The only reason Jarrett Guarantano is No. 10 on this list is because his starting job always seemed safe. However, with a new offensive coordinator and the fact that he led an offense that was outside of the top 100 last year, things could have been a bit up in the air.
After all, JT Shrout is entering his redshirt freshman year, and Brian Maurer came from Florida, and both have big arms. Tennessee football would have been completely justified in just opening up the competition.
To Guarantano’s credit, though, he showed why he’s the starter. The accuracy and big arm still are not always there, and that’s also true with pocket presence. But he consistently makes great plays, and his spring game performance was enough to show that the starting job is his.
In fact, it was his play in the spring game that put him on the list. The guy only had 198 yards passing, but he threw for four touchdowns and no interceptions. Standing out like that under the lights again shows that he has a true command of the offense, and the coaches touted him enough throughout the spring for us to guarantee his job is safe. That’s a big win for him.