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Tennessee Football: Why the Volunteers should continue to ride with JG

By Stetson Marlin

KNOXVILLE, TN - SEPTEMBER 08: Jarrett Guarantano #2 of the Tennessee Volunteers looks to pass during a game against the East Tennessee State University Buccaneers at Neyland Stadium on September 8, 2018 in Knoxville, Tennessee. Tennesee won the game 59-3. (Photo by Donald Page/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TN - SEPTEMBER 08: Jarrett Guarantano #2 of the Tennessee Volunteers looks to pass during a game against the East Tennessee State University Buccaneers at Neyland Stadium on September 8, 2018 in Knoxville, Tennessee. Tennesee won the game 59-3. (Photo by Donald Page/Getty Images) /
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Despite a ton of talk from the Tennessee football fanbase, I believe they should stick with quarterback Jarrett Guarantano. Here’s why:

The Tennessee football team suffered a 27-24 loss to the South Carolina Gamecocks on Saturday night and much of the fanbase believes there should be a change at quarterback for the Volunteers. Despite Jeremy Pruitt saying both quarterbacks would play on Saturday night against the Gamecocks, Jarrett Guarantano was the only one who saw snaps.

Guarantano finished the South Carolina game with a 69.2% completion percentage on 27-39 passing. He finished with 207 yards and added on two more passing touchdowns. Granted most of his passes were short throws or screen passes to the wide receivers or the running backs. With a struggling offensive line, Tyson Helton is trying to get the ball out of the quarterbacks’ hands as quickly as he can.

This might not be a very popular opinion with Volunteers fans, but I believe they should stick with Guarantano at the quarterback position.

Here are a few reasons why:

I will be no stranger to admit that Guarantano has been streaky in his career on Rocky Top. But he has also had to experience a very bad offensive line. He has flaws, no doubt, but those flaws are made more apparent because of the bad offensive line play and the lack of ability to establish a constant run game. I know many people don’t think they see it, but I constantly see improvement by Guarantano each week, especially since last season.

To go along with that, Guarantano is no doubt one of the toughest quarterbacks in the SEC, if not the nation. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a quarterback take as many shots as he has and constantly gets back up.

Taking a look at the Volunteers game against the Gamecocks on Saturday night, there are a few things you can critique for Guarantano, both good and bad. If he wants to continue to be the quarterback at Tennessee, his pocket awareness HAS to get better. That last drive was not very good for him, but I personally felt like he did a good job throughout the game.

Personally, the play calling looked very streaky on Saturday night and that hurt Guarantano. The play calling looked very good early, helping get those two early touchdown passes. With all the short screens the Volunteers ran, that should’ve opened up some deep passes, but it didn’t. Dropped passes hurt the Volunteers on some of those deep routes, but they still should’ve taken more shots downfield to Marquez Callaway or Jauan Jennings.

Dropped passes and bad penalties offensively hurt the Volunteers all night long and are things that should not be put on Guarantano. He had some overthrows, which hurt, but other things had an impact as well. Those drops by Josh Palmer hurt the Volunteers momentum, and are downfield passes that should’ve been caught.

I totally understand. People want change at quarterback by putting grad transfer Keller Chryst in, but I just don’t think it will happen. This staff gets to see the quarterback play at practice every day and there must be something holding Chryst back. If he was the better quarterback, I truly believe he would be on the field at this time, even with him being here for just a few more games.

I could be totally wrong and the coaching staff put in Chryst this weekend, but for now, I see them sticking with Guarantano at the quarterback position.

I’m sure this will ruffle some feathers, so feel free to tell me why you think the Volunteers should make a change at quarterback.

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