Tennessee football: Five biggest storylines of Vols 2019 season

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1. Jarrett Guarantano and team spark dramatic turnaround.

Was there any doubt that this would be the story of the year? Jarrett Guarantano and Tennessee football having a turnaround at the same time is clearly going to lead all headlines after the way this season went.

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The Vols started off 0-2 with two home losses to Group of Five schools. Guarantano had three turnovers in those two games and shouldered all the blame for their loss to the BYU Cougars. After proving ineffective against the Florida Gators, he was benched.

With Brian Maurer, the team lost to the Georgia Bulldogs. But Guarantano came in after Maurer got hurt against the Mississippi State Bulldogs, and a transition began. In that game, Guarantano had the game-clinching touchdown pass to Tyler Byrd to secure a shocking 20-10 win.

Things went south again a week later, though. Guarantano came in for Maurer after Maurer got hurt again at the Alabama Crimson Tide, and with a chance to cut the game down to a touchdown in the fourth, Guarantano went rogue on a 4th and goal, fumbled the ball, and it was returned the other way for a score. Pruitt was seen publicly lashing out at Guarantano and then pulled him.

At 2-5, Guarantano and UT seemed done. But a week later, after starting JT Shrout, Pruitt kept his faith in Guarantano. All the guy did was throw two go-ahead touchdown passes to Jauan Jennings, the second of which put the Vols up for good against the South Carolina Gamecocks, before he got hurt and Shrout had to finish the game.

After a 30-7 homecoming win over the UAB Blazers in which Guarantano saw the bulk of action, he then came off the bench again at the Kentucky Wildcats. In the second half, he threw two touchdown passes and had the game-clinching third down run to lead a comeback from 13-3 down to win 17-13.

He finally got his starting job back against the Missouri Tigers, and in that one, he threw for over 400 yards in a 24-20 win. After beating the Vanderbilt Commodores to finish 7-5, Guarantano and the Vols were the comeback kids.

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But they saved their best for last. Guarantano was pulled after an awful Gator Bowl performance put UT behind by two scores. Down 22-9, he came back in. All he did was lead back to back quick touchdown drives with less than six minutes to go in the game to win 23-22. Guarantano and Tennessee football had done it again. They did it all year. And that was the story of the season.

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