Tennessee football: Five takeaways from Vols 17-13 win over Kentucky

1. Jarrett Guarantano remains the comeback kid.

Let’s not forget that Jarrett Guarantano was the biggest scapegoat when the Vols lost to the BYU Cougars and got blown out by the Florida Gators. And quite honestly, he deserved it with all the mistakes he made in those games.

Guarantano has not started since that bye week. He didn’t start against the Mississippi State Bulldogs, South Carolina Gamecocks, UAB Blazers or this game. But the junior quarterback has secured the lead in all of these big wins for Tennessee football to turn their season around.

Down 13-3, Guarantano came in to start the second half against Kentucky. All he did was complete seven of eight passes for 115 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. Then he had the third down run for a first down to secure a victory for the Vols. Simply put, he made all the key plays to win the game.

Given the way he started the season, this was an amazing performance for Guarantano. He did what he was supposed to do and made key play after key play. You can’t understate how great of a story this is given what he was going through.

Going forward, Guarantano appears to have earned the right to be the starter. However, he has been much better coming off the bench to be the star, so you have to wonder how Jeremy Pruitt is going to handle this. He is still not above making mistakes, but his playmaking abilities simply can’t be ignored.