Tennessee offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Tyson Helton, left, confers with Jarrett Guarantano and head coach Jeremy Pruitt during the Orange and White Game in April.KNOXVILLE - Tennessee's football team ran 116 plays Sunday at Neyland Stadium during a scrimmage coach Jeremy Pruitt described as "inconsistent on both sides of the ball."
The scrimmage - the Volunteers' first of this preseason, it was closed to fans and media - included an assortment of good and bad, in Pruitt's assessment. Among the good the first-year coach saw was the running game and perimeter blocking by receivers.
There were "too many undisciplined penalties" and some lackluster pass protection, though, said Pruitt, who also believes his quarterbacks need to improve at getting the football out of their hands quickly.
"We've got to do a better job converting third downs on the offensive side," Pruitt said. "I think as we get into figuring out who the players are going to be in which spots, it gives us an opportunity to try to create some consistency, some rhythm. We're not there yet. There's still lots of competition. We've got to figure it out."
The most high-profile of the competitions leading into the Sept. 1 season opener against West Virginia in Charlotte, North Carolina, is for the starting quarterback's job. Pruitt said no one has separated from the pack in that battle yet.
Redshirt sophomore Jarrett Guarantano has been the first quarterback to go through many drills viewed by media this preseason, but Stanford graduate transfer Keller Chryst is pushing him for the job.
"From a quarterback standpoint, both of them have really done some good stuff," Pruitt said Sunday, before quickly doling out compliments for sophomore Will McBride and freshman J.T. Shrout, who appear to be on the periphery of the competition.
McBride played a number of snaps with Tennessee's second team Sunday and has had a "solid camp," Pruitt said. Shrout may have the best arm of all four, the coach noted.
"He's got to learn what's going on," Pruitt said of Shrout. "He can spin it. He's just got to figure it out."
Pruitt's comment on Shrout reflected his view towards Tennessee's group of newcomers as a whole after the first scrimmage.
"We've got a lot of young guys that really don't know how to do it," Pruitt said. "They're plenty capable. We're giving them opportunities, and this was their first chance out there. Just like most of them do, as the scrimmage went, the better they got.
"That's a good thing. That's a positive. It means we didn't make a mistake when we recruited them. It's there."
Not ready yet
Two redshirt juniors, offensive lineman Chance Hall and receiver Jauan Jennings, did not participate in the scrimmage as they continue working back to full strength after knee surgeries.
Jennings, who made 40 catches in 2016, "got a little hyperextended" diving for a ball in a recent practice, Pruitt said.
"So we kept him out of the contact periods," the coach explained.
Hall, who is expected to compete for a starting job as he returns to full strength, has been participating in live plays during practices.
"But we didn't want to scrimmage him today," Pruitt said. "We wanted to kind of build into it. Based off the number of snaps at practices, we wasn't there yet. Hopefully we'll get a chance for both of them to scrimmage for the first time next week."
Contact David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @DavidWCobb and on Facebook at facebook.com/volsupdate.