Nick Stephens went 3-for-9 passing for six yards in Tennessee’s scrimmage this past Thursday.
Nick Stephens now finds himself a bit further down the depth chart than before the scrimmage. Certainly, that’s all just a coincidence.
Stephens, who had been working solely with the No. 1 offense, will now see some of those first-team reps go to Matt Simms and Tyler Bray, his main competition for the starting quarterback job.
“You have kind of a general plan of not overreacting every practice, and we haven’t,” head coach Derek Dooley said according to the Chattanooga Times Free Press. “But I think when you go halfway through the spring, that’s a great time to do an early evaluation of where we are, and that’s what we did. Then we’ll probably re-evaluate it again at the end.”
“We’re going to keep evaluating every couple of weeks. Right now we’re going to increase the reps of Matt and Tyler and back down Nick a little bit. Nick has been exclusively with the 1s, and now we’re going to give Matt some more with the 1s, and give Tyler a little bit more with the 2s and maybe some with the 1s. We’re going to keep varying the reps so they all get equal opportunity.”
The Vols were hoping to find their starter at some point this spring, but the competition -- based on the fact that neither of the three has reached out and grabbed the job by the throat -- will likely continue on into summer camp.