Tennessee football: Harrison Bailey, Jarrett Guarantano train together
Two Tennessee football quarterbacks are preparing for 2020. The projected senior starter and the highly touted freshman Volunteers trained together.
Is this a preview of the present and the future for Tennessee football? Video by Rusty Mansell of 247Sports recently captured senior quarterback Jarrett Guarantano and five-star freshman quarterback Harrison Bailey, a member of the Vols’ 2020 class, training together.
According to Patrick Brown of GoVols247, this was part of a private workout that took place in Atlanta on Monday. They were there with private quarterbacks coach Tony Ballard, who runs Hustle, Inc. and former Georgia Bulldogs wide receiver Terrence Edwards, who runs the Terrence Edwards Wide Receiver Academy.
Guarantano will be a redshirt senior and finished last season as the starter. He started seven games in 2019 and the entire season the year before. However, Bailey is the highly touted prospect expected to be the future of the Tennessee football.
That does not mean that it will go that way. Jeremy Pruitt and Jim Chaney yanked Guarantano after four games last year and put in Brian Maurer, and when Maurer got hurt, they put in JT Shrout. Guarantano still played in every game and actually finished all the games during their winning streak to close out the season, but it showed his job is not permanently safe.
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In fact, Pruitt yanked Guarantano for a couple of series in the Vols’ Gator Bowl win over the Indiana Hoosiers. Simply put, a smooth transition from Guarantano to Bailey may not be as predictable simply due to the fact that Guarantano could be pulled beforehand.
Beyond that, however, there are numerous quarterbacks who could be in competition with Bailey, next year and beyond. We already mentioned Maurer and Shrout. Well, the Vols also have Maryland Terrapins transfer Kasim Hill, who will be eligible this year.
Meanwhile, 2021 dual-threat quarterback Kaidon Salter just committed to the Vols, 2020 commit Jimmy Holiday is an athlete who doubles as a dual-threat quarterback. So this year and next year, Tennessee football will have six quarterbacks on scholarship if everybody stays.
That means that while we know Guarantano’s job is not 100 percent safe this year, Bailey is not 100 percent certain to become the starter after Guarantano leaves. So while they’re working out together, they could be in competition in the future.