When Jarrett Guarantano made his way to the visiting tunnel after Saturday’s win against Auburn, he was greeted to a standing ovation by the thousands of Tennessee fans who invaded Jordan-Hare Stadium. While holding the game ball, the sophomore quarterback blew a kiss to the Vols faithful, who witnessed the program’s first SEC win in over a year.

In one gesture, Guarantano basically said, “thank you for sticking with us.” He could’ve just as easily said “thank you for sticking with me.”

After all, Guarantano was the quarterback of the team that entered Saturday with a program-worst 11-game losing streak against SEC foes. It was he who took hit after hit last year and in the early part of this year. Nobody ever doubted Guarantano’s toughness. His ability to take a hit earned him respect from Tennessee fans.

But going into Auburn and playing the game of his life clearly earned Guarantano a different kind of respect. When he took more hits Saturday, he didn’t just earn respect by being able to stay in the game. He earned it by taking over the game.

Whether it was connecting with Jauan Jennings in the end zone or delivering a strike in the seam to Ty Chandler, Guarantano was on the money all day. His performance silenced any whispers about Jeremy Pruitt potentially turning to Stanford grad transfer Keller Chryst.

It took one afternoon for Guarantano to show just how far he’s come in the last year.

Credit: John Reed-USA TODAY Sports

Thirteen months ago, Guarantano acted like a kid who didn’t get his way. In his defense, he didn’t. Quinten Dormady got the start in Tennessee’s 2017 season opener, and Guarantano wasn’t happy about it. ESPN cameras caught the redshirt freshman looking disinterested on the sideline.

Kirk Herbstreit even said on the broadcast that “Guarantano’s a young freshman, but as a backup quarterback, wherever the play-callers are, whether you have a headset on or you’re signaling plays in, you should be somewhere where the offense is involved and you’re getting the play call in and you’re learning as the starting quarterback is going through good or bad moments. He’s nowhere to be found.”

Yikes.

Yet here we are 13 months later and Guarantano is still in orange and white. Instead, it was Dormady who transferred after losing the starting job to Guarantano. And when a new coaching staff came in and recruited Chryst to come to Knoxville, Guarantano didn’t go anywhere. Many in his position would have. Guarantano would have had plenty of suitors back on the East Coast, where he became the No. 1 dual-threat quarterback recruit in the 2016 class at Bergen Catholic (New Jersey).

We don’t know officially why Guarantano decided to tough it out at Tennessee because Saturday marked the first time he was available to speak to the media during the Pruitt era. But in the offseason, Guarantano did talk with houmatoday.com at the Manning Passing Academy about how he was a fan of the coaching change.

In that interview, Guarantano also shared his desire to do more than just take a hit. He wanted to develop his skill set thrive in new offensive coordinator Tyson Helton’s spread-it-out, West Coast-style offense.

“I’m working on quicker release, making quicker decisions, getting the ball out of my hand,” Guarantano told houmatoday.com during the offseason. “Coach Pruitt has brought everything from Alabama. We can see how much he cares about football, and how much he loves the guys. He’s assembled a winning program. We feel like if we follow him, we’ll be just fine.”

Speaking of Alabama, the new and improved Guarantano will go up against the ultimate test Saturday when Tennessee hosts Pruitt’s former team. How noticeable is Guarantano’s Year 2 jump? Well, Alabama defensive players like Mack Wilson felt inclined to tweet about on late on Sunday night.

Maybe part of Guarantano’s newfound confidence is having someone like Jennings, who was kicked off the team by last year’s staff following a postgame Instagram tirade but allowed to return on a conditional basis by Pruitt. Perhaps Guarantano is just better prepared to handle the speed of the game.

Last year, Guarantano had 4 touchdown passes all season (only 3 came vs. FBS competition). In the past 2 games against Auburn and Georgia defenses that were ranked in the top 6 in scoring, Guarantano had a combined 4 touchdown passes with 64 percent accuracy and zero interceptions.

With the exception of the Florida game that Guarantano was injured in, he completed at least 61 percent of his passes without an interception in every 2018 contest so far. For someone who was billed as a dual-threat quarterback, Guarantano has done it all with his arm in Helton’s offense. And the numbers show that the downfield passing game is starting to click.

On third downs against Auburn, Guarantano was 11-of-14. On passes that were 10 yards or more downfield, he completed 8-of-14 passes for 232 passing yards. That’s why Pro Football Focus had Guarantano as the highest-graded quarterback in America in Week 7.

Check that. Guarantano was the highest-graded offensive player* in America in Week 7.

Without looking it up, I can say with certainty that was the first time Guarantano earned such an honor.

Nobody would have had him in that conversation last year. Shoot, nobody would’ve had him in that conversation last month when Guarantano wasn’t playing poorly, but he fit the “game manager” description to a T. Now, though, it’s clear that Helton is more comfortable opening up the offense for Guarantano.

The question now is how he handles his toughest challenge yet. This is the first time in Guarantano’s career that he’ll enter a game coming off consecutive multi-touchdown performances. It’ll be a bit different than when he saw Alabama last year a week removed from his first career start. Wilson and the Tide expect to see a more confident quarterback, though not one who is blowing kisses to Tennessee fans at game’s end.

Still, it’s clear that the Vols have a quarterback who they can rally around. Tennessee fans stuck with Guarantano, and on Saturday, he rewarded their patience.

They shouldn’t have any problems sticking with him for a couple more years.