Vols Moving Forward With Bailey and Shrout

Following the conclusion of Saturday's game, Jeremy Pruitt had no desire to talk about a quarterback battle-- ever again. He made that very clear by stating, "I mean, guys, every week, so y'all won't ever have to ask me this again, OK, every week, we go out there, and we see competes in practice, who does the best job that we feel affects the guys around him, and we will do that as long as I', the head football coach here at every position. So, you don't have to ask me ever, ever, ever again."

But during his Monday media availability, Pruitt stated about his quarterback situation, when asked about reintroducing Jarrett Guarantano, "Harrison and J.T. will take the majority of the reps moving forward. Brian brings kind of an extra element with his athleticism and just trying to keep him with a role, and I thought he done a nice job Saturday with the role that he had. We’ll continue doing that moving forward.”

A far cry from what he said on Saturday, but he also did not mention Jarrett Guarantano at any point in time, despite maintaining for weeks that Guarantano has provided Tennessee with its best chance to win.

However, the Gators came into Saturday's contest ranked the highest they had been entering the game in over a decade. Tennessee squeezed out two late touchdowns to cut the deficit to 12, which is the most respectable its been in 3 years. Guarantano's two starts against the Gators ended in 26 and 31 point losses.

He did say about his quarterbacks, "I thought Harrison showed some poise in stepping up and scrambling and making some plays there. I felt like he handled the signaling from the game, the communication with the O-line, the wide receivers. We did use one timeout there about the 30-yard line and he’s telling me when he comes off the field he was snapping the ball, but anyhow, I thought he done a nice job. I thought J.T. come in and done a really nice job and Brian did, too, on the plays he played.”

Tennessee is scheduled to travel to Vanderbilt this weekend for a 4:00 p.m. ET kickoff on the SEC Network.

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