Tennessee Vols' Jarrett Guarantano: 'I’m starting to get the hang of this thing'

Jarrett Guarantano felt amped up in the hours ahead of his first career start.

“I couldn’t sleep last night,” Guarantano said Saturday after Tennessee’s 15-9 loss to South Carolina. “All morning, I couldn’t eat anything. I was very nervous, very anxious.”

Then the game started.

“After the first snap, I was good,” he said. “I think it’s always been like that, and I think it was like that today. I felt very comfortable out there.”

Between Tennessee’s 41-0 loss to Georgia on Sept. 30 and Saturday’s loss to the Gamecocks (5-2, 3-2 SEC), the Vols (3-3, 0-3) transitioned from Quinten Dormady to Guarantano. Dormady started the season's first five games.

Guarantano showcased his athleticism throughout the first half with a series of scrambles and keepers on read option plays. The Gamecocks shut down his running after halftime.

More:Jones' future murky, Guarantano's bright after Vols' loss to South Carolina

“They were playing more of the zone read," Guarantano said. "They were playing me more, loading the box a little bit. ... You really saw them scraping to me outside whenever I had a zone read pull or rolling out. He was right there. The linebacker was waiting right for me.”

Guarantano also was sacked seven times. At times, Guarantano was the victim of poor pass protection. Other times, he simply held the ball too long.

As for his passing, Guarantano was 11-of-18 for 133 yards.

Coach Butch Jones used a conservative game plan. Guarantano passed the ball only 10 times before the game’s final drive, when he led Tennessee on a 73-yard march that wound up 2 yards short of the end zone.

More:Vols football: What happened on final drive that fell just short vs. South Carolina

Guarantano’s running ability was one reason Jones made the starting quarterback switch.

A third-and-2 during the second quarter highlighted Guarantano’s dual-threat ability. He took a snap from under center, rolled right and kept the ball for a 6-yard run. As he got to his feet, he emphatically signaled first down. Earlier on that same drive, he had scrambles of 5 yards and 6 yards after protection deteriorated.

Guarantano’s first start was hamstrung by red-zone deficiencies. The Vols turned four trips inside the 20 into nine points. That included the final drive, when Guarantano threw three straight incompletions to end the game.

Before that, though, he completed four passes during the drive, including a 39-yard strike to Brandon Johnson – one of the few times all day that Guarantano threw a pass more than 15 yards downfield.

More:Guarantano gets encouragement from South Carolina QB Jake Bentley

“The whole last drive was pretty unbelievable, especially with them having a freshman quarterback in there and able to get down the field like that,” Gamecocks wide receiver Bryan Edwards said. “You tip your hat to those guys, but our defense stepped up, and that is all that matters.”

The final drive sort of summed up Guarantano’s first start – some bright moments, but, ultimately, not enough.

“I think that I’m starting to get the hang of this thing,” said Guarantano, who’d played off the bench in three games before Saturday. “It can only go up from here.”