No. 6 Florida (8-1, 8-1 SEC) defeated Tennessee, 31-19, Saturday at Neyland Stadium.
The Vols featured three quarterbacks against Florida. Freshman Harrison Bailey started the contest and Brian Maurer and J.T. Shrout also played.
Following the loss to Florida, third-year Tennessee head coach Jeremy Pruitt discussed his quarterbacks.
“J.T. really had two weeks of really good practice, and then on Wednesday, he was throwing a ball and then his shoulder popped,” Pruitt said. “We didn’t really even know if he could play going into today, but he felt like he could. We had a plan to play both of the guys going in if J.T. could. We went with Harrison to start and were rocking along okay. I know we didn’t create a ton of explosive plays, but we were kind of changing the momentum of the game there and then gave up a drive right before halftime.
“As the game went in the second half, there were a couple plays that I thought maybe we could have been a little more aggressive on. J.T. is, from an experience standpoint, two years older than Harrison, so just getting him out there and going, I thought he did a nice job at the end.”
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Bailey finished the contest 14-of-21 for 111 yards and one touchdown. He was sacked five times.
Shrout completed 12 of 14 passes for 121 yards and one touchdown. He was sacked one time. Maurer completed his only passing attempt for eight yards.
Redshirt senior quarterback Jarrett Guarantano did not play against the Gators.
“He hadn’t practiced in 13 days,” Pruitt said of Guarantano. “A lot of those guys had not practiced in 13 days that played today. It’s probably a lot tougher on a quarterback.”
Pruitt was also asked about the quarterback unit going forward with games against Vanderbilt and Texas A&M remaining in the regular season.
“Every week — so you all will never have to ask me this again — every week we see who competes well in practice, who does the best job that we feel like affects the guys around him, and we will do that as long as I’m the head football coach here at every position, so you don’t have to ask me again,” Pruitt said.
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