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What Tennessee has seen from new Virginia quarterback Tony Muskett

IMG_3593by:Grant Ramey•08/29/23•

GrantRamey

Tony Muskett Virginia Football
Virginia starting quarterback Tony Muskett (Virginia Athletics)

Doneiko Slaughter said Monday there’s more a defense has to do to prepare for a season opener. The problem, Tennessee’s senior cornerback explained, is that you haven’t seen the opposition on the field all that much. 

“Besides the spring game to go off of,” Slaughter said. “It is really just more of you being ready to play now, you got that first week to prepare, but now it’s here. So it’s like a lot of preparation to keep going. You just really want to get on the field and perform.”

Tennessee will be relying on spring film and what the Vols saw from Virginia quarterback Tony Muskett during his days at Monmouth while preparing for the season opener against the Cavaliers on Saturday (Noon Eastern Time, ABC) at Nissan Stadium in Nashville.

Tony Muskett was named Virginia’s starting quarterback last week

Muskett, who was named by Virginia coach Tony Elliott as the team’s starting quarterback last week, threw for 5,687 yards and 51 touchdowns, against 16 interceptions, during three seasons at Monmouth, the Football Championship Subdivision program in New Jersey. 

“I like him a lot,” Tennessee senior linebacker Aaron Beasley said on Monday. “He’s a really good player. Looks like he wants to win a lot, so really excited to play him. 

“They like to do a lot of motions. They like to try to get the ball on the perimeter to get you out leverage in that way. Do a lot of play action, a lot of (quarterback) boots. They’ll take their shots. It should be a good challenge for us for sure.”

Muskett threw for 1,997 yards and 17 touchdowns last season, with eight interceptions. He went for 2,651 yards and 25 touchdowns, both career-high numbers, in 2021. 

“(He’s) been a really good decision-maker,” Josh Heupel said of Muskett. “Thrown for a bunch of yards. Has good pocket awareness, him being in Week 1, year one within their system.”

Virginia finished 81st in passing offense, 126th in scoring offense last season

Muskett ran 162 times over three seasons at Monmouth, totaling 156 yards. He scored five times on the ground. 

Virginia in its first season under Elliott in 2022 finished 126th in scoring offense, averaging 17.0 points per game, and 81st in passing offense, averaging 221.0 yards per game.

Muskett took most of the first-team reps in the spring for Virginia, after transferring from Monmouth in January. He beat out Jay Woolfolk, who left the football program over the summer to focus on his baseball career, and freshman Anthony Colandrea.

“(Muskett) played really well (at Monmouth) for those guys and showed some athleticism,” Tennessee defensive coordinator Tim Banks said. “Really good touch on the deep balls. I can see why those guys went and got him and I can see why those guys named him the starter. 

“We respect everybody that we face and you know he’s gotten our attention. And we know we’re going have to be at our best to be able to have a good game against him.”

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