Washington State Football: Will Jarrett Guarantano steal starting QB job?

Sometimes all you need is a change of scenery to revitalize your career — just ask Feleipe Franks.

After starting 32 games at Tennessee, Jarrett Guarantano joins Washington State football for the 2021 season and while he’s not currently the projected starter, he looks to be in good shape with Jayden de Laura missing some spring ball after a DUI arrest.

Guarantano’s decision to transfer to Washington State looks to be a wise one as the starting job is completely up in the air between him, de Laura, and Cammon Cooper.

de Laura didn’t exactly blow anyone away last year as Nick Rolovich’s first starting quarterback in Pullman, either. He completed 60 percent of his passes for 886 yards, five touchdowns, and four picks. Cooper was 11-for-16 with 99 yards and no scores or interceptions.

When you look at Guarantano, he may have just needed better offensive coaching and a change of scenery to really see success at the collegiate level after being a blue-chip prospect in high school.

Although he did pass for over 6,000 yards with 38 touchdowns and 17 interceptions at Tennessee, he never really had that one breakout season. He looked like he was about to turn the corner in 2018, but then he had a career-worst 59 percent completion rate in 2019. He improved that percentage to 62 in 2020 but had just six touchdown passes with four picks in seven games.

With Washington State looking for a legitimate QB1, could it go the route of Arkansas last year and rely on a veteran with plenty of starting experience looking for a fresh start?

Guarantano may be what Washington State football needs

There are positives and negatives to starting de Laura, Cooper, and Guarantano, but what no one other than the latter has is extensive experience against high-level competition.

Getting Guarantano in the right situation may just pay huge dividends for him and we all saw what happened when Franks left Florida last season and got a fresh start at Arkansas. He went from a mid-level player who kind of coasted throughout his career in terms of progression to one of the steadiest hands in the SEC.

I think we’ll see him take the field when the season starts because he has experience and potentially newfound confidence in a staff that believes in his arm.

Can he win the starting job? Absolutely. Will he? I would lean toward yes.