Tennessee football: Five takeaways from Vols 24-20 win at Missouri

1. Passing game was elite.

What else can we say? Tennessee football had three players go for over 100 yards receiving. Jarrett Guarantano got the start and threw for over 400 yards. And here’s the crazy part: Guarantano did not get off to a good start in this game. In fact, he appeared to revert to the old Guarantano by missing lots of throws.

Then, down 10-7 in the second quarter, Jeremy Pruitt pulled Guarantano for a play and put in Brian Maurer. At the time, Guarantano had only completed nine of 17 attempts. And after one incompletion by Maurer, Guarantano came back into the game and, well got red-hot, as he had been doing coming back off the bench all season.

Guarantano finished the game completing 23 of 40 passes for 415 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. Among the 100-yard receivers was, to nobody’s surprise, Jauan Jennings, who had five catches for 115 yards and a touchdown. Marquez Callaway added six catches for 110 yards and a touchdown.

That marked the third game this year Jennings and Callaway both went over 100 yards. But then there was Josh Palmer. The slot receiver for the Vols this year had six catches for 124 yards, doing exactly what he was always supposed to do as a slot guy.

Simply put, the passing game was superb and led the way. Both passing TDs were go-ahead scores as well, and Guarantano made two third down completions to secure the win. So they consistently did what they needed to do.