Tennessee football: 4 reasons Keller Chryst should be Vols starting quarterback

2. National voices clearly favors Keller Chryst.

Now this wouldn’t seem like something the coaches should pay heavy attention to. After all, this is about Tennessee football. If Rocky Top listened to the national media, the head coach right now would be Greg Schiano, not Jeremy Pruitt to begin with.

Still, you have to take into account what everybody else is saying about Keller Chryst. And what everybody else is saying involves a heck of a lot of good things. So despite some of the questions about his past, the praise for the guy counts.

Just look at his former coach. David Shaw, who coached Andrew Luck, said that Chryst will be a pro quarterback just recently. He noted in an interview with ESPN that Chryst is too talented to be a backup quarterback.

Chryst was also named to the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Watch List, which has to count for something as well. Then there’s the SEC on CBS’s color commentator, Gary Danielson, who called Chryst a gamer on a Volswire podcast recently.

All of these things have to matter. Coaches and analysts have complimented Chryst’s size and his potential. Combine that with his experience, and he has a major leg up in the hunt to be Tennessee football’s starting quarterback.

Now, Jarrett Guarantano is not going to let this national talk deter him, and he shouldn’t. Pruitt and Tyson Helton shouldn’t pay attention to it either. But it’s a factor into my case that Chryst is the better option to start this year for the Vols.