Jarrett Guarantano hasn’t played great through the first two games of Tennessee’s season, and Vols head coach Jeremy Pruitt realizes that. But he also remains confident that Guarantano will perform better in the near future.

While speaking at the Knoxville Quarterback Club on Monday, Pruitt praised Guarantano and expressed faith in the Vols’ starting quarterback.

“Everyone in our program knows the last six months he’s been far and away our best quarterback prospect,” Pruitt said, according to 247sports.com’s Grant Ramey. “The guy is smart, can make all the throws, good decision maker, tough. … Our best players on offense are our wide receivers. The only way they can get the ball is if it goes through the quarterbacks hands.”

Guarantano has passed for 487 yards, four touchdowns and two interceptions. And Pruitt knows what the key is for the junior to have success.

“He’s got to do a nice job of being able to recognize what people are giving him and not giving him and get the ball in their hands. And he’s done that the majority of the time,” Pruitt said. “But our margin of error is not really big. We struggle to run the football on a consistent basis. But he’s a guy that has the talent to get it done. We need him to raise his level of play, just like I need to coach better. And every player in our program need to raise their level of play.”

Tennessee will look to bounce back from two straight losses to open the season when it hosts Chattanooga on Saturday at noon ET on SEC Network.