Butch Jones has a difficult decision to make. Perhaps he already made it.

He can start junior Quinten Dormady, who has experience working in his favor, though he only has 39 career pass attempts worth of experience. Or Jones can start redshirt freshman Jarrett Guarantano, who has as much college game experience as Jim McElwain’s dog.

Either way, Tennessee will trot out a first-time starter to replace the under-appreciated Joshua Dobbs. Jones has not given any indication as to which guy it will be, though he admitted both could see the field. Whatever Jones decides, there should be one aspect that doesn’t factor into his decision at all.

Youth.

If Guarantano is the guy he believes he can build an offense around, then he needs to be the guy. Short term, long term, whatever.

Guarantano’s age won’t determine whether he can succeed as a starting SEC quarterback.

Credit: Calvin Mattheis-USA TODAY Sports

If there’s anyone still under the impression that a redshirt freshman quarterback can’t succeed in big-time college football immediately, that take needed to die yesterday. Johnny Manziel and Jameis Winston both won the Heisman Trophy as redshirt freshmen. It didn’t seem to matter that both had some serious off-the-field maturing to do. By all accounts, Guarantano does not.

As a recruit, Manziel was the No. 13 dual-threat quarterback in his class. Winston was the No. 1.

You know who else was the top dual-threat quarterback in his class? Guarantano.

It’s clear that the former 4-star recruit isn’t lacking in the talent department. If he were, Jones wouldn’t have said that it was an even race. Well, unless Dormady was clearly the guy and he just wanted to throw the Yellow Jackets off the scent.

It’s not like Guarantano competed all offseason against a returning starter or even against someone with starting experience. That’s not meant as a slight to Dormady, but did two years of holding a clipboard really mean he was that much more likely to succeed than Guarantano?

It shouldn’t. Otherwise, Jones could’ve announced Tennessee’s starter the day after the Music City Bowl.

Instead, Jones said as recently as last week that Guarantano made it an even battle. In other words, he caught up to Dormady. The challenge, of course, is that we don’t know if Guarantano passed Dormady. And if he did, perhaps Jones just tried to deep Dormady on campus instead of transferring in the summer by calling it an even battle.

We don’t know. We don’t know what the plan will be for Guarantano on Monday night or beyond. Jones could treat him with kid gloves and only use him for limited snaps. Even worse, he could do what McElwain did with Feleipe Franks and pull him the first time he makes a mistake.

Both of those courses of action would be doing a disservice not only to Guarantano, but to the entire Tennessee program.

Jones has been criticized this offseason for making excuses. He reportedly wasn’t too happy about the fact that Georgia Tech got an advantage by practicing in the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium while the Vols only got a walk-through on Sunday. To some, it might sound like Jones is giving himself an excuse already.

If the Vols start a redshirt freshman quarterback and lose, would he have another excuse?

Absolutely not.