Tennessee Football: It’s time to give Jarrett Guarantano a Start

After being shutout by the Georgia Bulldogs at home and a lackluster 17 point performance against UMass, the Tennessee offense is searching for answers. Luckily, they’ve got a bye week to try and find some.

The quarterback position has been the topic of discussion since Joshua Dobbs played his final snap in the Music City Bowl last winter. To this point, neither Quinten Dormady or Jarrett Guarantano have done anything to tell us that they are the future of the position.

Dormady has gotten all of the starts to this point while Guarantano has seen spurts against Indiana State, UMass and Georgia. Calls to start Guarantano next week against South Carolina have been loud, despite his subpar outings. It’s still hard to say we know who Guarantano is at this point, though.

As I’ve said all along, I’m just not sure the offense works with Dormady. You’re already lacking the element of a running quarterback with him in the game. To make matters worse, he’s completing just 55 percent of his passes and has a 6-6 TD-INT ratio. They just don’t have any rhythm.

And none of that is to say that Guarantano has been any better. The offense has gone through the same struggles with him in the game, but we’ve yet to see him get a shot to start with a week to prepare for it. If I were Butch Jones, I’d be installing Guarantano into the offense during the bye week. Why not? I’m going back to heavy read-option looks and maximizing Guarantano’s legs, along with John Kelly.

Tennessee has to figure something out. Doing what they’ve been doing doesn’t give me much confidence that they can pull out of this slump. Guarantano may not be the answer yet. I think I’d still have to give it a try.