Jeremy Pruitt details how Tennessee handled QB reps at practice during bye week
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Good news for Tennessee fans wanting to see a change under center as the bye week on Rocky Top provided an opportunity for several young quarterbacks to get some looks in practice.
That’s the way Jeremy Pruitt tells it, anyway, as the Tennessee coach was asked multiple questions regarding the status of the team’s quarterback competition during his Monday morning press conference to open Arkansas Week.
How were the QB reps handled during the bye week?
“We repped three groups last week,” Pruitt answered without giving specifics on which signal-callers got those reps. “So we went back and didn’t have enough to do four but we did do three groups. We split the quarterbacks amongst those three groups and got them a lot of reps there.”
Pruitt was later asked if the bye week provided more practice reps for Brian Maurer, Harrison Bailey and JT Shrout.
“Well, yeah, we went back to fall camp,” the Tennessee coach continued. “So in fall camp, we usually work four groups all the time and everyone gets the same amount of reps – at every position. That’s why we believe that players develop, because we spend that much time working on four groups.
“We split the staff up. We watch every bit of tape. This past week, we kept some guys out of practice to help them heal up a little bit. A few guys. So we only worked three groups but we still went back to camp mode. We worked very little on future opponents. We worked more on ourselves and the fundamental parts.”
While none of that information suggests a quarterback change is coming for Tennessee, it at least sounds like the younger quarterbacks on the roster had an opportunity to catch up to Jarrett Guarantano last week in practice.
Who knows, if any of them carry over that momentum to this week’s practice, we may see another passer for the Vols this weekend with the team traveling to Arkansas.
A graduate of the University of Tennessee, Michael Wayne Bratton oversees the news coverage for Saturday Down South. Michael previously worked for FOX Sports and NFL.com
