It’s not often a team loses commitments from two quarterbacks in one day. But that’s just what happened to Tennessee on Wednesday.
The Vols had two quarterbacks committed in their 2018 class on Wednesday morning. But by the time dinner time was happening on the east coast, the Vols no longer had a single quarterback with a pledge to them in the class.
Three-star quarterback Michael Penix took to Twitter to announce that he was decommitting from Tennessee. Then just a few hours after that, four-star quarterback Adrian Martinez flipped his commitment from the Vols to Nebraska.
Penix is the No. 530 overall player in the country and the 20th-ranked pro-style quarterback in the 2018 class according to 247Sports. Martinez is the No. 142 overall player in the nation and the No. 8 dual-threat quarterback in the country.
The two decommitments leave Tennessee with just 10 commitments in their 2018 class. Tennessee did get some good news earlier in the day when four-star, in-state athlete Alontae Taylor recommitted to the Vols a month after decommitting.
But with these two decommitments, where do the Vols turn at quarterback now?
Tennessee only has two other quarterbacks they’ve offered who are currently uncommitted. And those quarterbacks are four-star Gerry Bohanon and four-star James Foster. But Tennessee isn’t really considered to be in play for either of them. Trevor Lawrence, a five-star quarterback who is currently committed to Clemson, was very interested in Tennessee early on in his recruitment. But that’s likely just a very long shot at this point.
Although not officially announced by UT as of yet, Tyson Helton is supposedly on Jeremy Pruitt’s staff at Tennessee and is expected to be the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. It’s possible he has someone or a couple quarterbacks in mind that he would like to pull to Tennessee.
It’s also possible that Tennessee doesn’t pursue a quarterback in the 2018 class.
The Vols currently have three scholarship quarterbacks on their roster. But none of the three are guaranteed to stay on before the start of the 2018 season. Tennessee is still expected to have a quarterback battle, but there’s no guarantee one of the three scholarship quarterbacks doesn’t transfer at some point in the next year.
There’s also the concern about injuries for Tennessee’s quarterbacks. Quinten Dormady suffered a season-ending injury, and Jarrett Guarantano was banged up for the final few weeks of the season. Tennessee had to burn the redshirt of true freshman Will McBride as he got the start against Missouri after Guarantano was too hurt to play.
During that game, McBride was the only scholarship quarterback available for the Vols. In order to avoid something like that happening in 2018, it would be wise for the Vols to get a commitment from at least one quarterback in the 2018 class.
Tennessee lost both their committed quarterbacks in the 2018 class on Wednesday. Only time will tell who they turn to next, but it’s not likely the Vols will come away empty-handed at the quarterback position in this class.
