Tennessee football: 10 Vols with injury concerns for 2019

Jarrett Guarantano would be much lower on this list if it were just about injury concerns. But his value combined with his health issues make him more of a concern, and he is also a guy who has battled injuries two years in a row.

As Tennessee football limped to its worst season in school history in 2017, Butch Jones threw Guarantano to the wolves to try to scapegoat Quinten Dormady for his own problems. The problem is Dormady suffered a season-ending injury with one play the next game, and then Guarantano got hurt two games later. He ended up missing two games in 2017 due to injury.

Then came last year. Guarantano had to be pulled from three games due to injury. He’s taken a lot of hits as the Vols’ quarterback, largely due to horrendous offensive coaching or horrendous offensive line play. But how much more can he take entering his redshirt junior year?

Well, the injuries this year would be more brutal overall. Keller Chryst was a serviceable backup at quarterback last year. JT Shrout or Brian Maurer could be good, but neither are proven. So Guarantano becomes a big injury risk for Rocky Top. Losing him this year could set the Vols back more than even other years teams lose their quarterbacks.