Tennessee football: Vols stock report following Week Four of 2019

Stocks to sell

Backup quarterbacks

Everybody loves the spark Brian Maurer provided when he first entered the game for Tennessee football on Saturday. And yes, he did lead the Vols on a field goal drive. But after that, he was completely ineffective. His only completion after that first drive was to himself on a batted ball, and he also threw an interception. So he did not look any better than Jarrett Guarantano.

Meanwhile, there was enough footage of J.T. Shrout against the Chattanooga Mocs to know that he is clearly not ready. Shrout makes the right decisions almost all the time, unlike Maurer or Guarantano, but he always has the wrong touch on the ball, throwing it too hard. That has to be worked on. Face it. For now, the Vols are likely stuck with Guarantano at quarterback.

Play-calling

Jim Chaney and Derrick Ansley actually called almost a perfect game in The Swamp. The problem was players could not execute the most simply plays, and it resulted in the Vols losing a blowout despite the fact that the game had every opportunity to be close heading into the second half. It’s not these guys’ faults, though. Jeremy Pruitt’s assistants did everything right.

However, after this loss and the way they looked, they’ll likely be a bit more timid and change things up the next game. As a result, they will not look as good calling the plays. Chaney is already making a mistake not going deep more since that’s the only time it seems like Guarantano can execute. The timidity of both coaches is why we don’t believe this will last.