Jarrett Guarantano, QB
Last season served as a proving ground of sorts for Jarrett Guarantano. It served as his first opportunity as the unquestioned starter of Tennessee’s offense, and for the most part he managed the team well. Guarantano was efficient and put up a monster performance in UT’s upset road win over Auburn.
But Guarantano was also battered about thanks to a weak offensive line, and he struggled with consistency at times.
All in all, Guarantano finished with 1,907 passing yards, 12 touchdowns, and just three interceptions while completing 62.2 percent of his 246 pass attempts.
Guarantano was efficient and didn’t turn the ball over much, but he tended to be boom or bust in a lot of areas. Just like with Ty Chandler, if the offensive line can take a step forward and give him more time, Guarantano is poised to have a strong redshirt junior campaign. Even ESPN thinks so, as they labeled Guarantano an “under-the-radar player” who is poised to have a breakout 2019 season.
Tennessee’s group of wideouts is deep and experienced. Guarantano also has a talented tight end in Dominick Wood-Anderson and a couple good pass catching options at running back at his disposal. If he can improve on his own shortcomings this offseason and get more help from his line, then there’s a chance this is the last year Guarantano plays for UT.
Again, as with Ty Chandler, Jim Chaney could be a big difference-maker for Guarantano. Chaney has helped develop a large number of QBs at the collegiate level and turned them into NFL signal callers. Guarantano could become the latest.
