Searching for anything to help, the Tennessee Volunteers are making a change at quarterback.
Butch Jones and the Tennessee Volunteers have had a horrible start to the college football season, especially on the offensive side of the ball where they rank near the bottom in the nation in most categories. Quinten Doramdy has been wildly ineffective at quarterback, which has led, naturally, to much of the fanbase calling for a change at the position. Well, that change is here.
As the Volunteers get set to take on the South Carolina Gamecocks this weekend, GoVols247 broke the news that Dormady has been pulled from the starting quarterback duties and the reins have now been given to Jarrett Guarantano. Furthermore, it was reported Dormady might even be contemplating his future with the program, so a transfer on his end may be on the horizon here as some fallout from all this.
Tennessee is searching for answers this season, and now Jones will see if maybe Guarantano has the spark that can get this offense going the rest of the way.
Who is Jarrett Guarantano?
So with the change, some out there are probably wondering just who the new Tennessee starting quarterback is. Well, Guarantano is a former four-star prospect of the 2016 class for Tennessee. He hails from Oradell, New Jersey, where he attended high school football power Bergen Catholic. A pro-style passer, he redshirted with the Volunteers in 2016 as one of the best quarterbacks in the history of the program, Joshua Dobbs, was still on campus leading the offense for Tennessee.
This season so far through Tennessee’s miserable start, Guarantano has played sparingly in relief of the struggling Dormady, going 12-of-24 for 54 yards with a touchdown. It’s not the most promising of statistics for the redshirt freshman but he hasn’t really been able to consistently run the Tennessee offensive unit.
Now, he will get that chance and starting this weekend against South Carolina, we’ll get our first real glimpse of what the young man can do under center.
Can this change save Butch Jones’ job?
The next question on everyone’s mind is probably what the implications of this change could be on the future of head coach Butch Jones. With this rocky 3-2 start to the season, it seems a matter of when not if Jones’ tenure in Knoxville will come to its conclusion.
Tennessee has more issues on offense other than the quarterback, but there is a chance that the insertion of Guarantano could provide enough of a spark where enough improvement is made and this team can win some ball games and not look inept in the process. They do have the Alabama Crimson Tide on the schedule coming up next week — which will definitely not end well for the Vols in Tuscaloosa — but the rest of the games on their schedule are pretty winnable if they could get their act together, especially on offense.
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So there is the outside chance this team could finish 9-3 or even 8-4, which might be enough to give the administration second thoughts about whether or not to make a change at the top.
Do I think that’s the case? At the moment, no. I truly believe Tennessee has already made up its mind in moving on from Jones at the end of the season, but you never know how that could change if this team happens to turn a corner on offense under Guarantano.