Column: Despite "Inconsistency," Guarantano Showed Progression, Room for Further Improvement

Quarterback. The most polarizing position in all of sports. Jarrett Guarantano. The most polarizing quarterback in Tennessee history?

One could certainly say so. I would be hard-pressed to disagree.

Over the course of his career in Knoxville, Guarantano, like many other college quarterbacks, has created plenty of discussion among the Tennessee faithful on if he should be the starter or not.

Media, fan, or innocent bystander, it doesn’t matter where you fall on the Jarrett Guarantano discussion, he made it clear last night that he has progressed at the quarterback position.

Is there room for improvement? Certainly, and I will get to that.

Coming into this season, Guarantano was highly criticized for holding onto the ball too long and making mental errors similar to that of a young quarterback. That did not show up last night.

Last night, he started under center with the previous year’s offensive coordinator for the first time in his career. The progression was evident.

Guarantano looked poised in Tennessee’s offense. He was timely and crisp in his delivery of the football. He didn’t throw any passes that make you think, “Oh, that should have been intercepted.” He did throws some balls that would make you scratch your head, but we will get to that.

Guarantano finished the game 19 of 31 for 259 yards and a touchdown. He was sacked twice.

Guarantano showed an ability to improvise. He avoided disaster on a called flea-flicker, which led to him dumping off a pass to Eric Gray that turned out for a 24 yard gain. He flashed an ability to run to help extend a drive.

He capped a drive with a successful quarterback sneak for the first touchdown of the season. Yes, I am referencing the play at Alabama he has been highly criticized over.

Overall, he progressed and answered several criticisms from last season in the process.

There is room for improvement. Jeremy Pruitt noted in the post-game press conference, so did Guarantano.

"There’s a lot of work to get done with myself and the team, but especially me. I thought I could be a lot better. It's only up from here. I'm going to go practice my behind off this week and try to fix some of those things. I was high on a little bit of throws falling off, pretending and just seeing like I was going to get hit, but that's not how I play ball, and I just have to go fix those things."

That was Guarantano’s post-game statement. I believe he hit every part of the inconsistency topic.

However, in years past, it has seemed that some of Guarantano’s mistakes were not able to be corrected. Again, holding on to the ball too long, throwing into triple coverage, etc., are generally signs of a lack of development or comfort in an offense, and those things are hard to correct on the fly.

I believe where Guarantano came up short on Saturday night is more than correctable.

A quarterback delivering off-platform in his first contest against a live pass rush and missing timing routes with receivers, who he has limited work with in fall camp and an in-game setting is certainly correctable.

Not to mention, those receivers going up against one of the best secondaries in the SEC.

Timing is something that will come with more work. Guarantano looked most comfortable throwing to Josh Palmer, the one receiver he has worked with in-game and on a consistent basis the last few years.

Overall, it is hard to knock Guarantano’s body of work last night, given the adversity Tennessee has faced with contact tracing decimation, no spring practice, and an unpredictable season.

I think most of Tennessee’s team would characterize the night as inconsistent. A quarterback’s job is to win games. Guarantano did that, and he did not do anything to critically jeopardize the Vols chances.

Tennessee has plenty of work to do, as does Guarantano. Timing will be key, and time will tell.