Tennessee's Jarrett Guarantano is preparing this spring for his second season as the Vols' full-time starting quarterback, and he's working with new position coach Chris Weinke and new offensive coordinator Jim Chaney.KNOXVILLE - Chris Weinke is aware of what Jarrett Guarantano is going through.
And this season, Weinke has a greater opportunity to be a sounding board for the Tennessee junior quarterback.
Weinke, the 2000 Heisman Trophy winner at Florida State who went on to play in the NFL, was moved from running backs coach to quarterbacks coach this offseason during the Volunteers' staff shakeup.
Weinke was 32-3 as the starting quarterback for the Seminoles, leading them to the national championship in the 1999 season. He had been their starter in 1998 until a neck injury ended his season - which, in his mind, paved the way for the Phillip Fulmer-coached Vols to win the first BCS national championship by beating Florida State 23-16 in the Fiesta Bowl in January 1999.
"I broke my neck in the 10th game of the season and wasn't able to play against Tennessee, and it's ironic how it comes full circle and now I'm back here coaching," Weinke said. "Last year during the season they honored the 1998 national championship team here, and I told Coach Fulmer, 'Do I get an invite? Because we all understand that if I'd played, you wouldn't have had the ring."
Weinke's time in Tallahassee helped him understand the situation Guarantano is in as the on-field offensive leader for one of the most storied college football programs in the nation. Guarantano, entering his second season as a full-time starter, had some highs and lows as a redshirt sophomore last year.
Weinke had a chance to observe those from a distance while working with the team's running backs in his first season at Tennessee, but now he is getting a much different perspective of the 6-foot-4, 209-pound Guarantano.
"When you don't spend every single day with him and when you're in the meetings, you only kind of observe from afar, and obviously you're there at practice with him, but to me it's about building relationships," Weinke said. "And I've built a really good relationship with Jarrett in a short period of time now that I'm coaching him. And what I've found is this guy's one of the most competitive guys I've been around.
"What happens is when you don't get to know someone, maybe on the surface you don't see that, but this guy is competitive. He wants to be great. He wants to work. And that's all I can ask as a coach."
Despite having his fourth offensive coordinator and fourth quarterbacks coach since arriving in Knoxville, Guarantano feels comfortable with Weinke and new offensive coordinator Jim Chaney, also known as developer of quarterbacks.
"This staff is great," Guarantano said last week. "Everything we're doing, Coach Chaney, Coach Weinke, I think we're all on the same page and working for the same thing."
Weinke's job is bigger than working with Guarantano, of course. He must develop a backup, which is no small task considering neither player competing this spring for that spot (redshirt freshman J.T. Shrout and early enrollee Brian Maurer) has thrown a pass in a college game.
Barring an injury, though, Guarantano will take the important snaps for the Vols this season, so most of the focus has been on his improvement.
"You utilize the spring to, one, hopefully become more fundamentally sound while you're learning a new system," Weinke said, "and I think with him it's really piecing everything together. Being able to get the ball out of his hands, make good decisions, good starting point with his eyes, play with a sense of urgency. I always talk about playing fast but not in a hurry, and that's really what you want your quarterback to be able to do.
"And it's always tough, like I said, learning a new offense. He has made progress. He understands what we're doing. I'm really working on the total body of what he's trying to do to play at a high level at this position."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3 or at Facebook.com/VolsUpdate.