“That’s the same team that lost to Georgia State,” is the rhetoric today from parts of Clemson, Columbus, Baton Rouge, and anywhere else a team fancies itself the best in the land.
It’s not, of course. You’re never really the same team in late October as you were in late August.
It is, unfortunately, the same season. Tennessee is still 2-5, and still needs a 4-1 finish to earn the bowl eligibility everyone assumed two months ago. But the Vols we saw in Tuscaloosa played way, way better than those same preseason assumptions allowed for.
They did it without Brian Maurer for most of the night, who left each of the last two games with only seven passing attempts for concussion protocol. They did it without Henry To’o To’o in the first half and Daniel Bituli for the second, a razor-thin position to begin with that somehow still held up. And they did it after catching the wrong end of several breaks from the officiating crew, including a pair of potentially game-changing calls in a matter of minutes.
And sure, we need a few words on Jarrett Guarantano. Last week the Vols play-called as if they were trying to win in spite of him, but Guarantano did go 6-of-7 for 106 yards, including a 41 yard bomb to Ramel Keyton that led to three points and the final strike to Tyler Byrd. They beat Mississippi State, in part, because of him doing what he needed to do on the few plays they asked him to do it.
The numbers were worse this time – 7-of-16 for 55 yards – but Guarantano did convert three third downs through the air in the second half, the first leading to three points and the other two on that 14-play drive.
It’s the end of that sequence that’s driving the outside conversation, and a fair percentage of what Tennessee fans are talking about too. Let’s consider what would’ve been true even if Guarantano didn’t fumble or actually scored.
Tennessee’s coaching staff has twice demonstrated their trust with Guarantano throwing the ball is already low. Whatever happened on that snap, it didn’t increase that level of trust. The other thing I believed to be true was, if Maurer couldn’t play, those coaches still believed JG gave Tennessee the best chance to win, and the feel-good story this season hopes to become is in need of those, now.
The move to put J.T. Shrout in the game cast some doubt on that, backed by a handful of those far closer to the program than I am not being nearly as surprised by the decision.
If Maurer isn’t an option, what do you do against South Carolina? It’s the latest of a series of difficult questions for Jeremy Pruitt. Answering difficult questions is in the job description, of course, but these are a different set of questions than we thought we’d be asking at this point in year two.
However, the questions we thought we’d be asking are getting answered in the affirmative more every week. Yesterday was one of the best performances from Tennessee’s offensive line in a long time, again despite obvious trust issues in the passing game. And Tennessee’s defensive line again made a difference: Alabama got just 4.1 yards per carry, the second-best performance by a Tennessee defense in this game in the last eight years.
Watching the way the Vols competed, there’s a hope we’re done with the +34.5 lines. Before Tua went out, the Vols came to play. Without him (but with Alabama’s army of five stars still intact), the Vols were competitive to the end.
It feels like we might be entering territory the Vols often found themselves in during basketball seasons of the past: capable of beating anyone, capable of being beat by anyone. It’s an exciting place to be! It can also be frustrating, especially with uncertainty at quarterback.
Tennessee has grown far beyond the team they were against Georgia State. In the big picture, the Vols are making progress in all the right places, restoring hope in this coaching staff and excitement for the future. In the short term, they may not like their options at quarterback, and have to manage a number of emotions with South Carolina coming to town in what’s become one of the biggest games of the year. Who’s going to get more questions about officiating this week between Pruitt and Muschamp? Who will be better at getting their team to respond from that kind of disappointment?
Everything is on the table for this team. That includes bowl eligibility and the hope such a run would inspire. And it includes more frustrating defeats behind more uncertainty at quarterback, enough to cast a shadow on this season’s overall progress. Especially in this season, we should’ve learned by now not to set expectations in stone for how it’s going to go the rest of the way. How’s it going to go this week?
As always, the Vols will be interesting in pursuit of the answer.
