So about Tennessee solving its quarterback quagmire.

The Vols rolled past UAB 30-7, as a suffocating defense forced four turnovers, had three sacks and routinely setup the offense with “alley-hoops,” per head coach Jeremy Pruitt.

But a week after a 350-yard passing performance left some saying Tennessee suddenly had three viable options at quarterback, Saturday was no slam dunk for Tennessee’s offense despite using three guys behind center for the second-straight game.

The Vols are now 4-5 and have won four games with four different “starting quarterbacks” — Jarrett Guarantano vs. Chattanooga, Brian Maurer vs. Mississippi State, Jauan Jennings vs. South Carolina and JT Shrout vs. UAB.

Stay tuned for what’s in store next weekend at Kentucky.

A week ago against South Carolina, Tennessee’s quarterback shuffle worked like a charm, but it was a clunky operation on a chilly Saturday in Neyland Stadium.

Shrout made his first-career start but lasted just a single series — and one awful throw — before Pruitt, operating with a reliever-starter gameplan much like some new-age MLB managers, made his call to the bullpen for Guarantano.

Guarantano was only six days removed from getting seven screws in a broken left hand, and said he was in “constant pain,” but Pruitt decided that his team’s best option was still playing with a quarterback who had a Luke Skywalker claw and had to hold his hand up like Chubbs in Happy Gillmore for his postgame interviews.

“It’s hard for me to grip (the ball) honestly,” Guarantano said.

“I just had surgery on Sunday. It’s throbbing a lot.”

On a scale of 1-10 how much does the hand hurt?

“My dad would tell me to say three and my mom would tell me to say 11. So somewhere in the middle of that,” he said, with a grin.

Tennessee, ultimately, won with ease Saturday, but it did so playing with one hand behind its back — figuratively and literally.

Guarantano, who has 22 career starts but has become Pruitt’s go-to reliever, played like a guy fighting a painful injury while also battling his typical inconsistencies. Coming on in early relief, the redshirt junior had his usual enigmatic performance — some great throws, some late throws, some body blows and one terrible interception.

He finished the victory going 13 of 21 for 147 yards, with one touchdown and one pick. Guarantano, whose toughness remains unquestioned, wasn’t helped at all early on by a shaky offensive line playing without right tackle Darnell Wright, but he also looked uncomfortable competing with a left-hand he mostly held limp between plays and on the sidelines. He was briefly benched to start the second half after he floated a poor pass off his back foot for a pick in the end zone, only to return to action a series later.

“I made a stupid mistake in the red zone,” Guarantano said.

“(Pruitt) got on me and rightfully so. I expect him to coach me hard. … It’s not a love-hate thing. It’s always love with him.”

And yet, despite Guarantano’s flaws, and significant injury, Pruitt decided No. 2 still gave Tennessee the best chance to win Saturday — and that says as much about the other options in the room as it does Guarantano.

Pruitt maintained all week that all three quarterbacks were available Saturday, and he doubled-down on that notion again postgame. Yet Brian Maurer, who has flashed but also has four interceptions in limited work, didn’t play — despite sources saying he split first-team reps with Shrout the first three days of practice.

“We elected to go with the other guys,” Pruitt said.

But “other guys” really meant Guarantano and a few Wildcat runs, as Shrout was on a leash too short for Smokey. It took one errant pass for the redshirt freshman to get pulled Saturday.

Following Bryce Thompson’s first interception, Shrout threw across his body in the red zone, and it was such a poor decision that Chris Weinke met him on the sidelines and immediately told the redshirt freshman, “Don’t ever throw that pass again.”

It was enough for Pruitt to decide to pull Shrout right then and there, too, even though strangely Tennessee’s head coach noted postgame that the weather and Guarantano’s injury were why the veteran didn’t start Saturday night in the first place.

“One guy had surgery on Sunday. It is cold out there, and he has a cast on his hand. First time getting out there, you see him in warmups and he practiced most of the week, but the ball was pretty slick there the way the air was tonight,” Pruitt explained on his QB management.

"If J.T. (Shrout) doesn’t run across the field or throw across his body, back over there when we were in field goal range, he might have kept playing.”

Tennessee is just two wins away from bowl eligibility, and whether Maurer or Shrout are QB1 next weekend at Kentucky, it's clear No. 2 is still Pruitt's most trusted signal-caller on the roster right now.