Arguably the biggest question mark in Knoxville entering fall camp is which quarterback will start for Jeremy Pruitt’s first Tennessee team on Rocky Top.

The answer is most likely going to come down to returning starter Jarrett Guarantano or Stanford graduate transfer Keller Chryst. While both players have had their struggles on the field at times, they both have the potential to engineer a quality offense for Tyson Helton’s first Tennessee unit in 2018. Of course, Chryst just recently arrived on campus as a summer enrollee, while Guaranatano had all spring to acclimate to the new offense.

Outside of his experience in the new system and Pruitt’s culture change on Rocky Top, SEC Network analyst Gene Chizik believes Guarantano has another edge on Chryst — he’s won the locker room in Knoxville.

Here’s what Chizik had to say about the ongoing QB competition at Tennessee during his Wednesday appearance on SEC Network program “SEC Now” from Atlanta’s SEC Media Days event.

“I know this, word coming out of Knoxville right now, what Guarantano does have is the locker room,” Chizik said. “Those kids really like him, they trust him and believe in him. That’s my word from Knoxville. The kids feel like they can win with him.”

Guarantano may have won over this teammates but it remains to be seen if he’s won over his coaches entering fall camp. It will be interesting to see how this fall camp competition plays out, especially if the coaches decide to go against the player they trust to win on the field heading into 2018.