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Former Tennessee Volunteer track and field phenom Christian Coleman beat the fastest man alive in the semi-final of the World Championships this afternoon in London. The final is this afternoon at 4:45 Eastern on NBC.
Here’s the video:
What it looks like when #VFL @__coleman beats the fastest man alive. Can’t wait to watch tonight’s men’s 100m final on @nbc! 🍊🍊🍊 pic.twitter.com/ewdcY1vg5M
— UT Track & Field/XC (@Vol_Track) August 5, 2017
After practice last night, Butch Jones confirmed earlier reports that Tennessee Vols offensive lineman Chance Hall is going to miss the 2017 season due to season-ending knee surgery. Hall started seven games and played in 10 as a true freshman in 2015 and started all six of the games he played last year, primarily at right tackle. He needed knee surgery this time last year and missed most of training camp and the first three games.
Here’s coach Jones on Hall’s injury:
First things first: Prayers and best wishes to Hall for a speedy and complete recovery. Getting this news just as the team is gearing up has to be incredibly disappointing for him. He does have a redshirt to burn, so at least he won’t be losing eligibility.
We know just how important an offensive line is to the success of a team. Having one that’s experienced, deep, and talented is one of the main reasons we are looking forward to this season. So, any assault to the offensive line is an assault to the team. Injuries are always bad news.
At the same time, one of the advantages of a strength is the insurance it provides against adversity. Just three days ago, we created a sort of Tennessee Vols Injury Uh-Oh index by ranking the offensive starters by how important their availability is to the team’s success this fall. Hall was actually not a projected starter, so he wasn’t necessarily a subject of that post, but he is widely viewed as maybe the first or second guy off the bench, so the unit is definitely worse off without him.
But, the penciled-in starters are still set, and the unit is still strong. The starters appear to be Brett Kendrick at right tackle, Trey Smith at right guard, Coleman Thomas (probably?) at center, Jashon Robertson at left guard, and Drew Richmond at left tackle.
And there are good guys behind them, even if Hall will be rehabbing instead of playing. There are still excellent backup options in 4-star Jack Jones and 3-stars Marcus Tatum and Venzell Boulware, and there are still a handful of freshmen on the bench just in case.
The team obviously doesn’t want to lose any more offensive linemen, but of all of the units on the team, it is actually the one best positioned to handle a gut punch at this point, so although they’ll definitely miss Hall, they’re still in good shape to compete.
On yesterday’s appearance on WNML’s Sports 180 with Josh & Will, @will-shelton weighed in on the most important unit for the Vols this season and whether Vols fans should be concerned about the lack of experience in the wide receivers unit. He also made his picks for the Vols’ breakout players of the year on offense and defense.
https://audioboom.com/posts/6174563-will-shelton-gameday-on-rocky-top-8-4-17
In case you weren’t aware of this, @will-shelton is on with WNML’s Josh Ward and Will West every Friday afternoon. Check out this episode to hear him explain why he feels like we’ve talked about the 2016 season longer than almost any other.
https://audioboom.com/posts/6151886-will-shelton-gameday-on-rocky-top-7-28-17
The Vols are ranked in the preseason coaches’ poll for the third year in a row, just sliding in at #24. But the more relevant note for Tennessee could be the positioning of the other SEC teams in the poll.
The initial poll has Alabama in the top spot, then four SEC teams between 12-16 (LSU, Auburn, Georgia, Florida). Meanwhile the Big Ten has four teams in the Top 10. Arguments over conference supremacy aren’t settled in the preseason poll. But the trend in both leagues does not project well for the SEC when it comes to bowl selections.
The conversation on which league is better usually centers on who’s at the top. But last year there was a significant difference in who’s at the bottom. In S&P+, the SEC’s worst team in 2016 was South Carolina at 79th. The Gamecocks were 6-7. Meanwhile the Big Ten had four teams – 28.5% of the conference – finish worse than that (Maryland 87th, Illinois 95th, Purdue 105th, Rutgers 114th). Illinois and Purdue were 3-9 (as was Michigan State); Rutgers was 2-10.
Being a top-heavy league doesn’t necessarily mean you’re a better league. But it does give your teams a much better chance to make the New Year’s Six.
This year the College Football Playoff semifinals are in New Orleans and Pasadena, which takes almost all the automatic bids to New Year’s Six games off the table. Last year Alabama made the playoff, but the Sugar Bowl was required to take the next best SEC team; thus Auburn got in at 8-4 (and Tennessee would have gotten in at 9-3 had they beaten Vanderbilt). But with the Sugar Bowl in the playoff, only the SEC Champion is required to be taken…and if that champion is Alabama, as most project, and the Tide are in the playoff, the league could be shut out of the New Year’s Six bowls entirely.
And if that sounds drastic? It’s exactly what will happen if the final College Football Playoff poll looks like the preseason coaches’ poll.
You would have something like this:
Four Big Ten teams in the playoff/New Year’s Six. And only Alabama from the SEC. This would leave the rest of the league scrambling for the Citrus Bowl, then a bunch of 8-4 again in the SEC’s Group of Six (Belk, Liberty, Music City, Outback, Taxslayer, Texas).
The last time the semifinals were in the Sugar Bowl in 2014, the SEC put both Ole Miss and Mississippi State in the New Year’s Six as at-large selections. This put Missouri, the league’s fourth-highest-ranked team, in the Citrus Bowl. But the last two years, the Sugar Bowl has had to go outside the Top 11 (#12 Ole Miss in 2015, #14 Auburn in 2016) to fill its automatic bid. If that happens again this year, the league could get shut out of the New Year’s Six.
“Four Big Ten teams in the Top 10 will never happen,” you say? They got four in the top eight last year. While Michigan, Ohio State, and Penn State continue to round-robin each other, Wisconsin (presumably) gets the winner in the conference title game; this year they face only Michigan of those three in the regular season. Meanwhile all four get at least two games with the league’s worst with Maryland and Rutgers in the east division and Illinois and Purdue in the west.
The SEC, on the other hand, has a much higher floor (which helps to prevent a higher ceiling). There are no free wins; Tennessee can attest to that. We continue to point out that while Alabama is 40-4 the last three years, look at the next eight SEC teams:
| 2014-2016 | W | L |
| Georgia | 28 | 11 |
| LSU | 25 | 12 |
| Florida | 26 | 13 |
| Mississippi State | 25 | 14 |
| Tennessee | 25 | 14 |
| Ole Miss | 24 | 14 |
| Texas A&M | 24 | 15 |
| Auburn | 23 | 16 |
The nature of the beast has turned cannibalistic: everyone is 8-4 and unhappy. And this year we might feel it even more potently come bowl season: if the SEC doesn’t get a second team in the New Year’s Six, one of these teams could be headed to the Birmingham Bowl.
In this year especially with the Sugar and Rose out of play, the New Year’s Six will truly take the next best/highest-ranked teams in college football. Will the second-best team in the SEC have a clean enough record to make it?
Yesterday, we ranked the offensive players by which of them was most important to keep healthy. Today, we’ll do the same for defensive players. As we said yesterday, our hope is that no one gets hurt. It’s football, though, and injuries are part of the game, and some position groups are more vulnerable to injuries than others. So while we hope no one misses time, here’s a list of the defensive guys the team will miss the most if they suffer an injury.
It’s not that these guys aren’t important; they are. And it’s not that they didn’t struggle at times last season; with the exception of Shaq Wiggins (who wasn’t here last year), they did. The relative security we have in the secondary is found (1) in numbers and talent, and (2) in the fact that we believe that the problems last year were due to coaching, which has hopefully been fixed in the offseason.
There are plenty of bodies — in addition to the four guys listed above and Todd Kelly Jr. (discussed below), the unit includes 4-stars Justin Martin, Evan Berry, Micah Abernathy, Marquill Osborne, and Maleik Gray. There are also six other 3-star players in the unit. We’re crossing our fingers that the coaching change in the secondary is going to filter its way through the entire secondary and improve their deep ball coverage across the board. So this unit should not only be improved, they should have the bodies and the talent to withstand normal injury attrition.
There is a lot of attention on these guys because they’re replacing Derek Barnett and Corey Vereen, but as we’ve said before, the guys behind the guys who are gone are talented. The defensive end position, though, is still not quite deep enough to consider it invulnerable to injury. If either Kongbo or Taylor miss time, Kyle Phillips at least has the resume to presumably step in and contribute without too much drop off, but behind those three, the team would have to look to a group of 3-star freshmen.
As I said a minute ago, the secondary is loaded with talent, bodies, and new purpose. Even so, Kelly is the leader back there, and if he goes missing the unit will feel it. The blossoming promise of Nigel Warrior, especially, seems to be yoked to Kelly’s leadership. He needs to stay healthy to keep the unit functioning as one.
We all have recurring nightmares of life without defensive tackles after last season, but really, the line should be strong and deep enough to withstand usual injury attrition. Assuming Shy Tuttle makes it back to full strength by the beginning of the season, the tackle spots should have at least five bodies available in Vickers, McKenzie, Tuttle, Alexis Johnson, and Quay Picou. And then there’s that group of freshmen that the team can tap into if needed. That said, we witnessed the importance of having plenty of big healthy bodies in the middle last year, so seeing any d-tackle go down will likely trigger flashbacks.
The Tennessee linebacking corps really struggled at times last year, although that could have been just what linebackers look like when they’re backing up a defensive line without defensive tackles. Regardless, Kirkland is the leader of the defense, and the team needs him both from a leadership/alignment standpoint as well as a talent standpoint. McDowell, too, is important as the likely second guy on the unit.
There are a lot of experienced and talented guys available, starting with senior Colton Jumper, who not only filled in when the starters were out last year, but played really well. Also available are 4-star sophomores Daniel Bituli and Quart’e Sapp, 3-star Elliott Berry, and 4-star Dillon Bates. Hybrid linebacker/defensive end Austin Smith is also available, and a promising freshmen class is led by 4-star Will Ignont.
Still, if the linebacking unit didn’t appear to do very well last season, it could be because the team played only three games with its preferred starting lineup at the position: Appalachian State (Jalen Reeves-Maybin and Kirkland), Virginia Tech (same), and Nebraska (Kirkland and McDowell). The remaining games featured the following combinations at ‘backer: JRM/Jumper (Ohio, Florida) (and JRM actually missed most of Florida), McDowell/Jumper (Georgia, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt), Berry/Jumper (Alabama), Kirkland/Jumper (South Carolina), and Kirkland/Berry (Tennessee Tech, Kentucky, Missouri).
So, the only time Kirkland and McDowell started together was the bowl game against Nebraska. The good news is that the other guys got a lot of experience and can rightly be referred to as returning starters. But it’s extremely important that Kirkland and McDowell remain healthy this fall.
What a day for Tennessee’s future defense.
After Gurley, Alabama, 3-star linebacker Matthew Flint picked the Vols over Auburn, Louisville and others on Wednesday morning, UT continued its ridiculous recruiting run with a commitment from 4-star safety Trey Dean on Wednesday night.
https://twitter.com/__TD3/status/892914890532421633
The 6’2″, 180-pound, hard-hitting safety from Dutchtown High School in Hampton, Georgia, visited Knoxville this past weekend. He went ahead and committed to the Vols on Wednesday despite nearly 75 percent of his Crystal Ball projections going to Alabama, after the Crimson Tide offered him two weeks ago.
Dean is one of the top 300 players in the country and was one of Tennessee’s top defensive back targets. Now, if the Vols can somehow land Jaycee Horn, that will be a dynamic recruiting class. Adding Horn to Tanner Ingle and Brandon Cross for the cornerback haul and pairing Dean with Chattanooga stud Brendon Harris makes this a potentially stellar DB haul for first-year secondary coach Charlton Warren.
Dean has the kind of offer list you’re looking for regardless of position. Along with the Crimson Tide, home-state Georgia, Clemson, South Carolina, Miami and Texas also had offered, along with many more.
#Vols land a versatile 4⭐️ DB in Trey Dean. "He competes and he has that confidence about him," says @ChadSimmons_.https://t.co/spK1eWo4yB pic.twitter.com/lJqsSmj6kU
— Jesse Simonton (@JesseReSimonton) August 3, 2017
Prior to visiting Knoxville this past weekend for Tennessee’s season-opening practice, Dean was thought to be a long shot. It looked like it was going to be a battle between Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina. But Dean apparently loved what he saw. The newest commitment surges Tennessee to the top of the SEC recruiting rankings per 247Sports and sixth nationally.
Tennessee now has a 5-star prospect and eight composite 4-stars. If you look at the offer sheets of some of the 3-stars the Vols have gotten thus far, it’s obvious that — at least on paper — this is head coach Butch Jones’ strongest class by far. With 6-7 spots remaining, it’s going to be interesting to see how the Vols use them.
They’ll almost certainly take at least one more defensive back, two receivers, an offensive lineman, and perhaps two more rush defensive ends. If they elect to just take one defensive lineman, the Vols could use that position on a best-available guy at tight end, linebacker or something else.
This class has it all. The Vols have two excellent quarterback prospects with high upside, perhaps the best defensive line haul of the Jones era, quality offensive linemen highlighted by 5-star Cade Mays and a good defensive back stable. They also have two running backs they really like.
If UT can add a couple of impact receivers, this is about the best it could hope for. Shocky Jacques-Louis and Jeshaun Jones are a pair of receivers who are strongly looking at UT, and Horn is perhaps the top remaining prospect on UT’s board. Offensive tackle Jerome Carvin is a potential pledge, too.
But tonight is about Dean, and today is about defense. Flint brought the speed as a linebacker prospect, and though Dean isn’t the fastest defensive back prospect, he’ll pack a punch when he fills out his frame. He’s a potential force, a punisher on the back end who can do a lot of different things from the back level.
There’s a lot of good stuff in this article from VQ’s Jesse Simonton on Dean, including this:
“He’s a guy who relies on his initial instances and quick bursts,” Rivals.com analyst Chad Simmons told VolQuest’s Jesse Simonton. “I like him playing centerfield on the backend of the defense. He needs to fill out his frame, but he does play a little bit bigger than he is.”
Dean will fit in nicely. With freshman safeties Theo Jackson and Maleik Gray already turning heads in Knoxville and sophomore Nigel Warrior a budding star, UT looks like it’s in a strong position on the back end of the defense for years to come. If the Vols can hang on to Dean, he’ll be a part of that sooner rather than later once he gets into a college weight program.
The Vols have consistently recruited well under Jones, though last season saw a bit of a dip in the rankings. Even so, there are a lot of players from that class already performing well in practice such as Josh Palmer, Ty Chandler, Tim Jordan, Jackson, Kivon Bennett, Matthew Butler, Will Ignont, Cheyenne Labruzza and others. So, it’s become clear at this point Jones knows what he’s doing on the trail.
This could wind up being the best of them all. With depth, talent and needs met, the 2017 class is shaping up to be strong. Getting Flint and Dean are big pieces of the puzzle.
Tennessee receiver Jajuan Jennings attacks things. Things like defenses, defenders, Jalen Tabors, and now, inanimate objects like juggs machines:
Jauan Jennings is the only #Vols receiver who openly mocks the juggs machine and walks straight at it. pic.twitter.com/lXefADbYPY
— Jesse Simonton (@JesseReSimonton) August 1, 2017
Linebacker Matthew Flint announced via his Twitter account this morning that he has committed to Tennessee.
https://twitter.com/twisted__up/status/892732005628219393
A 3-star prospect (.8537), Flint chose Tennessee over offers from Mississippi State, Auburn, Vanderbilt, Ole Miss, and Louisville, among others. He’s the 51st-best outside linebacker and the nation’s No. 721 overall prospect according to the 247Sports Composite.
Flint’s commitment makes it 19 for the Vols, who now sit at No. 6 in the nation and remain in first in the SEC in 247’s team rankings. Eight of Tennessee’s current commits are 4- or 5-star guys, giving UT a blue chip ratio of 42%.
Injuries are a touchy subject around these parts. Nobody ever wants to use them as an excuse, and yet when the front falls off, you can’t really have an honest conversation without acknowledging them.
Nobody ever wants to see a guy get injured and have to miss time during the season. No player is expendable. And yet it’s a fact of life in football. Guys go down. Teammates step up. Guys rehab and return.
And stuff happens in the interim.
After last season, Vols fans know better than most the dramatic impact players missing time can have on a team’s ability to play well. Just how dramatic that impact is generally depends on how many guys get hurt, which guys get hurt, and how long it takes them to get back onto the field and into playing shape.
It’s doubtful that the Vols will have as many players injured this fall as they did last year. We’re all crossing our fingers that 2016 was an outlier, and to the extent that it wasn’t, we’re hoping that the lessons learned from last season and new strength and conditioning coach Rock Gullickson make a big difference.
But it’s still football, and injuries are still going to happen. And while you never want to see any player get hurt, the team is more vulnerable at certain positions than others.
So, with apologies to the superstitious, we’ve ranked the projected offensive starters in order of which ones the team can least afford to lose. Call it the Injury Uh-Oh Index. If you must find a piece of wood to knock on you’re reading, we’ll totally understand.
The offensive line is the deepest unit on the team, offense or defense, even considering that it requires the most bodies. Coleman Thomas may not even start, and behind Kendrick, Richmond, and Smith there are a ton of strong, versatile, talented, and experienced players like junior Jack Jones, sophomores Venzell Boulware and Marcus Tatum, and a handful of freshmen the team hopes they won’t need. The status of junior Chance Hall is a bit up in the air, as he was expected to be sidelined for some time but is reportedly back on campus after getting a second opinion about his knee. If he’s available, this unit is indeed in great shape and should be strong enough to withstand some normal injury attrition.
We have Smith and Byrd penciled in as starters in the receiving corps along with Jajuan Jennings. The unit does have some options behind these two in senior Jeff George, sophomores Marquez Callaway and Brandon Johnson, and five or six freshmen, so if one of Smith or Byrd is injured, the team has options. Those guys are largely unproven, mind you, but they are at least options.
Although the offensive line is deep, they likely depend on senior leader Jashon Robertson. He’s started 35 games in three years, all 13 as a freshman, 10 of 10 as a sophomore, and 12 of 13 last year as a junior. If he misses any time, the team has bodies to plug in to his spot, but his leadership will be difficult to replace. With a new quarterback and mostly-new running backs and receivers, the entire offense would be scrambling for leaders if Robertson were to go down.
The Tennessee coaches have been saying all offseason that it’s nice to have two qualified guys pushing each other to replace Josh Dobbs at the quarterback position. They’re probably also thinking but not saying that it’s nice to have two just in case one of them gets injured. But while it’s somewhat comforting to know that there’s a qualified guy ready to go if the other guy gets hurt, it would also mean that there is no additional room for error. Behind Dormady and Guaranto is Will McBride and the mysterious Seth Washington, but let’s face it, if both Dormady and Guarantano are unavailable, there are going to be a lot of mopey folks on Rocky Top.
As I said earlier, there are a lot of bodies in the wide receiving corps, and Smith and Byrd are going to be fine complements to Jennings. But just as the offensive line looks to Robertson for leadership, there is little doubt that the entire receiving corps feeds off of Jennings. He’s not just a great receiver, he’s fearless and always primed for battle. Toughness like that is contagious, and the team will miss it if it’s not on the field with them.
Wolf has been a fixture at the tight end position for three seasons at Tennessee, having started 35 games in his three years on campus. His primary contributions are probably under the radar in the blocking game, but he has also figured prominently into the passing game at several key moments in his career. The problem here is that the position isn’t especially deep. Senior Jakob Johnson could sub in for Wolf if needed, as could Ethan’s brother Eli, who is a sophomore. There are also four freshmen on the roster who could play in a pinch, but any way you look at it, losing Wolf to injury would likely mean a fairly significant drop off at the tight end position. And because we generally only notice tight ends when they’re catching passes and not when they’re blocking, we may not even realize what’s happening.
There are zero senior running backs on the roster this season. The team is in good hands with junior Kelly, though, who proved his mettle last season by outrushing all other running backs with 630 yards despite being third on the depth chart. But behind him, there’s nothing but question marks. Although there are two 4-star talents behind him in sophomore Carlin Fils-aime and freshman Ty Chandler, neither one of them is proven. The same can be said about sophomore Taeler Dowdy and freshmen Trey Coleman, Tim Jordan, and Chip Omer. Basically, the running back stable is John Kelly and then a bunch of young and inexperienced guys we know almost nothing about. Team 121 is going to lean heavily on John Kelly this fall. What they’re going to need the most from him is to stay healthy.
