How Tennessee football QBs who won starting job midseason performed the next year
Scouting Report. Redshirt sophomore. 7. player. Pick Analysis. 2018. Jarrett Guarantano. 839
153-of-246; 1,907 yards; 12 TDs; 3 INTs
Butch Jones set up Jarrett Guarantano to fail. His own ineptitude after a 3-2 start and a 41-0 loss to the Georgia Bulldogs put Tennessee football in serious trouble. To try to pin the blame on Quinten Dormady, he benched him and gave Guarantano, a redshirt freshman, his first start against a Will Muschamp defense and the South Carolina Gamecocks.
This was Muschamp’s best team there, and everybody knew it. Guarantano couldn’t muster a touchdown in that game, and the Vols lost 15-9. He proceeded to direct a disastrous offense with incompetent coaching the rest of the year as the Vols stumbled to a 4-8 season.
That resulted in Jones being fired and Jeremy Pruitt taking over. Guarantano was able to maintain his job. With a historically bad offensive line, Guarantano actually played very efficient, evidenced by the numbers. The Vols still stumbled to a 5-7 season with six losses by at least 25 points, but that had to do with defensive woes and no running game.
For his part, Guarantano had a memorable performance in a huge upset on the road over Auburn, and he also played well in the Vols’ upset win over Kentucky. His promise never materialized over the next two years, but in his first full season starting, he did give fans hope.