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Tennessee head coach Butch Jones held his weekly Wednesday press conference today. He confirmed that redshirt freshman Jarrett Guarantano would start against South Carolina. This will be his first career start. “Jarrett has earned this right and this opportunity," Jones said.
Butch also offered a couple of injury updates.
Jakob Johnson and Evan Berry are ruled out for this Saturday's game
— Rocky Top Insider (@rockytopinsider) October 11, 2017
Butch: We do expect Evan Berry back this season. We don’t know when.
— Wes Rucker (@wesrucker247) October 11, 2017
Berry — a true difference maker for Tennessee in the return game has been dealing with an injury for the entire season. He played in the Georgia Tech game, but we’ve yet to see him since. The Vols could use his explosiveness with a sputtering offense.
Jakob Johnson is set to miss another game. Tennessee will roll with the Wolf brothers — Eli and Ethan at tight end.
Jones also said that junior quarterback Quinten Dormady has handled things well after his demotion. “Obviously he was very disappointed, that’s what you would expect from a competitor,” Jones said. Butch also said that Dormady has “one of his best practices of the season.”
Rumors and reports spread wild yesterday that Dormady might want out of the program, but to his credit he showed up and competed yesterday at practice. I think this is still a situation to monitor, but it seems like Butch has put out that fire for now.