The relationship between coach Jeremy Pruitt and Jarrett Guarantano will be an interesting one to watch moving forward this season, especially this week against South Carolina, or as long as Brian Maurer is injured.

Guarantano’s shocking decision to freelance a play call at the goal line that resulted in a fumble and Alabama touchdown in the loss to the Crimson Tide put him in the doghouse with many fans. But Pruitt explained candidly on Monday what his relationship is like with Guarantano, and how the coaching staff trusts the veteran QB.

“We trust all of our players,” Pruitt said. “That’s one thing we work hard to build. It goes back to you wanting to rep something so many times that you never get in wrong and that’s something that we try to do with all of our positions. Sometimes it comes down to decision making at every position. Coaches have to earn players’ trust and players have to earn coaches’ trust — it goes hand in hand. Jarrett is a guy, I’ve said many times before, that I believe in. I think he has what it takes, but I do think that he needs to be more consistent with the right intangibles so that he can play at a little higher level. He knows that, we talked yesterday.”

Guarantano was 7-for-16 passing for 55 yards, and he had seven carries for a loss of four yards.

“You look at that game, there were three of four times during the game where if you talk about standing in the pocket and making throws, he did a really nice job,” Pruitt said. “That game is over with, we have to learn from it and move on. I said after the Georgia game that he would help us win some games this year, and he did last week against Mississippi State. He’s a guy that is going to continue to go to work. Me and him have a relationship where I’m going to coach him hard — I’m going to coach all of our players hard — but he’s a guy that I believe in and I haven’t wavered in that.”