Tennessee football: Vols found a gunslinger, QB Brian Maurer, in blowout loss

Suffering a 43-14 blowout loss to the Georgia Bulldogs didn’t provide too much good news for Tennessee football. But the Volunteers found a quarterback.

Johnny Manziel…Baker Mayfield…Brian Maurer??? Could it really be. Okay this is a massive overreaction. We’re basing this off of how Maurer played for Tennessee football when they lost at home 43-14 to the Georgia Bulldogs.

So let’s dial it back a bit. Still, in recent years, college football has been marked by underrated and undervalued quarterbacks on the recruiting trail who are mobile gunslingers and for some reason shine under the lights.

As a true freshman who stands at 6’3″ 193 pounds, Maurer may have shown some of that on Saturday. Against a top five team in a night game on national television, he gave Jeremy Pruitt and Jim Chaney something to work with.

Jarrett Guarantano’s ineffectiveness through four games resulted in Maurer starting, and early on he threw a 73-yard touchdown pass to Marquez Callaway and then hit Jauan Jennings over the middle in double-coverage for another score to give Tennessee football a 14-10 lead. The crowd came alive at Neyland Stadium.

This came after the Vols’ only scoring drive in their last game, a 34-3 loss to the Florida Gators two weeks ago, was when Pruitt and Chaney put Maurer in to start the second half. Maurer’s spunk had fans excited.

He’s got zip on the ball. The guy is mobile, evidenced by a touchdown run he had in his game against the Chattanooga Mocs. And he doesn’t hesitate to throw the ball when he makes his decision. Simply put, he’s a gunslinger.

With that will come mistakes, but who cares? UT needs a spark, and they clearly are getting it with a guy like Maurer, who showed that he can be accurate under pressure, is not afraid to be aggressive, and is as tough as Guarantano when it comes to taking hits.

Against the Dawgs, who have one of the best defenses in the nation, Maurer completed 14-of-28 passes for 259 yards and two touchdowns. Jennings and Callaway both went over 100 yards receiving and looked like stars.

Now, it wasn’t all roses. Maurer was awful, with less than five yards, in the third quarter. He also had an interception that was huge with the Vols still only down 29-14. And as he picked things back up in the fourth quarter, he was hit on a strip-sack, which the Dawgs recovered and ran back to go up 43-14.

Meanwhile, for the year, he has only completed 18-of-41 passes for 303 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. So Pruitt and Chaney have a ton of work to do with him for him to keep the support of the fans.

Remember, it was less than a year ago when Guarantano had two touchdown passes and over 300 yards in a huge road upset win over the Auburn Tigers. That didn’t last, so 259 yards and two touchdowns in a 43-14 loss is not going to mean much for the long-term either.

But at least Tennessee football found some energy. The Vols should never be a program to celebrate a loss, and Pruitt knows that. And this is not where they want to be. However, issues at quarterback have been hard to ignore. Maurer isn’t always great with his decisions, but he makes big plays. And that makes it worth keeping him as the starter for now.