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Tennessee Football: Good, not great news from Jeremy Pruitt

By Colton Pickard

FAYETTEVILLE, AR - NOVEMBER 7: Harrison Bailey #15 of the Tennessee Volunteers runs the ball during a game against the Arkansas Razorbacks at Razorback Stadium on November 7, 2020 in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The Razorbacks defeated the Volunteers 24-13. (Photo by Wesley Hitt/Getty Images)
FAYETTEVILLE, AR - NOVEMBER 7: Harrison Bailey #15 of the Tennessee Volunteers runs the ball during a game against the Arkansas Razorbacks at Razorback Stadium on November 7, 2020 in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The Razorbacks defeated the Volunteers 24-13. (Photo by Wesley Hitt/Getty Images) /
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Tennessee Football head coach Jeremy Pruitt announced that Harrison Bailey will get some playing time against Florida, but he doesn’t know how much.

Well, I had anticipated on the Thursday before the Florida game on December 5 that Tennessee football would be gearing up to let freshman Harrison Bailey run the offense and allow him to sling the ball.

Bailey is the only chance Tennessee has at beating Florida, not because he’s far and away better than Jarrett Guarantano, but because the offense needs a boost, and Bailey can bring that boost. Guarantano can not bring a boost to the offense, as we’ve seen throughout the season.

Tennessee fans have been calling for Bailey to get a chance at the starting quarterback role, but Jeremy Pruitt has denied Bailey that chance all season and has continuously given the starting job to Guarantano, even when he proves he doesn’t deserve it.

The worst Tennessee can finish this season is 2-8, which means the Vols lose their last three games of the season. With Guarantano at quarterback, that’s likely to happen. With Bailey at quarterback, it’s also likely to happen, but anything can happen when you play a new, young quarterback that’s looking to prove himself.

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Pruitt has nothing to lose by starting Bailey for the rest of the season, yet he’s still holding back on the decision. He is getting a bit closer, though, as he said on Wednesday that Bailey will get some playing time against Florida.

"“Harrison will definitely play Saturday,” Pruitt said on Wednesday. “To what extent, we’ve not decided yet.”"

I understand being an SEC football coach isn’t an easy job, but the decision to start Bailey can’t be that difficult of a decision. We don’t even really know how good Bailey is because the coaching staff hasn’t given him enough playing time to determine how good he could be.

Maybe I’m thinking differently than everyone else on this, but if my job were up in the air and my current quarterback isn’t producing, then I’d find someone who can, even if it is the unproven freshman quarterback.

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I guess we’ll see what happens this Saturday when the Vols and Gators kick-off at 3:30 ET on CBS. I can’t wait for another CBS game.

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