Tennessee football: 3 biggest offseason questions

1. What quarterback is best equipped to run the uptempo spread?

Okay, this is the biggest question Heupel and his staff must answer: Who is going to be the starting quarterback? Tennessee saw two of its signal-callers transfer this offseason. Long-time starter Jarrett Guarantano is now at Washington State, while JT Shrout has gone west as well, landing with the Colorado Buffaloes. For Tennessee, it is all about competition at the position.

Heupel is a former college star quarterback at Oklahoma, nearly winning a Heisman Trophy in the earliest days of the Bob Stoops era in Norman. He likes to go uptempo spread, as illustrated by his days as the Missouri Tigers offensive coordinator and head coach at UCF. Ultimately, there are four quarterbacks competing for the starting job: Two returning players and two newcomers to UT.

Returning to Knoxville are Harrison Bailey and Brian Maurer. We touched on early enrollee Kaidon Salter earlier. Tennessee is also getting a transfer in Hendon Hooker from Virginia Tech. Salter may be a bit of a long shot here, but it feels like it will come down to Bailey and Hooker with Maurer certainly keeping things interesting. Again, it is all about how can run the uptempo spread better.

Ultimately, this is the quickest way Tennessee can get back to good under Heupel. Having a talented quarterback flourishing in his offensive system will help counterbalance any potential talent discrepancy existing elsewhere on the offensive side of the ball. We are not going to have a really strong idea over who will be the next Tennessee starting quarterback until late summer.

If you think Tennessee is going to hang with the likes of Florida, Georgia or even Alabama this season, you are delusional. However, we can see positive strides out of this team this year. They can win as many as four SEC games. If they can beat their four other division rivals, then that means Tennessee could theoretically achieve bowl eligibility. Too bad the sanctions are coming…

We will not know if Heupel is good this season, but we can determine if he is bad or not in 2021.

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