Tennessee football blame pie: Who’s most responsible for Vols 1-3 start?
1. Everybody involved in the passing game: 30 percent
Okay, 95 percent of this 30 percent is Jarrett Guarantano. You can blame him. Tennessee football would have easily beaten the BYU Cougars if he had not made a series of mistakes in that game, and they were worth calling out.
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However, you have to call out the whole group involved when you talk about why they aren’t 4-0. If Eric Gray blocks for Guarantano on that one play against the Georgia State Panthers, there’s likely not a strip-sack, and UT likely wins that game.
Of course, it was all Guarantano against BYU, throwing one pass into triple-coverage that was intercepted and then throwing an easy touchdown to Jauan Jennings too late. However, Jennings still could have made the catch. He dropped it after being hit.
Against the Florida Gators, Guarantano’s missed pass to Dominick Wood-Anderson followed by a horrible interception was a 10-point swing. But on the drive before, when he was inside the five-yard line, he threw two touchdown passes. Another missed block by Gray resulted in one being deflected. The other was intercepted after it bounced of Jennings’s facemask.
Next. Five takeaways from Vols' 34-3 loss at Florida. dark
If you switch out those plays, then UT all of a sudden has a 14-7 lead over Florida and is tied going into the half instead of trailing 17-0. That’s how much of a swing it was. Tennessee football has to correct a lot of things, but Jim Chaney, Tee Martin, Guarantano and everybody else involved with this group are the most important thing as collective to fix.