Tennessee football dramatically more experienced at QB in 2020

Four Tennessee football Volunteers quarterbacks have started at least one FBS game.

Heading into 2019, Tennessee football had only one quarterback on its roster who had ever played a snap of college football: Jarrett Guarantano. This year, the Vols have four quarterbacks who have each started multiple games at the Power Five level.

That’s a dramatic turnaround that no team may have. So how did they get to that point? Well, we know about Guarantano’s inconsistencies in the first four games of last year. That led to true freshman Brian Maurer getting the nod over the next three games, even as Guarantano finished two of them due to a Maurer injury.

After Maurer’s second injury, Jeremy Pruitt and Jim Chaney turned to redshirt freshman J.T. Shrout, who started against the South Carolina Gamecocks and UAB Blazers, with Guarantano playing most of the time in both games. Then Maurer returned to start at the Kentucky Wildcats, and Guarantano finished that game before resuming his starting role to end the season.

In the process, Maurer earned four starts for Tennessee football, Shrout earned two and Guarantano had seven. When it comes to records, Maurer went 2-2 as a starter but 0-1 in games he started and finished. Guarantano went 4-3 as a starter, and he went 4-2 in games he started and finished. Shrout went 2-0, and he finished one of those games.

So not only did all three quarterbacks start multiple games last year, but none of them failed to have a record worse than .500. That’s a pretty big jump from the experience they had the year before. Then comes another twist: Kasim Hill.

The Maryland Terrapins transfer quarterback took a redshirt last year as a walk-on. He is now going to be a junior and will be eligible to play. Despite season ending injuries that ended his freshman and sophomore years in College Park, Hill still managed to start 13 games over the course of 2017 and 2018.

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As a result, he adds another guy with major experience to Tennessee football’s roster. So we can take this to another level. Going into 2019, the combined starting experience of quarterbacks on Rocky Top was 18 starts by one player. This year, it is 44 starts by four players.

Simply put, Pruitt and Chaney have a lot more to work with in terms of experience this year, and that will probably be much easier on them going forward. Hill practiced in the system last year, so he doesn’t have any learning curve either, just like the rest of the guys.

Then there’s the new guy in town who could take all of their jobs this year, five-star Harrison Bailey. Ironically, he’s the one player who hasn’t had any college experience, but he probably has by far the most potential and brightest future of the bunch. If Guarantano does lose his job in preseason, he’ll likely lose it to Bailey.

Taking that into account, Tennessee football has a ton more experience at the quarterback position this year, but it also adds an elite talent that it hasn’t had recently. As a result, the Vols could have even more of a quarterback controversy than we know. At the same time, they also have more options. How Pruitt handles it will determine if this is a positive situation to be in.