Tennessee football: More stats favoring Jarrett Guarantano slam Vols OL

Tennessee football’s offensive line was historically bad in 2018. Stats defending Volunteers quarterback Jarrett Guarantano further show how bad it was.

Dating back to December of last year, there have been numerous stats showing how bad Tennessee football was on the offensive line. It is clearly the biggest culprit for the Vols’ finishing outside of the top 100 overall offensively last year.

However, evidence has shown that Jarrett Guarantano was highly efficient, even if Jeremy Pruitt and Tyson Helton protected him too much, and there were clearly playmakers at receiver and running back. With Jim Chaney coming in to replace Helton as offensive coordinator, expectations have even increased.

But throughout the offseason, the major question has been the line. New ESPN stats prove that, showing that whether or not Tennessee football takes a major step forward this year will depend entirely on that offensive line.

Bill Connelly of ESPN recently added proof to that. This came a month after ESPN’s David Hale named Guarantano a potential breakout player for 2019, pointing out how good his numbers were under pressure and how much he was under pressure.

Well, Connelly added to that. He noted that Guarantano had no run support throughout 2018. The Vols, according to Connelly, apparently had the highest percentage of plays that resulted in tackles behind the line of scrimmage, and that was without including sacks. Meanwhile, they were 119th in FBS in terms of percentage of carries that gained four yards (41 percent).

Combining those two things, Guarantano was not only under pressure all the time, but Tennessee football had one of the worst rushing attacks in FBS. As a result, teams were able to attack the line of scrimmage without having to bring extra guys. What could Guarantano do in that regard?

Finally, Connelly pointed out a key stat in favor of Guarantano’s efficiency: that his quarterback rating was over 150 when it was second or third down between four and nine yards to go. Add that to him leading the SEC in completion percentage under pressure and his 7.8 yards per attempt and 4-1 touchdown-interception ratio, and he has pretty good numbers.

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It also shows just how bad the Vols’ offensive line was. When you add the rushing stats, that becomes more clear. After all, while there are questions about Guarantano, nobody has doubted how elite of an athlete Ty Chandler is. But Chandler was part of those rushing numbers. So if people are going to still tout Chandler, they need to tout Guarantano.