It’s the middle of May, and we do not know who will be under center against Furman to open the 2026 college football season for the Tennessee Volunteers. The same was true this time last year, too, after Nico Iamaleava’s sudden spring departure and Joey Aguilar’s late-spring arrival. In a perfect football world, you would prefer to know who will be your team’s starting quarterback sooner rather than later. However, as you saw with Tennessee’s offense last season, particularly out of the gate, the musical chairs at quarterback turned out to be a nothing burger for the Vols. Perhaps once the George MacIntyre vs. Faizon Brandon quarterback battle is settled, I’ll look back this time next year and write something similar. Sticking with this upcoming season, though, I do wonder how much I will end up writing about the quarterback play this fall for the Tennessee Volunteers.

If you’re a glass-half-full person, the offensive line is where you look first to make the case that the quarterback play of either MacIntyre or Brandon will be just fine this upcoming season. You feel good about David Sanders going into his first full season as Tennessee’s left tackle, and the hit-rate for blue-chippers at this premium position of late. Tennessee also returns Sam Pendleton, their starting center last season. They return Wendell Moe Jr., their starting left guard last season. They return Jesse Perry, their starting right tackle and, at times, right guard last season, and they return Sham Umarov, who started 10 games at left guard for the Vols last season. Outside of the departure of last year’s starting left tackle, Lance Heard, who transferred to Kentucky this offseason, the Vols are bringing a whole lot of production and snaps back to protect MacIntyre or Brandon this season.

The difference in playmakers out wide and at tight end will also be vastly different for MacIntyre or Brandon than it was for Iamaleava as a redshirt freshman in 2024, not to mention the offensive scheme changes. One of the most fascinating developments will be Tennessee’s projected top-two tight ends, Ethan Davis and DaSaahn Brame, and how big a role they play in the passing game as a reliable safety valve for Tennessee’s quarterback. Under Josh Heupel, the Vols have not had this much receiving upside at tight end. We saw in the NFL Draft this year, and with the Los Angeles Rams last year, that 13 personnel is all the rage in 2026, so it’s fair to wonder how much Heupel and his staff utilize the two extremely talented playmakers this fall. If you’re MacIntyre or Brandon, you have to be excited about the playmaking potential of Tennessee’s top two tight ends before even getting into the wide receiver spot.

Subscribe now

Speaking of the wideouts, Tennessee’s two breakout wideouts, Braylon Staley and Mike Matthews, are back. Now, who takes Chris Brazzell II’s place as the third starter will be interesting to see play out over the next few months. It could be Radarious Jackson, Travis Smith Jr., or Tristen Keys. Whatever combination wide receivers coach Kelsey Pope elects to roll with this fall, the Vols will have former four or five-star options in every combination he uses until he finds his best three. It’s another great development for a young quarterback to walk into.

Share

Tennessee might even have an award-winner at tailback in DeSean Bishop. The former Karns star was a Second-Team All-SEC player for Tennessee last year. He rushed for over 1,000 yards to keep that Volunteer running back streak alive. He averaged nearly six yards per carry in his first full season as the Vols’ lead tailback. Bishop might not be as explosive as former Tennessee star Dylan Sampson, but he could be just as valuable. Like Sampson significantly helped Iamaleava in 2024, Bishop should provide similar consistency and stability to help MacIntyre or Brandon.

I suspect the defense, particularly the front seven, will be the dominant talking point this fall, not the quarterback once a starter is named for the latter. There are too many positive and safe indicators around them not to expect the offense to be just fine for the majority of the season.

With the change at defensive coordinator from Tim Banks to Jim Knowles, the latter a championship-winning coach who completely stifled Tennessee’s offense in the first round of the 2024-25 College Football Playoff in Columbus, and a young quarterback under center, the Vols need the defense to be a whole lot better than it was in 2025 because the offense isn’t likely to be better, or as explosive vertically, as it was in 2025.

There is uncertainty at LEO. Former blue-chippers Caleb Herring and Jordan Ross transferred to rival SEC programs. Joshua Josephs was drafted in the fifth round by the Washington Commanders. Chaz Coleman, Tennessee’s big splash at LEO out of Penn State, is the biggest unknown on the defense. If he’s not a factor, and Tennessee’s pass-rush is non-existent in conference play, that’ll matter a whole lot more than who is under center for the Vols.

At linebacker, Tennessee has lots of talent, but lots of unproven talent behind Arion Carter and Amare Campbell. If the spring transfer portal window were still a thing, I do wonder how much movement there would have been at this position and at LEO. The Vols have more than enough capable bodies at linebacker, but might not have nearly enough off the edge. You can never have enough pass-rushers off the edge, but we will find out this fall if you can have too many linebackers. Just how realistic is it for linebackers coach William Inge to be able to rotate so many talented blue-chippers with two veteran leaders like Carter and Campbell at the top? It’s a good problem to have in mid-May, but that might not be the case in mid-October if the Vols’ defense can’t get off the field on third down because the pass rush can’t get home consistently.

In the secondary, Tennessee could have its best overall unit to this point in the Heupel era in Knoxville. You feel pretty set there, particularly with how productive and how experienced the vast majority of the transfer portal additions they made in this position room are. Tennessee really needs Daevin Hobbs to get healthy and stay healthy along the defensive interior. They need Coleman to be a factor off the edge. They need Ethan Utley and Isaiah Campbell to take a step. They need Marion Dye and Tyree Weathersby to be anchors at defensive end. I’m not in the business of doubting Tennessee defensive line coach Rodney Garner, but how the defensive line performs figures to be a much larger season-long talking point than how the quarterback performs. The floor of Garner and new LEO coach Andrew Jackson’s defensive line is uncharacteristically uncertain. Football is a team game, and the Vols averaged 1.80 sacks per game in their five losses last season and 3.5 sacks per game in their wins.

Yes, quarterback is the most important position in the game, but as everything stands right now for Tennessee, the best bet for the biggest talking point all year for the Vols will not be MacIntyre or Brandon – it will be Tennessee’s defensive line, as their productivity will be the biggest needle-mover in wins and losses all season long.

Leave a comment

If you enjoy what you read today in the Tennessee Vols sports section, consider becoming a subscriber below. You can select which sections of the newsletter you’d like to get emails from here.

Subscribe now

The Tennessee Volunteers are headed back to the Sweet Sixteen for the fourth straight season under men’s head basketball coach Rick Barnes. The 6-seeded Vols beat the 3-seeded Virginia Cavaliers 79-72 to advance to the next round of the men’s NCAA Tournament, where they will face off against the No. 2 seed Iowa State.

Let’s dive into a few of my takeaways from Sunday night’s instant classic in Philadelphia, where the Vols were able to stay dancing.

The Free Throws Ended Up Being Huge

For a lot of this game, I wondered if Tennessee would run into a math problem against Ryan Odom’s Cavaliers. The Cavs were taking, and, well, making lots of threes early in this ball game. Virginia made five threes on eight attempts within the first eight minutes, which did not seem like a recipe for a Volunteer victory on Sunday night.

Tennessee weathered the hot shooting from deep by Virginia, though, and pounded the latter inside. There was a point late in the first half where Tennessee had outscored Virginia 14-4 in the paint, but, again, I wondered if this would ultimately spell doom for the Vols with Virginia’s three-point shooting and the Vols continuing to play with two bigs, even after JP Estrella picked up two early fouls in the first half.

However, the Vols and Cavs finished with 28 and 26 points in the paint, respectively. The Vols and the Cavs finished close in three-pointers made, with 8 and 12, respectively. The disparity in points came at the free-throw line, as Tennessee’s top two scorers, Ja’Kobi Gillespie and Nate Ament, combined to go 13-of-14 at the charity stripe. Ultimately, the Vols went 19-25 at the free-throw line, and it proved to be the key scoring difference for Tennessee, stealing one over the higher-seeded Cavaliers.

Bishop Boswell Had Himself A Night

The sophomore guard had himself a game, didn’t he? As worried as I was about Tennessee’s math problem against Virginia early, Boswell played a significant role in the Vols’ winning this game and advancing to the Sweet Sixteen. Boswell hit three first-half threes and another big one in the second half, as he went 4-of-10 from deep overall on the night.

Subscribe now

Tennessee needed every one of those first-half threes from Boswell. There was one possession where Boswell even passed up an open three-pointer to drive and kick to Gillespie for an even better look from deep, which the latter drained. Boswell made so many different winning plays for Tennessee in this game and even added nine assists for good measure.

Share

Boswell can shoot, and the Vols need him to remember that he can shoot against the Cyclones in the Sweet Sixteen. Spacing can be tight for the Vols in the halfcourt, so Boswell must fire those open threes when he gets those kinds of looks because he can make them, and Tennessee needs him to take them. Boswell doesn’t need to fire any midrange shots, and he doesn’t really need to try to finish at the rim.

Give a gift subscription

He has to continue a similar shot diet to the one he had Sunday night moving forward. That doesn’t mean he needs to take ten-plus threes a night – it all depends on the flow of the game and what opposing defenses are showing him. Still, the Vols need more three-point shooting like that from Boswell, and they’ll always need his ability to drive and find Ament or Gillespie open for three around the perimeter.

Tennessee Turnovers Didn’t Cost Them

I think every Vol fan was a tad nervous as the second-half turnovers really started to mount late, although some of them were the result of some questionable non-foul calls on Virginia. The Vols finished the game with ten turnovers, and had they not found a way to beat the Cavs Sunday night, that likely would have been the leading takeaway after the game as to why.

Give a gift subscription

It got wonky down the stretch, but there were a lot of positives, too. Gillespie was clutch from the charity stripe. Ament, too. Even after missing most of the game due to foul trouble, Estrella had two huge buckets inside, one with two guys on him, late in the second half. Tennessee even lost the lead late in the game, but they still found a way to close and advance.

The Vols’ toughest test awaits in Iowa State, but we don’t have to think about that match-up yet. Tennessee has reached its fourth consecutive Sweet Sixteen and is just one win away from three-straight Elite Eights. What a run by Rick Barnes. What a run.

Leave a comment

If you enjoy what you read today in the Tennessee Vols sports section, consider becoming a subscriber below. You can select which sections of the newsletter you’d like to get emails from here.

Subscribe now

Well, FanDuel released its early 2026 SEC win total projections this week. That obviously included the Tennessee Volunteers, who now sit at 7.5 wins, a number shared by fellow SEC rivals Ole Miss, Oklahoma, and Florida. Interestingly enough, this will be the third straight season Tennessee’s preseason win total projection has fallen from the previous season. In 2024, it was 9.5 wins. Following Nico Iamaleava’s stunning spring departure the following season, it was 8.5 wins. With an additional conference game and an early road game on The Flats against Georgia Tech this season, it’s down to 7.5 wins.

Even with the additional conference game on the docket, and no Joey Aguilar or big-time, veteran transfer quarterback under center, that 7.5 total feels about right. 6.5 was too low, but 8.5 would have been too high. Head football coach Josh Heupel has won fewer than eight games just once at Tennessee. Even with so much change this offseason, particularly on defense and the defensive coaching staff, along with the uncertainty at quarterback, Heupel has earned the benefit of the doubt.

Share

However, one of the major worries I have about Tennessee’s schedule next season is the long wait before the first bye week for the Vols. Whether it’s redshirt freshman George MacIntyre or true freshman Faizon Brandon under center, they will face Texas, Auburn, Arkansas, Alabama, and South Carolina before that first bye week. What makes the slate a bit easier – although easier feels like the wrong word there – is that the games against the Longhorns, Tigers, and Crimson Tide all take place in the friendly confines of Neyland Stadium. It’s fair to project that Arkansas and South Carolina, the two road games for Tennessee during that stretch, will be the weakest of the bunch amongst that group this fall.

Share

It’s a better year to get Arkansas, South Carolina, Vanderbilt, and Georgia Tech on the road. The Hawgs will look vastly different under new head coach Ryan Silverfield, with a projected win total of 4.5. The Gamecocks are already dealing with brutal injury luck on the offensive line with a projected win total of 5.5. The Commodores will go from a 24-year-old Heisman-worthy player at quarterback in Diego Pavia to an 18-year-old true freshman in Jared Curtis with a projected win total of 6.5. The Yellow Jackets lost their brilliant offensive coordinator, Buster Faulkner, to Florida, and their three-year starter at quarterback, Haynes King, who exhausted his eligibility with a projected win total of 6.5. This is not to say that I expect the Vols to beat all of these teams on the road this fall. However, outside of Tennessee’s visit to College Station on November 14 against Texas A&M, it’s not all that crazy to envision a world where Heupel’s team is favored in the majority of these ball games.

Tennessee will certainly have its hands full in Knoxville, though. Texas, LSU, and Alabama all have College Football Playoff aspirations and expectations. All might be favored the week they travel to Knoxville. One of the stranger aspects of Tennessee’s 2025 season was how the Vols fared at home. After not losing a home game in the 2022, 2023, and 2024 seasons, the Vols went 1-3 at home against conference foes in 2025. Their lone home win against SEC competition was a one-score win over Arkansas. If you’re a glass-half-full person, you point to the Georgia loss in early September as to how advantageous playing in Neyland against big-time competition can still be, even in a down year. Is there a Tennessee fan or analyst who would have predicted before the season that the Vols’ best showing at home last year would be against Kirby Smart’s Bulldogs?

I suspect not, but that’s what happened. Sure, the result was not what any Vol fan hoped for, but for the first time in the Heupel era, Tennessee gave the Dawgs fits for four quarters. Aguilar tossed four touchdown passes and threw for nearly 400 yards. Chris Brazzell II had his breakout game against the back-to-back SEC champions with six catches for 177 yards and three scores. Yes, Tennessee did not win the ball game, but the Vols throwing all over the Dawgs for the first time in the Heupel vs. Smart series was an important development both for the team and the fanbase.

Before that ball game in September, Heupel had beaten Alabama twice. He had beaten Florida twice. He led the Vols to the College Football Playoff. He finished a season with the No. 1 scoring offense in FBS. He just hadn’t pushed Smart’s Bulldogs for four quarters. Of course, the Dawgs ultimately prevailed with a fourth-down throw for the ages, but the Vols were right there, in Neyland Stadium, to beat the team that would ultimately win the SEC once again.

Give a gift subscription

Iamaleava did not lose a home game at Tennessee. Sure, the 2026 home slate is a lot tougher than the 2024 home slate, but it is workable. The Longhorns nearly fell to Kentucky and Mississippi State last season. LSU went 0-4 on the road in SEC play last season, albeit with a different coach. Lane Kiffin has been really good on the road in SEC play the last couple of seasons at Ole Miss, 5-3 overall, but winning on the road in this conference is hard. The Crimson Tide has traveled to Knoxville three times in the Heupel era, and they’ve lost all three ball games. Neyland Stadium is going to be rocking, particularly early, when Arch Manning and Texas visit Knoxville on September 26 to begin SEC play. That matters for those coin-flip, one-score games.

I don’t think the CFP is in the cards for Tennessee in 2026, but I do think the schedule is more workable than it might appear after a first glance. The Vols catch some teams on the road at a good time. The Vols catch some teams at home at a good time, too. The grind before the first bye week is a bit worrisome, but the Vols, particularly with Jim Knowles installed as the team’s new defensive coordinator, should hover around the eight-win mark this fall. A nine-win season with a nine-game conference schedule and a freshman quarterback would be dynamite, no question, but it’s a march to eight wins in the regular season for me, and while that would match last year’s disappointing final win total, the context could not be more different. Eight wins in the regular season this year would be a whole lot different than eight wins in the regular season last year.

Leave a comment

If you enjoy what you read today in the Vols sports section, consider becoming a subscriber below. You can select which sections of the newsletter you’d like to get emails from here.

Subscribe now

Sure, it’s only mid-February, but that does not mean that it is too early to be thinking about Tennessee football position rooms going into next season. The quarterback room looks a lot different. The defensive line looks a lot different. The secondary looks a lot different.

Let’s dive into how I feel about each position room at this point in the offseason.

Wide Receiver

This time last year, lots of folks were nervous about this position room. It wasn’t due to a lack of talent, but rather a lack of proven production and, really, a lack of adequate bodies. The Vols were fortunate in more ways than one with this room, as Chris Brazzell II broke out as the lone returning upperclassman, and Braylon Staley proved to be the best all-around slot man head football coach Josh Heupel has had at Tennessee. The Vols earned the benefit of the doubt with this room, particularly with so many blue-chippers in this room that include two returning starters in Staley and Mike Matthews. Since this position group does not rotate like the Vols do on the defensive line, for this to be an elite unit again in 2026, one of Radarious Jackson, Travis Smith Jr., or freshman five-star Tristen Keys needs to pop. I feel pretty good that with how talented all three blue-chip players are, at least one will make it work alongside Staley and Matthews to form a dangerous and fun trio out wide in Knoxville this fall.

Guard & Center

Wendell Moe Jr., Sam Pendleton, and Jesse Perry are all back for the Vols this fall along the interior of the offensive line. The biggest return of that group is Moe, who transferred in from Arizona last season and showcased his versatility at both left and right guard. Moe was the 37th-best guard in FBS last season, per PFF. Pendleton didn’t have quite the debut season in Knoxville after transferring in from Notre Dame, but as a four-star transfer who played a lot of snaps in a very different system than what they run in South Bend, it’s fair to assume a jump there. Perry, who can play tackle or guard, has been a fantastic recruting success story for Elarbee. He more than held his own at right tackle with David Sanders out last year, but the hope this year is that he sticks at right guard or right tackle. Then you still have Sham Umarov, who played a lot of snaps last season back and brought in West Virginia transfer Donovan Haslam for even more proven depth along the interior of the offensive line. We might not know who will be Tennessee’s best five starting offensive linemen just yet, but there is a lot more depth along the interior than at offensive tackle.

Cornerback

Ty Redmond was thrust into action as a true freshman last season due to the injuries ahead of him on the depth chart. It looks to have paid dividends for the talented former Milton star sophomore. He finished the season with a 78.2 PFF coverage grade and snagged three interceptions. Across from him, you have a multitude of options that include a multi-year starter at Auburn in Kayin Lee. It could also be Jadais Richards, who transferred in from Miami, or even a wildcard returning young player like Tre Poteat or Tim Merritt. It’s a nice mix of talent with one sure-thing, a couple of intriguing veterans, and a couple of intriguing underclassmen. Again, with how little this room has rotated in the past, Tennessee’s depth here is just fine.

Share

Linebacker

Can a position room have too much depth? We’re going to find out with the linebacker room at Tennessee. With the surprise return of Arion Carter to the room, along with Penn State transfer Amare Campbell, how linebackers coach William Inge handles the rotation behind the two projected starters will be one of the most fascinating things to watch this offseason. The Vols will also return Jeremiah Telander, Edwin Spillman, Jadon Perlotte, Jaedon Harmon, Ben Bolton, and bring in two more freshman blue-chippers in Brayden Rouse and T.J. White for good measure. The cliche is that this is a good problem to have, particularly in the transfer portal era, to have so much talent stacked behind one another. You still have to develop these guys, though, and there just won’t be enough snaps to go around if this is a healthy group this fall, even with how much Inge likes to rotate. I feel good about this room being the best it’s been in a long time at Tennessee, but who that includes after Carter and Campbell could not be less clear here in mid-February.

Tight End

It’s Ethan Davis’s moment in tight ends coach Alec Abeln’s room in 2026. The former Collins Hill star athlete is The Guy at tight end. Davis finished strong for the Vols down the stretch last season, particularly in the passing game. If he’s able to stay healthy and DaSaahn Brame evolves as a run and pass-blocker to pair with his elite receiving skillset, this room could prove to be one of the best rooms on the team next season. Davis racked up fifteen targets in the final two regular-season games for the Vols and made the most of his increased role. He brought in 12 receptions for 157 yards and a score. He graded well in pass-protection last year, per PFF, and is quietly due for a special season in 2026.

Subscribe now

Quarterback

Quarterback can never be too far down the list under Heupel. It’s certainly a room defined by its uncertainty, but like we saw at wideout last year, that’s not inherently a negative. Whether it’s George MacIntyre or Faizon Brandon under center, the Vols have two former five-star recruits in the fold who will spend the next six months in a real, old-school competition. Would this room be a bit higher if the veteran in the room weren’t Ryan Staub? Sure, but it was always going to be hard to add a higher-profile veteran to this room, same as it was in 2024 with Nico Iamaleava. That didn’t prove to matter then, either, as the Vols won double-digit games and made the College Football Playoff.

Running Back

This, I would suspect, is the biggest shock to most Vol fans who read this piece. Yes, it’s great to get DeSean Bishop back for another season in Knoxville. The former Karns legend has been an awesome hometown story, and he had his best season yet for the Vols last season as the team’s top tailback. It’s what’s behind him that’s more of the worry. Former Oakland standout Duane Morris figures to be the new No. 2 behind Bishop, but he didn’t get the same kind of snaps as a true freshman that Jaylen Wright got in 2021 or Dylan Sampson got in 2022. I’d feel better about this position room overall had Morris played more last season, particularly with Peyton Lewis, who transfered to Virginia this offseason, never getting comfortable in the offense across two seasons. Last offseason, you added a veteran, one-year transfer in Star Thomas. This offseason, you didn’t take a tailback in the high school ranks, and your transfer addition, Javin Gordon, was a true freshman at Tulane last season. The Vols also return former Buford star Justin Baker, too. Tennessee threw the football a lot more than usual in 2025, with a redshirt freshman or true freshman likely under center in 2026, you would think the Vols would like to get back to a more balanced attack and run the football more. I’m just not sure that’s plausible, particularly if this room deals with any injury issues.

Defensive End & LEO

It’s been a while since we’ve been this uncertain about Tennessee’s LEOs and defensive ends. Last year, it was depth along the interior of the defensive line that was the worry for Rodney Garner’s unit. This year, that’s still the case, but with Joshua Josephs and Dominic Bailey off to the NFL along with Jordan Ross and Caleb Herring hitting the transfer portal, there are lots of unknowns every on the Vols’ defensive line in 2026. Penn State transfer LEO Chaz Coleman and Tulane transfer LEO Jordan Norman could certainly be more productive than Herring or Ross would have been at the LEO spot for Tennessee next season, but we just don’t know. Marion Dye and Christian Gass are still in the fold as two former big-time blue-chippers at DE and LEO, respectively. I could envision a scenario where this position room rises in my rankings fast next season, depending on how Coleman and Dye perform early for the Vols.

Offensive Tackle

This is another one of those spots where Elarbee deserves the benefit of the doubt. Even without true freshman star recruit David Sanders to start last season Perry thrived in the former’s absence. In 2022, he made it work with JJ Crawford and Gerald Mincey opposite of Darnell Wright. There are a lot of unknowns and not a lot of depth at this spot in 2026, though. Sanders was good at right tackle last season, but he’s moving over to the left side against a tougher SEC schedule this year as a true sophomore. On the opposite side, is it LSU transfer Ory Williams? Is it Perry? Bennett Warren transferred to Minnesota. Lance Heard transferred to Kentucky. If Sanders, Williams and Perry are healthy, it’s not a huge concern, but, you do not have to squint too hard to see a scenario where things get dicey in a hurry if this position room has any sort of bad injury luck in 2026. Shaky tackle depth with a redshirt freshman or true freshman at quarterback is not where you want to be when you’re trying to have a bounce-back season.

Safety

I really didn’t know where to place this room in the rankings. There is just so much turnover here both with who is coaching the room now in Anthony Poindexter, but also the projected starters in TJ Metcalf and Dejuan Lane. There is absolutely a scenario where Edrees Farooq beats out Lane to start alongside Metcalf, but there is just so much unknown on the back end of this in mid-February. You also have Kansas State transfer Qua Moss in the nickel spot now, too. I think this room will be better than last year’s room, but, man, it’s so hard to project in mid-February with so much change.

Give a gift subscription

Defensive Tackle

I very much hope I’m wrong here. I think two things can be true: 1) This is an extremely talented room that I would project as one of the best for Tennessee next season and 2) This is an extremely inexperienced room that I project to be one of the worst for Tennessee next season. There are so many high-quality blue-chip players in this room that includes Isaiah Campbell, Ethan Utley, JJ Finch, Dereon Albert and Darryl Rivers, among a few others. Tennessee’s biggest miss this transfer portal cycle was not adding one more experienced veteran to pair with Penn State transfer Xavier Gilliam along with Daevin Hobbs and Nathan Robinson. Hobbs is the safest bet to be the best player in this room this year, and they need him to be a gamewrecker, particularly rushing the passer. Gilliam was solid in 379 snaps last season in Happy Valley, but he had just one sack and 12 tackles overall. Tennessee really needs him to take a leap alongside Hobbs and Robinson to take the pressure off the Vols’ talent young guys behind them. A lot of is riding on Hobbs and Robinson being able to stay healthy, particularly early on to keep the pressure off Gilliam and the young guys. If they’re healthy, Gilliam takes a step, and one of Campbell or Utley breakout this group can be really good really fast. I could also see this being the shakiest this position room has been in the Heupel era in Knoxville.

Leave a comment

If you enjoy what you read today in the Vols sports section, consider becoming a subscriber below. You can select which sections of the newsletter you’d like to get emails from here.

Subscribe now

There are many different ways to view Tennessee’s impending quarterback competition over the next six months. With Joey Aguilar seemingly out of the starting quarterback picture after his failed preliminary injunction bid last week in Knox County, the Vols are likely to turn to redshirt freshman George MacIntyre or true freshman Faizon Brandon as the Big Orange’s starting quarterback this fall.

On one hand, you certainly knew what you had in Aguilar, but on the other hand, with MacIntyre and Brandon, you have two complete unknowns. It’s important to remember that unknowns are not inherently negative, and this quarterback battle between two big-time former blue-chip recruits could certainly result in the Vols finally securing their first multi-year starter through the high school ranks under head football coach Josh Heupel.

Subscribe now

One of the biggest reasons Tennessee fans have been so concerned about going with either MacIntyre or Brandon in 2026 rather than Aguilar is the daunting schedule, at least ostensibly, that lies ahead for the Vols. However, think of how quickly one team’s fortunes can change on a dime in this sport. It’s never been harder to project how most teams will replicate what they accomplished the previous season.

That game at Bobby Dodd Stadium might look scary early against Georgia Tech, but star quarterback Haynes King is gone, and head football coach Brent Key will be breaking in a new offensive coordinator on The Flats. The Yellow Jackets could be in for a mighty step-back in 2026. Vanderbilt, who embarrassed you at Neyland Stadium last fall, will, in all likelihood, be working through the ups and downs of playing their own true freshman quarterback in Jared Curtis. Texas has had an impressive offseason, sure, but this team also should have lost to Mississippi State and Kentucky last season. LSU was expected to be a CFP team in 2025. Instead, the wins never came, and Brian Kelly was fired. You get Alabama at home, who you haven’t lost to inside Neyland Stadium under Heupel.

In all, there are four first-year coaches at their new school on Tennessee’s schedule, all within the SEC. This 2026 schedule appears to be more daunting than the last two seasons, but once the season gets rolling, these sorts of things can change in a hurry.

The Vols also lost five games last year. They weren’t because of Aguilar, but the team made seismic changes this offseason to ensure the same result does not happen again.

So Tennessee hired defensive coordinator Jim Knowles and strength & conditioning coach Derek Owings. After losing the most games since his debut season in Knoxville in 2021, Heupel took two big-time swings that could and should pay major dividends around his new quarterback, whoever that ultimately turns out to be this fall.

In all five losses last season, the Vols’ defense gave up thirty or more points. They gave up 30-plus points in eight of their 10 games against P4 competition on the whole last season. In 2024, the year Tennessee made the CFP, with a redshirt freshman under center, the Vols gave up thirty-plus points twice and lost both games to Georgia and Ohio State. The Vols had a top-10 scoring offense for the first time since 2022, and they still lost five games. For the second time under Heupel, Tennessee was the only P4 team to finish in the top-10 in scoring offense and not win ten-plus games. The Vols were 91st in 2025 and 90th in 2021, the two seasons where the offense finished in the top-10 in FBS, and they did not win double-digit games. Quite simply, the effect that Knowles and Owings have on Tennessee over the next six months is a much bigger deal for the Vols’ 2026 outlook than who is under center.

Share

The returning offensive production around either MacIntyre or Brandon also matters. While former Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava did have the benefit of a star workhorse tailback in Dylan Sampson behind him to help him along as a redshirt freshman starter, he did not have the weapons at wideout and even tight end that either MacIntyre or Brandon will have at their disposal. With two returning, productive wideout starters in Braylon Staley and Mike Matthews, in addition to the return of Ethan Davis and Da’Saahn Brame at tight end, and incoming five-star freshman Tristan Keys, a Second-Team All-SEC tailback in DeSean Bishop, and as many as five returning starters across the offensive line, the offensive cupboard isn’t bare for either of the two talented freshman.

Timing is everything in life and in sports. The timing of hiring strength & conditioning coach Owings away from Indiana, who just won the national championship, in the same offseason that you have 31 incoming true freshmen and 21 incoming transfers, should matter a great deal. The other is a huge change in who is calling the defense for the Vols this fall. Had you thrown either MacIntyre or Brandon into the fray with a scoring defense in the 90s, that would have felt like a recipe for disaster. Instead, the duo will go into next season with an experienced and proven defensive play-caller who should raise the floor for what that unit can be in 2026. I don’t think it’s fair to expect 2024-levels of production, but even with Penn State’s 2025 implosion, which led to an in-season firing for James Franklin, the unit still finished in the top-30 and gave the Nittany Lions a huge opportunity to upset Indiana in Happy Valley at one point in the year. The previous two seasons in Columbus, Knowles’ scoring defenses finished No. 1 and No. 2, respectively. It would be a major surprise if Tennessee’s scoring defense does not improve to a large degree next season.

There is a precedent within this own conference of freshman and redshirt freshman quarterbacks thriving, too. DJ Lagway went 5-1 as a starter in 2024, his only blemish being a loss to the Georgia Bulldogs, a game where he left with the lead. Marcel Reed went 7-3 in the regular season as a redshirt freshman in 2024. LaNorris Sellers’ best season as a Gamecock came in 2024, as a redshirt freshman. You can look over at the Big Ten, where Michigan has found success sticking with their young, in-house blue-chippers in J.J. McCarthy and Bryce Underwood. Drew Allar went 10-3 as a starter his sophomore season at Penn State. Demond Williams Jr. went 9-4 as a sophomore and threw for over 3,000 yards at Washington.

Share Sports Renaissance Man

Tennessee is not in uncharted waters here — even better, they have two blue-chip quarterbacks to compete for one spot. In 2021, Joe Milton beat out Hendon Hooker for the QB1 job to begin that season. Milton, of course, did not play well out of the gate and got hurt, which opened the door for Hooker to take the job and run with it. The same could happen between MacIntyre and Brandon, where whoever wins the job in fall camp doesn’t hold the job once the actual games start and the bullets start flying. That’s the beauty of recruiting well and stocking multiple extremely talented, high-upside guys like MacIntyre and Brandon. Their talent is obvious, and every Tennessee fan should feel good about Heupel and his offensive staff finding their long-term solution at quarterback this fall. It may not have worked that way with Iamaleava, but there is a great chance and a great opportunity for the Vols to check one of those final boxes in the Heupel era in Knoxville – develop an in-house, multi-year starter at quarterback with a high ceiling. The only thing better for Tennessee fans if either prospect flourishes this fall for the Big Orange is how much better everybody would then feel about 2027 and 2028.

I don’t know who will be QB1 after the dust settles in Knoxville this fall, but it’s a good bet that whoever it is will have not only earned it but also fought through a mighty tough schedule and is now better off for it in 2027 and beyond. There’s nothing more exciting as a football fan than finding your long-term answer at quarterback.

Not a thing.

With Aguilar out and either MacIntyre or Brandon in, Tennessee is in a fantastic spot to provide fans with that very feeling this fall.

Leave a comment

If you enjoy what you read today in the TN SRM section, consider becoming a subscriber below. You can select which sections of the newsletter you’d like to get emails from here.

Subscribe now

Team transfer portal report cards delivered in mid-February should be taken with a grain of salt. We can like what Tennessee football did this cycle, as I did, and still understand that I do not have a clue which new transfer will pop and which will not for the Vols next season. The Vols went 5-for-7 in the transfer portal last cycle, and hit home runs with Colton Hood, Joey Aguilar, and Wendell Moe in particular. Star Thomas was one of those hits for Tennessee, even though he had an up-and-down season in Knoxville. He was a valuable rotation piece alongside DeSean Bishop and Peyton Lewis. Thomas has moved on to the professional ranks, though, and Lewis hit the transfer portal and is now at Virginia. While Tennessee did take a tailback in Tulane’s Javin Gordon, it’s fair to wonder about the running back room next season.

Subscribe now

One of the key differences between the Gordon addition this cycle and the Thomas addition the last cycle is age and production. Thomas had rushed for over 2,000 yards at the FBS level when he arrived as a senior last year. Gordon entered the transfer portal after his first season at Tulane. He rushed for a little over 500 yards and five touchdowns. Thomas was more of a plug-and-play veteran to pair with Bishop and Lewis in 2025. How Gordon fits in with Bishop, Duane Morris, and Justin Baker is more up in the air. Suddenly, Tennessee’s tailback room is extremely young and inexperienced behind its workhorse in Bishop. With Tennessee not taking a running back in their 2026 recruiting class, Gordon, still a true freshman, sits somewhere in the middle as a recruit and transfer at Tennessee.

Share

There were a couple of other big names whopopped up in the transfer portal this cycle at tailback. Hollywood Smothers out NC State was one, Justice Haynes out of Michigan was another. The latter was a big name in the transfer portal cycle the previous year, too, as he transferred from Tuscaloosa to Ann Arbor. Both were extremely productive at their previous stops, with Haynes’ last game as a Wolverine including 26 carries for 158 yards and two touchdowns. Smothers did the majority of his damage early in the season for NC State, but he still finished the season averaging nearly 6 YPC. Haynes is on his third school in three years, this time returning to his home state to play for Georgia Tech. Smothers is at Texas along with former Arizona State tailback Raleek Brown, as the Longhorns took two tailbacks that were On3’s top-5 tailbacks in the transfer portal this cycle.

Give a gift subscription

Tennessee did not take a player like Smothers or Haynes, two highly productive veterans who are likely NFL-bound if next season goes their way. Gordon is, ostensibly, a multi-year swing for the Vols. Bishop played the workhorse back role well last season with his 182 carries. Only Dylan Sampson has carried the rock more times in one season in the Josh Heupel era, with his 258 carries in 2024. With Thomas out and Gordon in, along with Lewis and his 134 combined carries over the last two seasons, there is even less certainty about what the rotation looks like behind the former Karns star. With a Smothers or a Haynes as a one-year proven solution, you would not have to squint too hard to see a healthy three-man rotation at tailback with Bishop, Smothers, or Haynes, and one of Gordon, Morris, and Baker.

But Tennessee hasn’t rotated at tailback the last two seasons, something the team did often in the first three under Heupel. It might be a coincidence that in back-to-back seasons, Tennessee has had a huge gap in carries between its No. 1 and No. 2 guys. Tennessee had a top-10 scoring offense in FBS last season with Bishop as their workhorse. It’s fair to project that if Aguilar is granted another year of eligibility, the Vols will have another top-10 scoring offense in FBS, which would be four instances across six seasons under Heupel.

Tennessee did not have to add a big name like Smothers or Haynes. Even if they had, it would not be a guarantee that any of those top names would hit in Knoxville. Last season, only two of the top five tailbacks in On3’s transfer portal running back rankings popped at their new school, the aforementioned Haynes and Ahmad Hardy. The latter was the best addition of the bunch out of UL-Monroe, who ran for 1,600 last season at Missouri. Jaydyn Ott and Rahsul Faison both did not hit at their new SEC schools, and the No. 1 overall tailback in the cycle, Tulane’s Makhi Hughes, did not pop at Oregon and transferred to Houston.

One of the biggest reasons it would have made sense for Tennessee to splurge on a proven, one-year veteran in 2026 is the uncertainty at quarterback. As of this writing, no decision has been made on Aguilar’s 2026 eligibility. If he is granted another year to play football at Tennessee, the tailback depth is less of a talking point. If he isn’t, and the Vols roll with either redshirt freshman George MacIntyre or true freshman Faizon Brandon, the tailback depth should become more of a talking point. In the NFL, smart teams do everything they can to surround their young, franchise quarterbacks with team-friendly rookie deals while they can. Bishop is a good player, but Morris did not get the kind of freshman snaps that Jaylen Wright did in 2021 or even Sampson did in 2022. Aguilar’s 404 pass attempts last season were the most by any Tennessee quarterback under Heupel. Again, tailback depth will not matter as much if Aguilar gets his additional year. If not, the Vols will have to run the ball much more in 2026 to protect MacIntyre or Brandon.

Tennessee has finished in the top 20 in rushing more often than not under Heupel. However, the Vols finished 53rd nationally last season, their lowest mark under Heupel. It’s tricky, though, as Tennessee’s passing offense was a constant struggle in 2023 and 2024, while its rushing attack was in the top 10 both seasons. The Vols’ best two scoring seasons coincided with also being in the top-10 in passing offense in 2022 and 2025. The Vols did not have to add a Smothers or a Haynes in the transfer portal this cycle, or even a Cam Cook, but if it’s not Aguilar next season, you wonder more about the identity of the offense. Could Bishop do for MacIntyre or Brandon what Sampson did for Iamaleava in 2024? If Aguilar is back, I don’t believe it will matter that Tennessee did not take a veteran tailback in the transfer portal this cycle – if he’s not, though, it might.

Leave a comment

Subscribe now

Does it need to be said that the “Dark Mode” alternate uniforms that the University of Tennessee football team unveiled on Wednesday afternoon would work better with black helmets to complete the look? 

Of course.

However, that does not appear to have been an option, per Austin Price of Volquest. 

With that being said, if this is the best the Vols were able to do in 2021, this is fine. The white helmet is fine, especially with the black outline around the “T”. The rest of the look works. I imagine the guys in that locker room dig the look. At the end of the day it is important to remember that it is just a uniform. It will not decide how the Vols perform on Saturday inside Neyland Stadium against the South Carolina Gamecocks.

This needed to be said, as I saw one of the commenters under that tweet from Price took a break from yelling at the clouds to offer up the point that the Vols should indeed focus less on the gimmicks and more on winning football games. I am paraphrasing this commenter’s tweet, but you get the gist of it. This is a silly thing to be frustrated about, and, if anything only helps morale in the locker room, not that need it, of course. Head coach Josh Heupel is just as focused on beating the Gamecocks on Saturday with or without alternate uniforms, I promise you, Jack1213923. 

There are some legitimate critiques to make, though. For one, this is a nooner on Saturday and wearing an all-black uniform in potentially eighty-degree weather seems less than ideal. This would have made more sense the following weekend at 7:30 under the lights in Neyland versus Lane Kiffin and Ole Miss. That was the time to bring the black uniforms back, not a day game against South Carolina.

Something else that needs to be noted is that not only did the Volunteers obliterate the Missouri Tigers last weekend, but they may also have become a bit of them, too? Fellow University of North Georgia alumni and frequent contributor of The Chase Thomas Podcast Matt Green pointed out that with the white helmets this does look Very Mizzou. I cannot unsee it now and perhaps maybe now you can’t, either.

The immediate response I got from family and friends went to those pretty Smokey Greys. Who does not love those unis? Who does not want them back? Who knows if they will not be back? I suspect we will see them next year because of the COVID helmet supply issues. You can get away with white helmets for those black unis, you cannot with the Smokey Greys. You need it to match from top to bottom. If those uniforms were not an option this season, there is nothing to be mad about. Who doesn’t prefer the Smokey Greys?

It could always be worse. It could have been what Georgia wore against Boise State when they got shellacked in the Georgia Dome by Boise State. It could have been those Swamp Green uniforms that Florida wore versus Texas A&M in Gainesville. The point being there have been so many alternate uniforms worse than the look Tennessee will don on Saturday. Simmer down, Vols by 40.

Give a gift subscription

Have a Tennessee Volunteer question or comment or tip for me? Email me at chasethomaspodcast[at]gmail.com.

Stay Involved:

• About the Show

• The Chase Thomas Podcast On Patreon

• The Chase Thomas Podcast on Instagram

• The Chase Thomas Podcast on Twitter

• The Chase Thomas Podcast on Facebook

• The Chase Thomas Podcast on Apple

• The Chase Thomas Podcast on Spotify

Subscribe now

If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.

A huge difference between college football and the pros is the opportunity for struggling teams in the pros to address personnel issues midway through the regular season via the trade market, the waiver wire or an albeit limited free agent pool. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have been decimated in the secondary due to injuries through four weeks of the NFL season, so they signed former Super Bowl champion Richard Sherman to stop the bleeding. The Missouri Tigers have been gashed on the ground all season, however, unlike in the NFL, defensive coordinator Steve Wilks has to make the most of what he has at his disposal. The Tennessee Volunteers knew this would continue to be the case, so they rushed for 458 yards that resulted in a dominant 62-24 victory.

The South Carolina Gamecocks head to Knoxville with the understandable fear that Shane Beamer’s team will suffer a similar fate on Saturday afternoon. This is not to say Clayton White’s defense is playing at a similar level to the Missouri Tigers through five weeks. This is not the case.

The Gamecocks’ defense is averaging close to three forced turnovers a game, but Hendon Hooker has thrown 10 touchdown passes to just a single interception to this point. Jaylon Foster has four interceptions this season, but if the head coach Josh Heupel calls an identical game to what he called versus Mizzou, it makes you wonder how much of an impact a player like Foster can realistically have if the opportunities are not there. 

Share The Sports Renaissance Man - Chase Thomas

There is a lot to like about the Gamecocks’ defense as a collective unit, but there are holes, and Heupel has now proven himself to be a cerebral play-caller when he knows the defense does not have a counter to what he’s calling. The Volunteers did not punt against the Tigers on Saturday. The Gamecocks may very well be 25 in defense, but they are 88th in first down rate, per BCF Toys. This tells us the Gamecocks are vulnerable against the Vols. 

Not only are the Gamecocks vulnerable to giving up sustained drives by the Vols on Saturday, but the team also sits at 68th in rushing defense, per CFB Stats. Even more alarming? The Gamecocks are 89th in rushing yards per carry allowed. (Note: Missouri is No. 129 out of 130 on this list. The only team with a worse rushing defense through five weeks? That’s right, our old friend Butch Jones and Arkansas State.) 

Perhaps if the Gamecocks’ offense was more inspiring you could talk yourself into South Carolina here a bit more. Instead, Luke Doty has been anything but the last few weeks. Kevin Harris is fine, but the Vols’ shut down a better player in Tyler Badie. Pittsburgh and Florida beat the Volunteers in vastly different ways, but Kenny Pickett and Emory Jones, respectively, diced the Vols heavily through the air or on the ground. It took 41 for the Panthers to take down the Vols in Neyland -- with Joe Milton early, remember -- so it is reasonable to suspect with this offense that the Gamecocks will need to hit a number close to that to steal a win here. 

This game is also far more important for the Vols than it is for the Gamecocks. South Carolina is not going bowling this year. It’s going to take some time to right the ship in Columbia for Beamer. The Vols, though, are marching towards six wins. They need this game, as they have Ole Miss, Alabama, Kentucky and Georgia to follow South Carolina. Heupel’s team blows this, and it is the difference between .500 and a losing season. A storm is coming over the next few weeks in Knoxville, so it should be interesting to see how focused the Vols come out to ensure this team reaches a bowl game this December. The Gamecocks, like the Tigers, match up quite poorly with the Vols, so I expect Tennessee to win and easily cover that -10.5 spread.

Give a gift subscription

Have a Tennessee question or comment or tip for me? Email me at chasethomaspodcast[at]gmail.com

Stay Involved:

• About the Show

• The Chase Thomas Podcast On Patreon

• The Chase Thomas Podcast on Instagram

• The Chase Thomas Podcast on Twitter

• The Chase Thomas Podcast on Facebook

• The Chase Thomas Podcast on Apple

• The Chase Thomas Podcast on Spotify

Subscribe now

The Tennessee Volunteers did not punt on Saturday in Columbia. The ballgame was over before the end of the first quarter. Tiyon Evans had three rushing touchdowns, but he really had four. After the victory, Hendon Hooker climbed to No. 5 in passing efficiency on a national scale. Head coach Josh Heupel now has notched three wins where the Vols have won by 30-plus points, which surpassed the previous head ball coach Jeremy Pruitt who only mustered two 30-plus point victories total during his time in Knoxville.

Now that we’ve had 48 hours to think about the Vols beating the Tigers 62-24 Saturday afternoon, I would like to dive into a couple of items that I’m still thinking about this Monday.

Share

1. It’s official, but Heupel has confirmed Hooker is QB1 for the Vols on Saturday against the lowly Gamecocks of South Carolina and for the foreseeable future, good health permitting, of course. Heupel wanted Joe Milton, Pruitt and Jim Chaney wanted Hooker. It looked like the latter got a really raw deal after he made the jump to Knoxville to play for an entirely different coaching staff and scheme. Hooker, to his credit, stayed and busted his tail to put himself in a position to win the job. The story of perseverance for Hooker to not waver as Milton was named the starter before the season and fans in Neyland calling for Harrison Bailey after every Milton overthrow. Hooker could have wavered and lost confidence in himself. Instead, he stayed the course and the Vols now lead one of the more explosive and fun offenses in the country. 

2. Tennessee’s beatdown of Mizzou was a stunner for a lot of folks who have not paid close attention to the Vols this season. It was a surprise to folks who have become too jaded by watching too many previous Volunteer seasons. Sure, they thought, the Vols should be able to run the ball against that anemic Tiger front, but can we at least see it before we pound Bud Lights up and down Kingston Pike? It was also a surprise to the computers, specifically BCF Toys, a fantastic college football website that focuses on the critical stats fans need to be cognizant of. The Vols gave the computers the biggest projection error of the weekend in all of FBS competition with a 39.4 PE. When statistical models like BCF Toys are this off you can go a little easier on folks who did not expect this sort of performance coming from the Vols on Saturday.

3. I watched the entirety of Kansas State vs. Oklahoma on FOX after the Tennessee game. Eric Gray, remember him? The former Volunteer running back currently sits at 73 in PFF grade for all halfbacks in FBS through five weeks of the 2021-22 season. Tiyon Evans to this point? 19th. Jabari Small? 48th. Coming into the season, I expected the running back room to be an area of weakness for Heupel in Year 0. Instead, it has been the backbone of this high-powered offense that has made life so much easier for Hooker and company. 

4. Speaking of Pro Football Focus, the Volunteers now have the No. 4 offense in the SEC per PFF. What’s more impressive is how this offense is exploding while the offensive line is crumbling. From Cooper Mays to Darnell Wright, the left side of the Volunteer offensive line has been a disaster through five weeks. Cedric Tillman, Javonta Payton and Jalin Hyatt have graded poorly through five weeks, too. It’s the three-headed monster of Hooker, Small and Evans carrying this offense by themselves. With Hooker the starter the rest of the way, I suspect those wide receiver grades will steadily improve, but we shall see.

Leave a comment

Stay Involved:

• About the Show

• The Chase Thomas Podcast On Patreon

• The Chase Thomas Podcast on Instagram

• The Chase Thomas Podcast on Twitter

• The Chase Thomas Podcast on Facebook

• The Chase Thomas Podcast on Apple

• The Chase Thomas Podcast on Spotify

Subscribe now

For the first time in a long time Tennessee Volunteer fans have no reason to talk about former Vol quarterback Jarrett Guarantano. The longtime signal-caller moved on just about as far as anyone could to Pullman, Washington where he will suit up for the Cougars of Washington State this fall. In a different conference on a different team in a different part of the country. Regardless of what you thought about the kid’s tenure in Knoxville, that is now in the past. Tennessee fans must now move forward. No more talk about Jeremy Pruitt, or Kevin Steele, or Phillip Fulmer or McDonald’s bags. With the announcement that Joe Milton will start for the Vols on Thursday night at Neyland Stadium vs. Bowling Green, things are going to be different this fall in Knoxville. New coaches, new quarterback, and a new opportunity, and that is an exciting place to be. The unknown. The slate is clean if you’re a Tennessee fan, it has to be, if you want to enjoy this football season for what it can be. 

Share

After Guarantano left the program, many Vol fans expected the keys to be handed over to Harrison Bailey. Maybe even fan-favorite Brian Maurer. Bailey came to Knoxville with high recruiting marks and a special senior season at Marietta High School where he won the title state title for the Blue Devils. He was widely considered the best quarterback in the state of Georgia when he was coming out. At 6’4, 224 pounds, he had the look and experience, a four-year starter at the Cobb County school, to be a star in the SEC when he got his opportunity. 

But Bailey came to Tennessee to play in former offensive coordinator Jim Chaney’s scheme, not Josh Heupel’s scheme. He is a statue in the pocket, which is clearly not what Heupel desires, highlighted by adding Milton in the transfer portal and recruiting Tayven Jackson and Kaidon Salter. Bailey, unlike Hendon Hooker, Milton and Maurer, before he left the program, were all quarterbacks who could potentially survive if the offensive line was being overwhelmed by Georgia or Florida. For every Mac Jones, there is a Bryce Young, Emory Jones, Justin Fields, Trevor Lawrence, D’eriq King, Desmond Ridder, etc. Versatility is everything for football coaches now, and it’s why Hooker and Bailey did not beat out Milton.

Subscribe now

What Milton now faces is going to be challenging. The Vols haven’t had a quarterback they believed in since Josh Dobbs was launching hail-mary bombs in Athens half a decade ago. The years of angst and pain that followed his stardom in Knoxville are still fresh in the mind of Vol fans everywhere. This is not Milton’s fault. He was in Ann Arbor and before that he was in high school in Florida. Milton and Heupel’s staff should not have to deal with the ghosts of Tennessee’s past, but that is what they will face. Milton will have to earn Tennessee fans’ trust, and, with this schedule, it’s going to take time. It’s not going to be Bowling Green or Pittsburgh or Tennessee Tech that changes the narrative. It will be how Milton clashes with Jones at Florida. How Milton clashes with Lane Kiffin’s stud quarterback Matt Corral. How Milton clashes with Kirby Smart’s four-game wonder J.T. Daniels. 

The most uncomfortable part of the Milton conversation is that the former Wolverine needs to either pop like Dillon Gabriel at UCF or fail like Chase Brice at Duke. He can’t bounce between the two where one drive he looks like Cam Newton and the next drive he looks like D’Wan Mathis against Arkansas. That is what Tennessee fans loathed most about Guarantano. The talent was there and you saw it in spurts, but it was never there consistently. Milton has to either be consistently great or consistently poor. If it’s the middle ground, the Bailey noise will become a problem. Milton can be anything, he just can’t be mercurial.

There is hope for Milton, even if you may have raised an eyebrow at Bailey not winning the job. Heupel’s last quarterbacks are as followed: Dillon Gabriel, McKenzie Milton, Drew Lock, and Kent Myers. If you want to go even further back, dating back to his Oklahoma days under Bob Stoops, you can add Sam Bradford and Jason White to the never-ending list of success stories. You can wonder about the offensive line, the running-back room, the linebackers, the corners, whoever else, but to wonder about the quarterback with Heupel would be a waste of time. 

Share The Sports Renaissance Man by Chase Thomas

Vol fans will learn a lot against Pitt, not against the Falcons, who finished No. 126 in Net Points Per Drive in 2020, per BCF Toys. Pitt was 43rd in DPD in 2020 and 27th the year prior. Milton and this offense will be tested here, similar to the way Nebraska was tested by Illinois on Saturday. Adrian Martinez was pressured on over 20 dropbacks and it showed. Against Minnesota in the opener, Milton had a clean pocket with all five starting offensive linemen registering a PFF grade of 77 or better. In that brutal win against Rutgers, Milton had a right guard in front of him who finished with a pass-blocking grade of 13.7 and a center with a pass-blocking grade of 38, per PFF. What’s scary, though, is how much Milton’s YPA varied from game to game, with it being in double-digits one week only to be back down to five the next. That heavy variance cannot happen in Knoxville.

But we shall see. We shall see if Milton’s variance in Ann Arbor was a fluke. We shall see if Heupel finally gets a quarterback choice wrong after a decade of evidence to the contrary. We shall look at this development with an open mind, though. Milton and Heupel deserve that, so enjoy the freshness and excitement of the unknown because these feelings can evaporate in a hurry. Just ask Cornhusker fans right now.

Leave a comment

Stay Involved:

• About the Show

• The Chase Thomas Podcast On Patreon

• The Chase Thomas Podcast on Instagram

• The Chase Thomas Podcast on Twitter

• The Chase Thomas Podcast on Facebook

• The Chase Thomas Podcast on Apple

• The Chase Thomas Podcast on Spotify

If you were to combine the frame and arm talent of Tyler Bray with the football intelligence and caution of Aaron Murray you’d have yourself a pretty darn good quarterback. 

Subscribe now

In 2012, we saw two very different quarterbacks in two very different situations face-off between the hedges. The Volunteers came in at 3-1 under their third-year coach Derek Dooley at the time, while the Bulldogs came in at 4-0 under coach Mark Richt in his twelfth season in Athens where the latter sat at No. 5 in the country. The Vols had totaled minus twelve yards on the ground in their previous two meetings with Georgia and went into this game with Not Travis Henry and athlete Cordarrelle Patterson as their only hope to get things moving on the ground against Todd Grantham’s Georgia defense headlined by Jarvis Jones. The Dawgs, on the other hand, boasted two electric freshmen in Todd Gurley and Keith Marshall. Bray was going to need to throw it efficiently forty-plus times to beat the Dawgs, while Murray really needed to just find Michael Bennett on quick reads every so often to keep the Vols’ secondary entertained. Their situations could not be more different.

Fans might remember Bray’s last three drives ending in turnovers, but as you rewatch this game, you really can’t get over how Tennessee had a real shot at going into overtime late in the fourth. This was one of those games for the Bulldogs where offensive coordinator Mike Bobo got bored. The Georgia offense compiled 226 total yards with 0:37 seconds left in the first quarter. To that point in the game, the Dawgs were up 21-10 with the damn ready to break at a moment’s notice. 

The first drive told you everything you needed to know about Sal Sunseri’s soft Tennessee defense. Bobo called some Malcolm Mitchell installs that had some seven yards sweeps but also some ten-yard losses. Patterson had the same role for the Vols as this swiss army knife athlete, but, unlike the Vols, the Dawgs did not have to stay cute with Mitchell if he did things like, say, bury the Dawgs’ on their own one-yard line on a punt return. After that brain fart from Mitchell, you never heard his name on the broadcast again. Instead, Bobo went with what worked, as boring as it may have been -- Gurley sweeps where he bounces it both outside and off defenders for long touchdown runs and Marshall bursts through wide-open spaces for long touchdown runs. It put the Bulldogs up 27-10 in the second quarter with the game feeling mostly out of reach. 

SUPPORT CHASE ON PATREON

Tennessee had no answers. After the Dawgs’ long, touchdown-ending opener, the Vols went three-and-out with some peculiar play-calling and timing issues with Bray and Justin Hunter. But the Vols had some luck in this game, starting with Byron Moore’s pick-six off a tipped pass to even everything at 7-7. 

This felt like a Mark Richt staple, where the Bulldogs were more talented everywhere, but still were fighting for their lives late in the fourth quarter against the Tennessees and South Carolinas of the world, something Kirby Smart has no interest in doing. At the 7:31 mark of the fourth quarter, the Bulldogs were averaging 9.8 yards per play and were up one score on a limited Tennessee team. It was a silly, silly game that featured blocked punts, missed extra points, missed chip-shot field goals, and placekickers getting benched in the middle of the game in Tennessee’s case. If the Bulldogs simply ran Gurley and Marshall over and over and over again with Michael Bennett inside slants sprinkled this game is never in doubt. 

Instead, they did things like allow Tennessee to score 20 points in four minutes. 

It started with the brain fart from Mitchell that led to the Vols getting great field position and Rivera and Rodgers hitching and crossing all over Georgia territory and a score. Then, after six straight runs, the Bulldogs put the ball in Murray’s hands who got stripped on a sack that A.J. Johnson recovers. Rodgers follows that up with a quick out and a touchdown. The Bulldogs start committing to the run again and after moving the ball again Marshall coughs it up and the Vols quickly throw another touchdown to put them up 30-27 late in the second. Remember, the Bulldogs had 226 total yards in the first quarter and were up 27-10 four minutes earlier. It was clear this was not one of the elite teams in college football in 2012, even if their ranking was fifth nationally. 

Share

Speaking of bad coaching, Dooley kicked a field goal down 50-37 late in the third quarter. The Vols had surrendered 50 points to this point and, ugh, five yards of total offense and Dooley chose to kick a 28-yarder on fourth-and-short. It doesn’t matter that Brodus missed the gimme-kick. The Vols lost when the third-year coach thought making a two-score game a, checks notes, a two-score game was the right button to push on the road against the No. 5 team in the country with nothing to lose. 

Tennessee wanted to run like Georgia, they wanted to have the 200-plus yards on the ground combined with 200-plus yards through the air and bury teams evenly. And while Neal had his moments in this game, the Vols stayed with the run, specifically the draw plays with a running back a yard-and-a-half behind Bray as Gary Danielson pointed out, when it was always going for two or three yards. The money was in the Patterson and Rodgers underneath routes, the quick-hitters to set up River and Hunter down the field. The Vols needed to be playing the style we’ll see this fall under Josh Heupel, not burning possessions with multiple draws up the middle that go nowhere. The Bulldogs had the talent to play the way Alabama did at the time with Marshall and Gurley, while Tennessee did not with Neal and Lane. 

Bray concluded his evening with a bad fumble after trying to step up in the pocket and make something out of nothing, along with a bad interception, but his groove was the underneath stuff the Vols didn’t push enough with Rodgers and Patterson. Georgia had the running backs while Tennessee had the wideouts, but only Georgia took advantage of this fact. Patterson had his dropped touchdown for sure, and Hunter was off with Bray, but that doesn’t mean you don’t keep targeting your playmakers. You keep challenging Grantham’s iffy defense, not pretend you can play Georgia’s style, too. Georgia has to play the slow-and-steady way with Murray and his “experience” and limited arm talent, while Tennessee should have been playing with tempo and killing the Dawgs underneath and sometimes over the top because Bray could do that all stinking day. The Vols had no business winning this game, but if the offensive identity is more Mike Leach-y, they probably would have.

Blue Wire’s Chase Thomas is an independent sportswriter based out of Knoxville, Tennessee where he is a graduate student at the University of Tennessee. He also hosts the best up-and-coming sports podcast around called ‘The Chase Thomas Podcast’. You can email him at chasethomaspodcast[at]gmail.