Gameday Today: Quay Walker update, hoops in historical perspective, and dumb smart people

Recruiting

Jeremy Pruitt and two of his staff were in-home with 5-star linebacker Quay Walker last night, and, according to Walker, it went all-caps GREAT.

Last in-home visit was GREAT @CoachJPruitt @UTCoachSherrer @CoachRumph GO VOLS!!! #GBO 🍊

— Q. (@QuayWalker4) February 2, 2018

Walker is technically committed to Alabama, but he’s recently taken official visits to Tennessee and Auburn and will take one at Georgia this weekend. The 247Sports Crystal Ball is showing the Vols and the Bulldogs as the favorites to land Walker, who’s the No. 2 outside linebacker and the No. 31 overall prospect in this year’s class. To say that he’s a priority for the Vols would be an understatement.

Meanwhile, the Vols and defensive tackle D’Andre Litaker have decided to go their separate ways.

Hoops

At this point in the season, the Vols basketball team has put together a resume that rivals the program’s best. So why isn’t there more interest? Will makes a great point in the linked post that the TV schedule, which was made based on preseason projections, is partially to blame.

What does Tennessee have to do to catch up with Auburn in the race for the SEC regular-season crown? Check out this video from the SEC Network on that topic and have a look at those BPI game-by-game projections for the Vols:

The Vols are favored in every game except the one against Kentucky and the officials at Rupp, and even that one is a coin flip. Woo.

Who’s the coach of the year in the SEC? So far, Jimmy Dykes says, it’s the guy whose team is currently projected as a four-seed in the tournament despite being picked next-to-last in his conference:

And if you weren’t convinced after yesterday that Rick Barnes is driven primarily by something other than money, add this to the exhibit list: He’s focused on the season, not on leveraging his recent success into a contract extension.

The No. 12 Lady Vols took care of business last night, beating No. 14 Texas A&M 82-67 with a strong fourth quarter. Highlights:

Other fun stuff

The SEC is distributing $596.9 million among the 14 conference schools. In case you don’t have a calculator, I’ll just go ahead and tell you that that’s a lot of money.

Hey, look. Dumb smart people!

And congrats to Alvin Kamara, who’s been named the NFL Rookie of the Year.

What y’all think!!! Thanks to @pepsi and the fans for voting me as the 2017 Rookie Of The Year!!! pic.twitter.com/upJOITBhtC

— Alvin Kamara (@A_kamara6) February 2, 2018