Former Tennessee Vols quarterback Jarrett Guarantano commented this week on one of his most infamous moments at UT.

Guarantano, who played at Tennessee from 2016 to 2020 before finishing his career at Washington State in 2021, had been expecting to play in the Vols’ season opener against Georgia Tech in 2017.

But that’s not what happened.

Tennessee head coach Butch Jones didn’t publicly name a starting quarterback before the game against Georgia Tech.

Guarantano, according to a source, was told in the days before the game that he was going to start against the Yellow Jackets.

Jones, however, told Guarantano shortly before the game that Quinten Dormady would be starting instead.

Guarantano was then seen “pouting” on the broadcast of the game — though fans weren’t aware that he had been misled by Jones.

Network says QB's have been sitting like this the whole game. They should be communicating with each other regardless of who's in! @wvlt pic.twitter.com/GPRHxMITX6

— Rick Russo (@wvltrick) September 5, 2017

Guarantano joined 104.5 The Zone’s 3HL on Friday, and he spoke briefly about his experience in the Georgia Tech game.

“I know how I would feel, and that probably is not the right thing to feel,” said Guarantano while discussing Tennessee’s young quarterbacks (Jake Merklinger and George MacIntyre) who will back up Joey Aguilar in 2025. “I mean, I had the one instance. Everybody knows the Georgia Tech [game] my freshman year, right? I felt like I was misled or lied to, and I was expecting to play, and it didn’t happen. Everybody doesn’t really understand. And I took it out emotionally — I was just disconnected. And I showed national TV [and] the national media how upset I was. And I should have never did that.”

Gurantano was 19 years old at the time. He was basically lied to. And then he had to go stand on the sidelines on national television for four hours while he processed what happened. I’m not sure anyone would handle that situation well.

Ultimately, Guarantano’s infamous sideline behavior against Georgia Tech in 2017 serves as a reminder that what is seen on the sideline during a football game on TV is not always as it seems.

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