Tennessee Football: Vols go as far as Guarantano leads them

No one knows what to expect from the Tennessee Volunteers this season, especially when it comes to the quarterback position.

After going 4-8 last season, the Vols fired head coach Butch Jones and replaced him with former Alabama defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt. With a new coach comes different expectations along with potential changes, whether it be who starts or what position players could be changing spots.

Quarterback is one position plenty were wondering about. With the addition of Stanford graduate transfer Keller Chryst, competition arrived for the Vols starter down the stretch of the season, Jarett Guarantano.

What was billed as a competition early on looks like more of what we saw last season in Guarantano as the starting quarterback. His run at quarterback was not very successful last season and for Tennessee to have any sort of success offensively, he will have to be better.

When Guarantano was recruited to Tennessee, he was billed as a dual-threat quarterback that could be a defenses’ worst nightmare. So far in his career, he has not been a lethal weapon with his feet. Guarantano has not really gotten loose with his feet outside of the pocket like many expected and a lot of that can be due to him not being used to the speed of the game.

Often times, he was not able to get through his progressions and that led to him waiting too long to make a play when nothing was there. Hopefully, for Tennessee, he will have grown from those moments and the game will slow down for him. The more he is able to make it through his reads, the more he will be able to decipher plays and make those outstanding plays with his feet that he is capable of.

Of course, running is not all his game, as he can throw the ball. Guarantano posted a 61.7% completion percentage but only threw for four touchdowns while having two interceptions. Since the Vols were coaching offensively like they were trying to protect him, Guarantano never really threatened the defense at all levels.

The Volunteers are not only going to need him to make quicker decisions, but they will also need him to strike some fear in defenses.

With a whole spring and summer camp to understand the new offense, the Vols should take the training wheels off him and allow him to make some plays. Will there be some bad plays Guarantano makes? Yes. Will he make some plays that make the hair stand on the back of your neck? Yes.

That will be the give and take of a young quarterback who is getting comfortable in who he is and what he wants to do for his team. Also with Guarantano potentially threatening the defense more, that allows the running game to have more room to run, which they did not have last year at all.

Jarrett Guarantano is a very talented quarterback who could be really good for Tennessee next season. The question is how hard has he worked to reach that potential? All signs point to him growing and maturing this offseason, but when the big games start happening, that’s when we all will be able to tell the growth of Guarantano. Either way, Guarantano has got to be better this season and will be key to how the Vols do.