Report: Vols hire Chris Weinke as running backs coach

Tennessee head coach Jeremy Pruitt isn’t wasting any time replacing running backs coach Robert Gillespie. GoVols247 reported yesterday, only a day after Gillespie and Tennessee parted ways, that the Vols are replacing Gillespie with former Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Chris Weinke.

Weinke spent last year as an offensive analyst for the Alabama Crimson Tide and worked closely with Pruitt. Prior to that, he was a quarterbacks coach for the St. Louis/Los Angeles Rams and the Director of Football at IMG Academy in Florida for five years. He coached current Alabama running back Bo Scarbrough while at IMG.

In his playing days, Weinke won the Heisman in 1999 and led his Florida State team to the 1999 BCS National Championship. He spent six seasons with the Carolina Panthers and one with the San Francisco 49ers.

Vols add offensive guru Joe Osovet to support staff

The Vols add yet another guy to their growing coaching support staff with the arrival of Joe Osovet, a top JUCO coach known for his offensive prowess. He’s expected to be an offensive analyst.

Osovet made the announcement via his Twitter account:

Osovet is the head coach and offensive coordinator at ASA College in Brooklyn, New York, and has made the ASA Avengers a JUCO powerhouse. They compiled a 9-1 record this season and put up 38.1 points and 446.3 yards of total offense per game. They scored 67 points or more in three games. Over the past six years, he’s scored 75 points or more five times. Osovet has been heavily utilizing RPOs since 2001 and has studied under Rich Rodriguez and Art Briles.

Osovet had been a candidate for the then-vacant wide receivers coaching job, but that gig went to David Johnson. Nevertheless, he and Jeremy Pruitt apparently go way back to Pruitt’s days at Georgia, and Pruitt wanted him on the staff badly enough to offer him a quality control assistant.

Gameday Today: Separate ways for Gillespie and Tennessee, Pruitt’s spring practice plan

Tennessee and Robert Gillespie part ways

News broke yesterday that Vols running backs coach Robert Gillespie is leaving Tennessee. This was a surprising move, as Gillespie was the one guy from Butch Jones’ coaching staff that had not been dismissed, so it seemed like he would be around for the long term or at least through the end of the last year of his contract. But instead, he’s gone.

Most reports are that this was a mutual decision, although John Brice added this juicy bit to his post on the subject:

Per sources, Gillespie did not mesh with Pruitt and the Vols’ new staff. In part of his culture change identified as necessary to push Tennessee forward, Pruitt found what sources said were “stale” mindsets.

I have to say that I did notice some palpable awkwardness at the Knoxville post signing day event when Gillespie and Jeremy Pruitt were both asked about Gillespie staying on. They said the right things, but there was no expected mutual gushing.

The initial reports are that former Florida State quarterback and Alabama analyst Chris Weinke is the guy to watch to replace Gillespie.

Oh, and player personnel director Bob Welton, who’s been on Tennessee’s staff since 2013, is also leaving. But FSU defensive quality control coach Bert Biffani is arriving. I know that we fans generally have no clue about the guys in these kinds of support positions, but I’m becoming more and more convinved that they matter — a lot — after seeing Alabama’s press box filled with an army of clipboard-carrying dudes nobody’s ever heard of. I’m glad to see Tennessee getting into the arms race.

Other Football

Coach Pruitt has outlined his plan for spring practice, and it’s a bit different than it has been in the past. The team will be practicing three days per week over a five week period, which will give the players a day in between practices to internalize the new things they’re being taught. They’re also going to sort of double up and continue to lift like it’s the offseason even during spring practice. Spring practice begins on March 20 and ends with the Orange and White Game on April 21.

Pruit is super high on 3-star defensive back Trevon Flowers, calling him the “steal of this class.” Flowers didn’t play football at all in high school until his senior year and yet has the skill set to play any of the six defensive back positions.

NFL Draft analyst Chris Landry identifies VFL John Kelly as a potential sleeper, one who “has a chance to be a better pro than he was in college.” He also says that Kelly was criminally underused, so there’s that.

VFL Johnny Majors is going to receive the Doak Walker Legends Award this week in Dallas.

And finally, former athletic director John Currie told agent Jimmy Sexton that Lane Kiffin “will never be the head coach as long as I’m the athletics director here.” He was right about that, he just didn’t know that he’d only be athletic director for a couple more weeks.

 

 

 

Vols draw on renewed energy to survive a scare from South Carolina, 70-67

The Tennessee basketball team was looking to put a humiliating loss to Alabama last Saturday behind them with a great performance against South Carolina last night, and it’s a good thing they came out with a lot more energy and focus than they displayed against the Tide because without it, they would have lost to a Gamecocks team that was on a five-game losing streak.

As it turns out, though, that energy, effort, and focus translated into a good 70-67 win over Frank Martin’s South Carolina team in Thompson-Boling last night.

They looked much better right out of the gate, but the Gamecocks were looking good as well, and the Vols had a tough time pulling away. They led by as many as 10 points in the first half and went into halftime leading 38-34.

Carolina came out swinging in the second, though, and tied the game at 40 early. When Tennessee answered by going on an 18-5 run, the Gamecocks responded with a 10-0 run of their own.

As the game wound down, Carolina continued chipping away at the Vols’ lead and narrowed it to a single point with 36 seconds left. At that point, the Vols advanced the ball to halfcourt, called a timeout, and designed a play for Grant Williams on the block. Good call, as Williams hit a well-contested shot just before the double-team arrived and put his team up 70-67 with 11 seconds to go.

Rick Barnes instructed his team to foul on Carolina’s final possession, and they didn’t, but Carolina missed a desperation three anyway, and the Vols went to the showers with a 70-67 win.

Williams led Tennessee with a solid all-around night:

Despite the return of the energy, defense, and focus that has characterized this team most of the season, the recent trend of turnovers by Tennessee’s guards is beginning to become a bit worrisome. It’s entirely unexpected for a team with such a high assist percentage and assist-to-turnover ratio on the season.

But it was a win, and the Vols move to sole possession of second place in the SEC standings with a record of 9-4, 1.5 games behind Auburn. Next up is a trip to Georgia this Saturday at 6:00 p.m.

 

Tennessee Vols vs. South Carolina Gamecocks: game time, TV channel, and game thread

The Vols, still licking their wounds from a tough night at Alabama last weekend, hope to put it all behind them against South Carolina at home tonight. The game tips at 9:00 and will be televised on ESPNU. Online, you can catch it at WatchESPN.

See you in the comments below.

Go Vols!

 

Gameday Today: Basketball turns the page to South Carolina

Hoops

If you care to hear Rick Barnes talk about all of the things that went wrong against Alabama Saturday night, you can do that here:

If you prefer, you can just skim the transcript. Paraphrase: We didn’t follow the scouting report, nobody did anything right, and bus rides are never fun.

Seriously, though, there’s this: “I hope you’re never who you are.” It was a toss-away line, but I absolutely love the philosophy it evidences, that everyone always needs to and can improve.

The team gets a chance to rinse out that nasty aftertaste of sulphur and sweat tonight at home against South Carolina, which is on a five-game losing streak. The game tips at 9:00 and will be televised on ESPNU.

And besides, apart from the misery of the weekend, the Vols still have a terrific resume. They have some really good wins against really good teams, and in addition, their only losses have come to good teams as well:


In fact, in ESPN’s latest power rankings, the Vols are still No. 13, just behind Duke, Kansas, and North Carolina, which is pretty good company, assuming you’re talking basketball.

Football

Now that both National Signing Days are behind us, it’s time for everyone to start taking a closer look at what we have on campus.

The coaching staff is loving 4-star offensive lineman Jerome Carvin.

The Vols are expecting great things from new wide receivers Alontae Taylor and Cedric Tillman.

Dominick Wood-Anderson is reportedly the “prototypical NFL tight end.”

If you need another reason to root for incoming JUCO linebacker Jordan Allen, check out this great story from 247Sports.

Incoming running back Jeremy Banks probably signals a shift to recruiting bigger backs.

Running backs coach Robert Gillespie says he wants to “own” the city of Memphis.

Safeties coach and special teams coordinator Charles Kelly is calling Jeremy Pruitt the “most talented coach” he’s worked with in 26 years.

And hey, here’s that same glimmer of hope: The Vols are still talented, even after going 0-8 in the conference last year and finishing this recruiting season with only a Top 20 class. ESPN even puts them on their list of teams with enough talent to get to the College Football Playoff. Coaches matter, so let’s hope we have the right ones.

And speaking of coaches, don’t miss this hilarious look at the Tennessee coaching staff from Spencer.

Other notes

Tennessee basketball is working on a redshirt for freshman forward Zach Kent.

Four-time All-American Chamique Holdsclaw and former assistant coach Mickie DeMoss are two of the seven-person class to be inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame this year.

Gameday Today: Hungover Vols hoops team still pretty to the NCAA

Hoops

It was a rough night for the Tennessee basketball team Saturday at Alabama, as they were beaten mercilessly in every way and lost 78-50 to the Tide.

Will wants to burn the film, but not before we learn the most important lesson: When Tennessee struggles, they struggle defending elite guard play.

More specific to Saturday night, the Vols couldn’t keep Alabama’s elite guards (or anyone else for that matter) out of the paint. Wes Rucker of GoVols247 put it this way:  There was a party in Tennessee’s paint, and everyone from Alabama was invited.

Rick Barnes’ list of grievances was longer, but did include the paint problem. He also said this: “I don’t think I thought we could be that bad.”

The good news is that not only do road losses generally not count against you very much when seeding time comes, margin of defeat apparently doesn’t matter much at all. The NCAA Selection Committee released its top 16 seeds yesterday and not only did Tennessee still come in at No. 13, the committee chair explicitly said that the Vols getting run over at Alabama didn’t hurt Tennessee in the eyes of the committee:

(The discussion about the Vols begins at around the 3:45 mark.)

NFL Draft

Somebody’s mocking John Kelly. What? Oh, I see. A mock draft has Jon Gruden and the Raiders selecting John Kelly in the fourth round. Okay, then.

All aboard! A draft analyst is shoveling coal into the Rashaan Gaulden hype train, saying that he’s a top 50 pick. The thing also says that Gaulden has “discipline issues,” which surprised me. I know that picture of him giving the double bird to Alabama fans is still circulating the internet and that Kirk Herbstreit didn’t like it (but also loved Baker Mayfield, go figure), but honestly, having lived through it vicariously myself, I’m inclined to extend a little grace for a short outburst in the heat of the moment in the middle of last season. Is there something more that I’m missing?

Lady Vols

The Lady Vols softball team beat nationally-ranked Utah in Tempe 6-5 on a walkoff, bases-clearing double courtesy of Abby Lockman:

Meanwhile, the No. 11 Lady Vols basketball team beat No. 18 Georgia 62-46, and Mercedes Russell became only the sixth Lady Vol to reach 1,000 rebounds. Highlights:

And the Lady Vols tennis team got a big 4-3 win against Indiana this weekend, giving the Hoosiers their first loss of the season. The tennis team has won its first nine games this season, which is its longest winning streak since 2001.

What Shouldn’t We Burn From This Film?

For whatever percentage of today was Tennessee feeling too good about itself, this loss was a good thing going forward. I don’t know how high that percentage is, but I’m sure it’s there after the win at Rupp and whispers of one seeds. The Vols were humbled today.

And whatever percentage was effort, with Alabama holding a double-digit rebounding advantage for much of the day? I’d imagine it will be corrected, much the same as when it presented itself in the loss to Auburn. Rick Barnes is putting a lot of it on these two things in the postgame.

Alabama still has a murderous schedule left, but their potential is quite high. The margin was zero fun, but this won’t go in the books as a bad loss. It’s certainly not great to see the Vols take their largest defeat of the year, but Tennessee should still have six losses to six NCAA Tournament teams. Credit the Tide for playing so well.

My biggest concern, both coming in and going out of this game, is Tennessee’s struggle to defend elite guard play.

The Vols have given up 80+ points four times this year. Alabama only got 78, but as the backups played the last several minutes I’m counting this one as 80+. And every time, the opposition gets there through its guards:

  • Villanova Bridges & Brunson: 15-of-26 (57.7%), 45 points
  • Arkansas Barford & Macon: 20-of-36 (55.6%), 61 points
  • Auburn Brown & Harper: 10-of-30 (30%), 36 points
  • Vanderbilt LaChance & Lee: 13-of-25 (52%), 37 points
  • Alabama Petty & Sexton: 10-of-17 (58.8%), 30 points

To be clear, the Vols don’t always get blown up by great guards. Tennessee’s problem with Auburn, as you can see, wasn’t defending outright. It was giving up 22 offensive rebounds. Tennessee also shut down Iowa State’s guards, which is harder than it looked as it turns out.

But against great guards from Villanova, Arkansas, Vanderbilt, and Alabama, the Vols have had a tough time keeping them off the scoreboard. And while some have been hot from the arc, most often they have taken advantage of Tennessee off the dribble. That’s how much of Alabama’s massive advantage in the paint happened today.

And today was the first time the Vols got punched by great guards, and their own guards didn’t punch back. Alabama’s defense has always been good, and today they held Bone, Daniel, and Turner to 3-of-14 (21.4%) and 10 points. That’s how this Tennessee team gets blown out.

So perhaps Alabama is just a bad match-up. When the other team isn’t so strong defensively, you get Arkansas and Vanderbilt (and while Vandy didn’t score 80+ in the second meeting and Saben Lee went 0-for-4, Riley LaChance and Jeff Roberson combined for 17-of-32 and 46 points). But until Tennessee consistently proves otherwise, it’s something you’ll be searching your bracket for.

File it away; the Vols will get another test against great guards from Florida on February 21. Even great teams have weaknesses; Alabama just exploited what appears to be Tennessee’s better than anyone else.

Tennessee Vols at Alabama Crimson Tide: game time, TV channel, and online game-watching party

Coming off a stellar win and sweep-completing win at Rupp Arena Tuesday night, No. 15 Tennessee now takes its six-game winning streak on the road to Alabama this evening. The game tips at 6:00 and will be televised on the SEC Network. Online, you can catch it at WatchESPN.

While you’re waiting, have a listen to Will on Sports 180 with Josh Ward and Will West yesterday:

See you in the comments below.

Go Vols!

 

Class of 2018 Positional Review: Defensive Back – No Joy in Knoxville

Oh, somewhere in this favoured land the sun is shining bright,

The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light;

And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout,

But there is no joy in Mudville—mighty Casey has struck out.

At no other position did Jeremy Pruitt and Co. swing, and ultimately miss, bigger than at Defensive Back, specifically at Cornerback.  With a massive need at Corner in particular, Pruitt went after two 5-star Californians who ended up at USC (Isaac Taylor-Stuart and Olaijah Griffin) and a previously underrecruited TCU commitment who ended up at Alabama (Eddie Smith) along with Taiyvon Palmer (NCSU) – and missed on all of them.  To make matters somewhat worse, Tennessee also lost four prior CB commitments, two of whom were not “losses” per se in Brandon Cross and Tanner Ingle but the other two – Trey Dean and Jaycee Horn – ended up at SEC East Rivals Florida and South Carolina, respectively.

Tennessee didn’t come out of this class empty handed at the position, however.  That said, the Defensive Back position more than any other will immediately put to the test the evaluation and development skills of Pruitt, Sherrer, and Defensive Backs Coach Terry Fair.  That’s because the three DBs who are part of this class, two of whom are ticketed for blueshirts, were most certainly not household names or guys who are considered to be elite-level prospects.

Trevon Flowers was the most highly recruited of the three, and the Vols flat out beat Clemson and Dabo Swinney for the Tucker High School prospect from near Atlanta.  Flowers signed to play shortstop for Kentucky back in December but decided he wanted to pursue college football after playing football this season for the first time since 8th grade.    The Tucker football coach was quoted as saying “He can be as good as he wants to be. We’ve got guys who have played for us here playing in the National Football League. He’s as talented as anyone we’ve coached here. The sky is the limit for him” so there’s clearly talent there.  And Pruitt is apparently a huge fan, with thoughts of Flowers playing as early as the 2018 season somewhere across the secondary.  Some think he’s unlikely to end up at CB but he’ll certainly get a shot to see if he can play there – if not he’s likely ticketed for the Nickel/Star position.

Joseph Norwood came out of nowhere late in the process and ended up a 4-star on 247 Sports and went from likely signing with MTSU to realizing a lifelong dream to play for the Vols.  Another kid who didn’t play a lot of football prior to this season – and all of that was on offense, Norwood displays serious physicality and good ball skills (and a very long, thin frame) in a way that reminds a lot of people of recent Vol Rahsaan Gaulden. He’s anther multi-sport athlete – a 23-foot long-jumper and star basketball player. He’s raw and probably is only a Special Teams player in 2018 (potentially be a really good one) but has an incredibly high ceiling.  He’s a blueshirt so didn’t officially sign with Tennessee on Wednesday but will show up in the fall

Brandon Davis is the second blueshirt DB in the class and is another example of Pruitt and his staff combing All State teams (he made the Louisiana Sports Writers 5A All-State Team) and multi-sport athletes (he’s a legit MLB prospect).  He also has the requisite length that Pruitt wants in CBs, checking in at 6’0.  For a better evaluation, check this evaluation out – it came before his senior year. It’s also notable that Davis had an offer from CSU and Terry Fair, and it’s also likely that WR Coach David Johnson knew about him, as he had a track record of bringing kids to Memphis who were really good players though they were underrecruited. Davis could potentially jump to MLB depending on his draft spot, but given that Tennessee won’t have used a scholarship on him until he enrolls there isn’t a lot of risk

Despite Pruitt’s protestations to the contrary, DB was in fact a real need in this class.  Whether those needs were met despite missing out on guys who were considered to be blue-chippers and instead signing more under the radar players remains to be seen.  There is some talent in the secondary on the existing roster – CB Shawn Shamburger and S Nigel Warrior are legit high level SEC talents.  Micah Abernathy might not be an NFL player but has played better than he showed last year previously in his career and he’s an uber-high character kid and locker room glue guy.   Assuming Todd Kelly Jr. comes back he’s another guy who has played a lot of football at Tennessee and made a lot of plays in his career.  But outside of those four there just isn’t anyone who is remotely proven and there aren’t ton of bodies. And notably three of them are Safeties. Guys like Marquill Osborne (a former 4-star), Baylen Buchanan and Theo Jackson have played some at Tennessee, just not a lot and not particularly great.  Redshirt freshmen Cheyenne Labruzza and Terrell Bailey have talent but not experience.  So again, Pruitt/Sherrer/Fair have some pieces to work with and there’s hope here that simply having better coaching will get the Secondary to play at a higher level than it did last season.  If the Front Seven is as improved as I think it can be – again, due to some real talent and better coaching – that would make for an overall defense that plays well enough to allow Tennessee to have a much better season than it did in 2017 regardless of what happens on offense.