KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The quarterback position has been the main topic of discussion concerning Tennessee football for most of the season and it will continue to be for at least another week.
Redshirt junior Jarrett Guarantano played poorly in three of the first four games and freshman Brian Maurer took over as the starter in game five against Georgia and started the next two games against Mississippi State and Alabama, providing a much-needed spark to the offense. However, Maurer left both the MSU and Alabama games with apparent concussions and Guarantano replaced him and mostly played well except for his catastrophic mistake at the goal line in Tuscaloosa.
Maurer sat in the win over South Carolina and technically receiver Jauan Jennings started at QB when the Vols lined up in the wildcat on the first play. Redshirt freshman J.T. Shrout took over on the second play before giving way to Guarantano on the third drive. Guarantano bounced back with a great performance, throwing for 229 yards and two touchdowns with zero turnovers before getting injured in the second half.
"I thought Jarrett played his best game of the year. The throw that he made to Jauan Jennings in the endzone; he made great checks, slid the protection. We didn’t have enough to block him, he drifted away from the protection to buy himself some time, stood in the pocket, delivered the ball, and it was as good of a pass as you’ll see. That’s the Jarrett that I had seen in practice most of the year, and it’s good that it showed up. He really did a nice job, made some really good throws, handled the run game, handled the team — it was good to see. And now he needs to build off of it and do it again," head coach Jeremy Pruitt said.
Guarantano broke a bone in his left (non-throwing) wrist on the touchdown pass to Jennings and left the game. He had surgery Sunday but could still play Saturday.
"I just saw him up there watching film. I’m sure he’ll be limited for a day or two here. He has to take some mental reps and he’ll do that; he’s in here watching film. He’ll be ready to go unless something happens that I don’t know about," Pruitt said.
After sitting out against South Carolina, it sounds like Maurer will be ready to play against UAB.
“Brian is going to go out there and start practicing this week. So, we’ll see where he’s at, at the end of the week. He’s ready to go,” Pruitt said.
So Tennessee has quite an interesting situation now at quarterback. You have Guarantano, who was head and shoulders better than the two freshmen in fall camp. He's practiced well all season even if it wasn't showing up in games until now and he just put together his best game of the year. Then you have Maurer who took Guarantano's job and provided a spark when Tennessee needed it and Shrout who played well in the second half against South Carolina including hooking up with Marquez Callaway on a 55-yard strike for his first career touchdown.
"We’ll have to see as we move through the week here and get a good idea of what we want to do. We might play all three, and we might just run them in and out, just run the plays in. We won’t have to signal, we can do it like we did when I played for my dad. He whispers the play, you run out there and whisper to the quarterback, we break the huddle. I kind of like that, so I might play them all that way."
I'm pretty sure Pruitt was just joking on that last quote but we'll find out on Saturday at 7 o'clock.