Pruitt Names Guarantano Starter, Weighs-In on 'Pretty Open' Competition for Backup QB

Pruitt Names Guarantano Starter, Weighs-In on 'Pretty Open' Competition for Backup QB

On Wednesday night, Jeremy Pruitt was available to the media for the last time before his team will head to Arkansas for a 7:30 p.m. ET kick-off to take on the Razorbacks Saturday night. 

Pruitt's team is coming off an open week that was expected to be full of competition, and he was asked several questions about the quarterback position. 

Pruitt said, "Jarrett (Guarantano) will be the starter. He understands our expectations. I’ve felt like he’s had another good week continuing to do the things that I’m talking about. Getting the guys around him to play at a higher level. It’s one thing on the offensive side, it takes all 11 guys to play together. Defensively, you can have a couple great players and they can make some plays sometimes, they’re kind of erasers. But offensively, you can have 10 guys do exactly right and maybe the left guard gets beat or doesn’t do it the right way and messes up the entire play. It only takes one guy that can mess up a play offensively. That’s why you have to play as a unit up front. That’s why communication is so important, playing together, and that’s something that we have continued to focus on over the last couple of weeks."

So, what are the things Pruitt expects in his quarterbacks? He said about the intangibles of the guys behind Guarantano, "The most important thing to me as a quarterback is getting the other 10 guys around you to be at their best. You want the quarterback to be at his best all the time, right? But there’s probably going to be days where maybe the quarterback’s not at his best. To me, that’s where leadership comes in. Getting the other guys to rally and be at their best. Also, kind of having a sense of when you go out on the practice field or during a game, having a feel of how practice is going or a game’s going individually. Understanding the guys that you connect with and maybe the guys that you don’t (connect with) but understanding who the other leaders on the team are that can have an effect on somebody maybe you don’t connect with. I think all these intangibles are important. That’s something that I feel like you kind of have, but I also feel like it’s things that you can develop, and you can coach into guys and make them aware of it."

According to Pruitt, Bailey and Maurer both grew during this week of practice, but he would not state if there was a clear number two. He said, "It’s pretty open. It’s pretty common in young players when you talk about consistencies. Getting these guys the amount of reps really where you kind of have something to judge them off of. That’s one thing about having the scrimmages and then having an open week has been good. Especially with Brian (Maurer) and Harrison (Bailey), their reps were limited when we were kind of in camp mode. Just trying to create a volume of plays were you can judge exactly where they’re at. They continue to work hard. I see both of those guys do a lot of really good things, but they still have a lot to learn. They’re working hard at it to do it every day."

So if things go South for Guarantano on Saturday night, it is unclear who will get the first shot off the bench. Maurer and Bailey are both competing, and multiple sources have indicated that they have each had consistent practices through the last two weeks. One source indicated Bailey was at his best on Sunday of this week during the "good on good period."