KNOXVILLE — Quarterback J.T. Shrout enters his third season at Tennessee.
The 6-foot-3, 213-pound redshirt sophomore appeared in four games and started one contest last season. Shrout finished the season going 13-for-27 through-the-air and totaled 179 passing yards and one touchdown.
Shrout is part of a quarterback room that consists of redshirt senior Jarrett Guarantano, sophomore Brian Maurer and freshman Harrison Bailey. Guarantano, Maurer and Shrout all started games last season.
During the third week of fall training camp, Tennessee’s quarterbacks coach Chris Weinke discussed Shrout ahead of the upcoming season.
“J.T. is a guy that works his tale off,” Weinke said on a Zoom call with reporters. “He studies the game. He spends extra time in here watching film. It’s important to him and that’s evident. You see that every day from this young man.
“I think the advantage now of going into that second year of this same offense with Coach (Jim) Chaney, I think all of the guys are a little more comfortable, with the exception of Harrison (Bailey) who hasn’t been in this offense.”
Weinke mentioned Shrout “is very conscious of every move that he makes.”
“Sometimes, when you get to be too careful, you start to overthink,” Weinke said. “I think he needs to continue to trust himself. I tell the guys all the time, one of the biggest things we talk about is eye discipline. Know what you’re looking at and then see what you’re looking at. They’re kind of going, ‘Well, wait a second Coach.’
“At the end of the day, J.T. can make all the throws. He throws it as good as a lot of guys I’ve been around. I think his familiarity with the offense is allowing him to operate at a much faster pace right now. We have to eliminate the mistakes and that goes for all of the quarterbacks, but I think if we can eliminate the disastrous plays, whether it’s one a practice or it’s five a practice, when we can eliminate those, you’ll see great progress at that position.”