Do you know what he was doing out there by himself? Seems like he would have people with him.
Thanks, David