Tennessee football: Jarrett Guarantano had Vols most impressive 400-yard game ever

In Tennessee football’s 24-20 win over the Missouri Tigers, Jarrett Guarantano had the most impressive 400-yard passing game in Volunteers history.

Saturday marked the eighth time in school history Tennessee football had a quarterback throw for over 400 yards in a game. Jarrett Guarantano joined Tyler Bray and Peyton Manning as the only two quarterbacks to do so.

But while his 415 yards at Mizzou ranks fourth all-time in single-game passing yards, Guarantano’s 400-yard performance was by far the most impressive when you look at who he went against. The Tigers’ pass defense ranks No. 18 in passing yards allowed per game with 188.5, and they are No. 25 in yards allowed per pass attempt with just over six and a half.

Guarantano averaged over 10 yards an attempt, completing 23 of 40 passes with two touchdowns and no interceptions en route to 415 yards. He torched a defense that often doesn’t gets torched, and that’s what makes his performance so special for Tennessee football. Let’s compare that to the level of competition other 400-yard passers in school history faced.

Manning’s best statistical performance was in a shootout with Tim Couch in 1997. He threw for 523 yards and five touchdowns in a 59-31 win. But that was Kentucky under the leadership of Hal Mumme, the architect of the air raid and shootouts. Their defense that year allowed 221.5 passing yards a game and between seven and a half and eight yards an attempt.

The most passing yards in a game was by Bray back in 2012. He threw for 530 yards in a shootout against the Troy Trojans. Troy went 5-7 that year, and they allowed nearly 260 passing yards a game and allowed eight yards per pass attempt.

Bray’s other 400-plus yard games were against the Cincinnati Bearcats in 2011 and then the Akron Zips and Missouri at home in 2012. That Mizzou game went into four overtimes, and the team allowed over 241 passing yards a game and over seven yards a pass attempt.

Akron allowed 238.9 yards a game that year and seven and a half yards an attempt. Cincinnati, ironically led by Butch Jones, allowed over 260 yards a game and over seven yards an attempt. Simply put, none of Bray’s performances were against the level of competition in terms of pass defense that Guarantano’s was in Missouri.

Now, outside of Kentucky, Manning does have a couple of other impressive 400-plus yard games. One was a bowl game record at the time with 408 passing yards against the Northwestern Wildcats, who were Big Ten co-champs, in the Citrus Bowl to close out the 1996 season. But Northwestern allowed nearly 208 yards a game and seven and a half yards an attempt that year.

So there’s only one comparable 400-plus yard game, when you consider the level of competition, to Guarantano’s performance at Missouri by a Tennessee football quarterback. That would be Mannings’ 496-yard four-touchdown performance against the eventual national champion Florida Gators in 1996. Steve Spurrier had Bob Stoops as his defensive coordinator that year.

Here’s the problem with that one: Manning had four interceptions in the game. He also got the bulk of his yards after Florida was up 35-0 and playing a bit softer. As a result, Guarantano’s performance stands out over that one also.