TennesseeVol2006
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Rarely in life do you get a 2nd shot.
2015 Oklahoma was the most important game of Tennessee’s future. We were still figuring out who Butch Jones was. We had this recruiting class coming in full of talent that set out to restore Tennessee to greatness. We had a national power in Oklahoma coming to Knoxville with an unproven transfer QB leading their team. Checkerboard in Neyland. We all know what happened. Oklahoma won in stunning fashion. Baker Mayfield carried that momentum to go on to lead Oklahoma to the playoffs and won a Heisman. Trevor Lawrence and a host of other top talent was at that game and left Knoxville possibly deciding against Tennessee. Butch’s youthful recruits never really gelled and took the next step. 2016 was a year of promise that just resulted in the collapse that culminated in 2017 being the worst season in the history of Tennessee football and the firing of LARP band dork pretending to be an alpha SEC HC. (Restored band geek status by being a coffee boy at Bama).
Winston Churchill famously said: “Those who fail to acknowledge history are condemned to repeat it.”
Now, here we are going into the 2020 season with a similar situation. We have a team comprised of elite talent on the offensive line. Potentially the best offensive line in Tennessee history. Right there with the team in 2013(14?) with Tiny Richardson, Zach Fulton, etc. Gray has shown flashes of brilliance at RB. Our WR’s are definitely a question mark. Our defense has shown promise and development.
The biggest question mark—is QB play. I will flat out say it: Guarantano is not good. If he goes into this season as a starter and gets the reps, we will be repeating exactly what we did in 2015.
Guarantano is a great kid. But he’s not a talented QB. We want talent like Joe Burrow or Trevor Lawrence or Justin Fields.
Just a reminder for you....Joe Burrow threw nearly twice as many TD passes this year (60) in 15 games as Guarantano has thrown (32) in his 3 seasons (34 games) at Tennessee. Add to that his running abilities which would’ve put considerably more pressure on Bama’s D, which is something that Guarantano doesn’t have the ability to do.....Burrow 768 yards and 12 tds rushing in 2 years at LSU....Guarantano -79 yards and 1 TD rushing in 3 years at Tennessee.
We’re going to experience another decade of irrelevance and misery if Guarantano is our starter, and Pruitt’s regime will come to an end as a failure. That’s not what I want to happen, it’s just what will happen. A disaster campaign for the 2020 season means Pruitt starts being on the hot seat. That makes it even harder to recruit. And then you just don’t have the talent to compete.
Mark my words: if Guarantano gets the reps, we have a ceiling as an 8-9 win team for the next 10 years again. If ANYONE other than Guarantano gets the reps last season—we’re a 10 win team.
Before you comment—go through and look at the play by play drives on ESPN for any of the games we lost. You’ll notice some serious problems with our offense. It wasn’t our defense’s fault at any point this season.
Go Vols.
2015 Oklahoma was the most important game of Tennessee’s future. We were still figuring out who Butch Jones was. We had this recruiting class coming in full of talent that set out to restore Tennessee to greatness. We had a national power in Oklahoma coming to Knoxville with an unproven transfer QB leading their team. Checkerboard in Neyland. We all know what happened. Oklahoma won in stunning fashion. Baker Mayfield carried that momentum to go on to lead Oklahoma to the playoffs and won a Heisman. Trevor Lawrence and a host of other top talent was at that game and left Knoxville possibly deciding against Tennessee. Butch’s youthful recruits never really gelled and took the next step. 2016 was a year of promise that just resulted in the collapse that culminated in 2017 being the worst season in the history of Tennessee football and the firing of LARP band dork pretending to be an alpha SEC HC. (Restored band geek status by being a coffee boy at Bama).
Winston Churchill famously said: “Those who fail to acknowledge history are condemned to repeat it.”
Now, here we are going into the 2020 season with a similar situation. We have a team comprised of elite talent on the offensive line. Potentially the best offensive line in Tennessee history. Right there with the team in 2013(14?) with Tiny Richardson, Zach Fulton, etc. Gray has shown flashes of brilliance at RB. Our WR’s are definitely a question mark. Our defense has shown promise and development.
The biggest question mark—is QB play. I will flat out say it: Guarantano is not good. If he goes into this season as a starter and gets the reps, we will be repeating exactly what we did in 2015.
Guarantano is a great kid. But he’s not a talented QB. We want talent like Joe Burrow or Trevor Lawrence or Justin Fields.
Just a reminder for you....Joe Burrow threw nearly twice as many TD passes this year (60) in 15 games as Guarantano has thrown (32) in his 3 seasons (34 games) at Tennessee. Add to that his running abilities which would’ve put considerably more pressure on Bama’s D, which is something that Guarantano doesn’t have the ability to do.....Burrow 768 yards and 12 tds rushing in 2 years at LSU....Guarantano -79 yards and 1 TD rushing in 3 years at Tennessee.
We’re going to experience another decade of irrelevance and misery if Guarantano is our starter, and Pruitt’s regime will come to an end as a failure. That’s not what I want to happen, it’s just what will happen. A disaster campaign for the 2020 season means Pruitt starts being on the hot seat. That makes it even harder to recruit. And then you just don’t have the talent to compete.
Mark my words: if Guarantano gets the reps, we have a ceiling as an 8-9 win team for the next 10 years again. If ANYONE other than Guarantano gets the reps last season—we’re a 10 win team.
Before you comment—go through and look at the play by play drives on ESPN for any of the games we lost. You’ll notice some serious problems with our offense. It wasn’t our defense’s fault at any point this season.
Go Vols.