Author: Will Shelton

First Look: Orange Bowl

The most important work this season is already done: the Vols are back in the championship chase, and would be preparing for round one as we speak in a 12-team playoff, soon to become the clear answer to a season’s success. A job well done earns additional rewards: this team […]

In Early Pursuit of a #1 Seed

The web browser marks the changing seasons: my most-visited sites were once SP+ and SportSource Analytics, and most recently every bowl projection I can find, to try to understand this Rose Bowl madness. But already, winter’s champions emerge once more: KenPom, the Bracket Matrix, and Bart Torvik. In KenPom, the […]

To Where You Once Belonged

When Tennessee beat LSU, we wrote this about the week to come: You can think whatever you want about “back”; that’s a question we already learned we can’t really even answer until the entire story of this season has been written. This team has skipped so many steps in this […]

First Atlantis, Then The World

Over at Bart Torvik’s predictive bracketology, the Vols would be well acquainted with their current neighbors on the one line: Texas, first in KenPom and second in defensive efficiency, comes to Thompson-Boling Arena on January 28 Tennessee, third in KenPom and first in defensive efficiency Arizona, ninth in KenPom and […]

First Steps in Atlantis

The last time the Vols went to Atlantis, Rick Barnes’ program entered the national conversation during one of the most tumultuous weeks for the entire athletic department. This weekend will mark five years since Schiano Sunday, coming at the end of the program’s only 4-8 football season in history. The […]