KNOXVILLE – After the Tennessee Volunteers’ 45-0 drubbing of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga on Saturday at Neyland Stadium, Jeremy Pruitt was defiant when questioned about his starting quarterback.
The second-year Tennessee coach was asked how junior Jarrett Guarantano had handled the previous two weeks after struggling in losses to Georgia State and BYU.
“I think you guys probably give yourselves more credit than you deserve,” Pruitt said. “The rest of us, we ain’t really worried about what you say when it comes to our quarterback and all that. So we just went business as usual.
“Jarrett’s our quarterback, OK? And he’ll be our quarterback until we decide that he’s not. But he deserves to be our quarterback. He’s outplayed everybody.”
Guarantano’s postgame response was much different. He was willing to admit he needed to get away some after coming under fire from outside the locker room, despite having at-worst average stats in the back-to-back losses.