The biggest part of our evaluation on this list involves what coaches have been able to do most recently at the position they coach. Despite Chris Weinke’s success at the high school level and as a recruiter at this level, last year was his first year coaching quarterbacks for Tennessee football. His quarterbacks produced mixed results to say the least.
Jarrett Guarantano ended the season on a high note, but he was wildly inconsistent all year. Remember, he was benched after the first four game, then he was benched again in the Gator Bowl, only to return and lead the comeback win over the Indiana Hoosiers. In his absence, Brian Maurer and JT Shrout proved mediocre at best.
As a result, Vol quarterbacks altogether only completed 55.6 percent of their passes on the year for 221 yards a game and just 19 touchdowns to 13 interceptions. With two NFL-caliber senior receivers and an NFL-caliber senior tight end, those numbers could have been better. It’s actually hard to explain why they weren’t.
Of course, lots of changes took place last year, and Weinke is now settled into his role. Improvement was clear as the season went on as well. So things could end up being much better in 2020, but for now, we have to go on what he’s done in his role so far, and it was not that pretty this past year.