Jarrett Guarantano outduels Will McBride in Tennessee spring game

One of the biggest question marks heading into the Tennessee spring game this year was the quarterbacks. Jeremy Pruitt has been tight-lipped about practice, but we got a little taste of the battle today.

It’s a two man race for now, with Jarrett Guarantano and Will McBride battling things out during the spring. On Saturday at Neyland Stadium, one guy looked a lot more ready than the other. That guy was redshirt sophomore Jarrett Guarantano — who took home game MVP honors.

Guarantano got off to a shaky start, missing a couple of throws high. But he found his rhythm fairly quickly. I thought his confidence grew as the day went on, facing pressure and delivering from the pocket. Jarrett threw a couple of deep passes that were just a touch late or a couple of steps overthrown.

He hit Marquez Callaway on a fade to get the scoring started today.

He ended the game with a strike to Eli Wolf for another score.

Guarantano finished 15-26 for 226 yards and two touchdowns.

Things did not go as smoothly from Will McBride today. However, it’s not totally on him. McBride was playing with the second team offense, which was brutal today — and that’s probably putting it lightly.

McBride never settled in and was mainly tasked with taking quick shots down the field. That was probably by design considering the offensive line that he was playing behind. Still, McBride missed a few throws that he probably shouldn’t have.

Give McBride credit for coming back and throwing a strike to Latrell Williams, who turned that into a score near the end of the fourth quarter.

McBride finished just 6-18 for 71 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions — both of which were tipped.

We’re all waiting on the arrival of Stanford grad-transfer Keller Chryst in June, who is going to have a great shot of landing the starting job. Still though, today was a solid showing from Guarantano, who looked like a more confident player this afternoon.