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Vols’ Weinke working with depth, experience, talent at QB this year
Chris Weinke is the first to admit he has been dealt a pretty good hand in his third year as a Tennessee football assistant and the second as quarterbacks coach. With fifth-year senior Jarrett Guarantano, redshirt sophomore J.T. Shrout and sophomore Brian Maurer, Weinke has three quarterbacks with starting experience for the Volunteers. With freshman Harrison Bailey, he has a top-100 national prospect in the 2020 signing class and one of the top three prostyle quarterbacks. “At the end of the day, there is everybody competing on a daily basis, and that’s what makes it so fun for me,” Weinke said Wednesday afternoon on a Zoom call. “You get some ebbs and flows throughout the course of practice, but they’re encouraging each other. We’ve got a good room right now, and there is good competition.
“There is nothing better than good competition.”
Tennessee’s quarterback race starts with Guarantano, a fact offensive coordinator Jim Chaney emphasized last week and Weinke echoed Wednesday. The 6-foot-4, 230-pounder from Lodi, New Jersey, had a rocky first half of last season but helped stabilize the Vols
as they won their final six games to cap an 8-5 record.
Guarantano enters this season with 34 career appearances and 25 career starts, having completed 391 of 642 passes (61.0%) for 5,062 yards with 32 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. His 2.02% career interception rate is the lowest in program history, and program history includes Peyton Manning.
“There is no doubt you see the confidence in Jarrett,” Weinke said. “He had the opportunity to spend this offseason studying the offense and watching a lot of film. During this whole pandemic, and I’ve talked to him every single day, there wasn’t a day when he wasn’t doing something that would help get him better, whether he was working out or throwing. He came in here about 228 pounds and looked great, and we’re trying to keep all that weight on him.
“You see a different level of confidence in him because he has a better understanding of what exactly we’re trying to get accomplished on every single play.”
Weinke added that Guarantano “becoming a functional thinker” and his anticipation are the biggest jumps he has performed in the past year.
Maurer, a 6-3, 195-pounder from Ocala, Florida, appeared in eight games last season and made four starts. He completed 35 of 75 passes for 542 yards with two interceptions and five touchdowns.
“He’s hampered and slowed down a little bit by a hamstring right now, so he hasn’t been able to operate in all of our team periods these last few practices,” Weinke said. “He’s still coming out there every day, and I think Brian is an example of a young guy last year who didn’t know exactly every detail of what we were trying to get accomplished but continued to learn. He is very talented and brings a lot to the table from that standpoint.
“We preach every day about how to be a professional, and I think you’re seeing that in Brian Mauer. We just have to create some consistency with him. That’s with all of them, but especially Brian.”
Shrout, a 6-3, 213-pounder from Santa Clarita, California, appeared in four games and started the 30-7 win over the University of Alabama at Birmingham. His season passing totals were 13-of-27 for 179 yards and a touchdown.
“J.T. is a guy who works his tail off,” Weinke said. “He studies the game. He spends extra time in here watching film. It’s important to him, and that’s evident. J.T. is very conscious of every move that he makes, and sometimes when you get to be too careful you start to overthink.
“I think he needs to continue to trust himself. He throws it as well as anybody I’ve been around, and I think his familiarity with the offense is allowing him to operate at a much faster pace right now, but we have to eliminate the mistakes.”
Then there is Bailey, the 6-5, 225-pounder from Marietta, Georgia, who already has endured some adversity in Knoxville due to the COVID-19 pandemic that resulted in him missing the first week of preseason camp due to social quarantine.
“He missed a little bit of time, and that hurts, and him coming in early and not being able to go through spring ball hurts in terms of your growth and development,” Weinke said. “He’s learning a new language, and when you’re not sure of something, you tend to play a little bit slower. He can make all the throws — there is no doubt about that.
“What you try to create is an understanding of exactly what we’re asking him to do, and then be able to process the information and with a sense of urgency. That’s hard right now for any young quarterback.”
Chaney said last week that the battle for the backup quarterback spot is one of the most intriguing competitions on the team. Weinke added Wednesday that such a pecking order will occur later than sooner for the Vols, who open the season Sept. 26 at South Carolina.
“Those decisions will be made down the road as we continue to evaluate on a daily basis,” Weinke said. “We track every throw.”