Tennessee Football: Jeremy Pruitt unsure who will start at quarterback

It sounds like Tennessee football has an open quarterback competition after Jeremy Pruitt said they don’t know who the starter is.

The 2020 season will be an important one for Jeremy Pruitt, and Tennessee football as Pruitt is entering his third season as the Tennessee head coach, which means a big jump is expected this fall.

We saw very clearly last year that if there’s not a good quarterback leading the offense, then it’s really difficult to be successful, even against Georgia State.

And I know Jarrett Guarantano improved later in the season when we needed him to, but we wouldn’t have been in that spot if he didn’t perform so poorly at the beginning of the season.

In all honesty, that’s a big reason why I think he might not be the starter Week 1. Maybe I’m wrong, but even Pruitt is unsure who the starting quarterback will be this fall.

Whether it’s JG, J.T. Shrout, Harrison Bailey, or Kasim Hill, we have a quarterback competition on Rocky Top, and I think this could last well into the summer.

"“We have to figure out who our first, second and third quarterback is,” Pruitt said. “They will have a chance to do that throughout the spring. That’s for every position. In this business, you’re only as good as your last game, whether you are a coach or a player. There always needs to be competition so everyone will be at their best.”"

Not only do we not know who our first-string quarterback is, but we are also still trying to figure out the entire depth chart at quarterback. This leaves the door to be the starter wide open for any quarterback in that QB room.

JG should be the clear favorite with his experience and what he did to lead the Vols to a bowl win at the end of last season, but the hype around freshman quarterback Harrison Bailey might supersede that.

Pruitt’s way to separate each quarterback: give them all equal reps and make them separate themselves.

"“The plan right now is to rep six guys,” Pruitt said. “If there is a point in time where we feel like someone eliminates themselves, we would go down.”"

Whenever the Vols take the practice field again, I think fans will be chomping at the bit to get news about the quarterbacks every day.

I can’t wait to see who emerges as the starting quarterback and following the process along the way. My personal favorite is Harrison Bailey because of the potential he offers, but I guess we will have to wait and see how everything plays out.