Tennessee’s five-year strategic plan for the athletic department was released 11 months ago. In the “competitive excellence” section, the plan calls for the Vols to earn the top Director’s Cup finish in the SEC, and for each sport to strive for a Top 16 finish nationally.
In football, men’s & women’s basketball, baseball and softball, the Vols just did it in a single year, for the first time ever.
Tennessee baseball completed the sweep by winning the Clemson regional, advancing to the Super Regionals for the third consecutive year. Lady Vol softball is still alive in the Women’s College World Series, in the national semifinals tonight.
Lady Vol basketball scored their second consecutive Sweet 16 appearance this year, joined by the men in that round for the first time since 2019. And of course, football earned its first Top 16 finish since 2007, earning a New Year’s Six appearance and a #6 final ranking.
How significant is a Top 16 sweep in the five biggest sports? Softball started on campus in 1996. Since then, Tennessee only earned a Top 16 finish in four out of five sports once, in the 2004-05 athletic year.
Here’s the list of 3+ Top 16 finishes in these five sports in the same year at Tennessee:
1995-96
Football: #3 final poll
Lady Vols: National Champions
Baseball: Regional Finals (16 teams remaining old format)
1999-00
Football: BCS at-large, #9 final poll
Basketball: First Sweet 16 appearance in the 64-team era
Lady Vols: Final Four, lost in the title game
2004-05
Football: SEC East champs, #13 final poll
Lady Vols: Final Four
Baseball: College World Series
Softball: Women’s College World Series semifinals
2006-07
Basketball: Sweet 16
Lady Vols: National Champions
Softball: Women’s College World Series runner-up
2007-08
Football: SEC East champs, #12 final poll
Basketball: Sweet 16 (reached #1 in the regular season)
Lady Vols: National Champions
2009-10
Basketball: First Elite Eight in program history
Lady Vols: Sweet 16
Softball: Women’s College World Series semifinals
2013-14
Basketball: Sweet 16
Lady Vols: Sweet 16
Softball: Super Regionals
2022-23
Football: New Year’s Six, #6 final poll (reached #1 in the regular season CFP poll)
Basketball: Sweet 16
Lady Vols: Sweet 16
Baseball: Super Regionals (still going)
Softball: Women’s College World Series semifinals (still going)
Our favorite individual years might be dominated by football memories and/or their shared dominance with Lady Vol basketball. But right now, Tennessee is as nationally competitive in every major sport as they’ve ever been. Every one of these groups is creating the expectation to compete for national championships, and backing it up by positioning themselves well and earning a Top 16 finish. Of this year’s group, the baseball team actually had the lowest chance to advance, but that comes just one year after posting one of the most dominant regular seasons at Tennessee in any sport. Positioning yourself well for a Top 16 finish comes through earning a Top 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament, which the men and women both did, and through hosting a regional, which softball did. Baseball may have done it the hard way at Clemson, but it looks like the Super Regionals can come back through Knoxville after all.
We’ve spent lots of words over lots of years writing about Tennessee. All of those seasons were both interesting and meaningful in their own ways. But if you’re looking for competitive excellence? It’s here. And it spreads across the entire athletic department.
Lady Vol softball went through Alabama 10-5 yesterday, opening the Women’s College World Series with a bang. Up next: the two-time defending national champs from Oklahoma, who boast an average 57-1 record this season.
The two met last season, with Oklahoma winning deep into extra innings. The Sooners carry all the rightful hype that comes with rings and records, plus the localized crowd in Oklahoma City. But Tennessee – both Lady Vol softball and the entire athletic department – is well versed in taking on number one at this point.
In the last two athletic years, Tennessee’s five major programs – football, men’s & women’s basketball, baseball & softball – have faced a team ranked number one 11 times; Oklahoma will make 12 tomorrow. In those 11 games (or weekend series in baseball), the Vols have wins over:
Alabama in football, number one in the coaches’ poll
Alabama in basketball, number one in the AP poll
One win in the series with LSU baseball this season
A sweep of Ole Miss in baseball last season
It’s a byproduct of Tennessee’s overall success that the Vols have been able to score victories over the best of the best. Oklahoma’s resume is probably the front-runner in terms of overall quality of opponent, though Georgia football and South Carolina women’s basketball would certainly be in that conversation these last two years.
But also, consider the absurdity of the fact that each of Tennessee’s 12 meetings with a number one team in these five sports over the last two years came against a current or future member of the SEC:
2021 Football vs Georgia
2022 Lady Vol Basketball vs South Carolina
2022 Baseball vs Texas & Ole Miss
2022 Softball vs Oklahoma
2022 Football vs Alabama & Georgia
2023 Basketball vs Alabama
2023 Lady Vol Basketball vs South Carolina x2
2023 Baseball vs LSU
2023 Softball vs Oklahoma
That’s seven different SEC programs to reach number one in those sports in the last two years. Florida, who consistently boasts one of the most competitive athletic departments in the league, doesn’t appear on this list.
And, of course, we would add ourselves: just in the last calendar year, Tennessee reached number one in the college football playoff poll, number one in KenPom, and number one throughout last baseball season.
That’s pretty good.
And on such a pretty good list, maybe the most impressive feat of all could be accomplished tomorrow.
A couple of years ago when we lived in Virginia and Mississippi State was making its way through the College World Series, someone in our church asked what we thought about the Bulldogs as Tennessee fans. I’ve used that conversation to highlight the importance of change in SEC football scheduling: because we don’t, really. We don’t think about Mississippi State. We’ve played them twice in the last 15 years. Texas A&M will mark its 12th football season in the SEC this fall. If not for the 10-game league schedule due to covid in 2020, they would be making their first appearance in Neyland Stadium this October.
So sure, it’s gotta change, and it will. Soon, the Vols will see the Aggies and Bulldogs, as well as forgotten friends like Auburn and Arkansas every other year. Maybe it’ll be part of nine league games; maybe it’ll be with eight and the Vols getting to play Vanderbilt every year. Either way, we’ll soon get to enjoy things like Baton Rouge on a much more regular basis, and feel like we’re a rival in some form or fashion to everyone in the league. That’s how leagues are, you know, supposed to work.
In the short term, however, we might get an eight-game format that only works for one year.
For a year, a question has lingered in the SEC’s scheduling debate: Will ESPN give more money? Unlikely – right now.
Without $$ incentive, more than half the league supports 8 games in 2024 as part of a 1-year, temporary model that is under considerationhttps://t.co/s4btGz3myh
If you’re only worrying about one season, you can do the eight-game model with the “primary” annual rivalries (including Vanderbilt for Tennessee in this model), then schedule the other seven games at your pleasure.
While I’m not sure this path will automatically lead to the best possible outcome for the SEC, or automatically speed along a path to nine games, in a vacuum? It’s fun to think about which seven opponents you’d like Tennessee to play.
You don’t want to fantasy draft it and get all the marquee matchups – the league should still strive for some form of competitive balance here. The Vols shouldn’t hope for Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, LSU, Texas, and Oklahoma (and Vanderbilt!).
But what’s the most fun/balanced version of that for Tennessee?
For whatever it’s worth, my picks for eight games in 2024 would be:
Vanderbilt, the default assumption as Tennessee’s “primary” rival with Alabama and Auburn keeping their in-state ties
Alabama, Tennessee’s actual primary rival now that we’ve shown it can be done again
Florida, because I haven’t seen any schedule with any support to suggest this rivalry – which helped define Tennessee as a program at its peak – is sticking around on an annual basis
Georgia, because I don’t think Tennessee should shy away from anyone if you can create balance in the schedule on the whole
Kentucky, the program Tennessee has actually played most often, at least for now. It’s 118 games in this one to 116 in UT/Vandy, which will soon favor the Commodores if the Vols and Cats stop playing annually.
South Carolina, because revenge in Columbia and all that good stuff
Ole Miss, the most direct path to get one back on Lane Kiffin, etc.
Texas, which purely gets the nod over Oklahoma due to recency. The stuff with Heupel and OU will be an interesting conversation whenever it happens, but the Vols played the Sooners in 2014 and 2015. Tennessee and Texas have not met since 1969. Remember the Alamo, etc.
If you’re just giving me one year, I’m not going with the aforementioned Mississippi States of the world. The Vols just saw LSU. And even Auburn – Tennessee’s number two rival when I was growing up in the pre-1992 world – I’d put off for another year. We’ll have all kinds of fun having both Tigers back in our lives on a regular basis. But if it’s just one year, it can wait.
Which seven teams (plus Vanderbilt) would you put on your wish list for 2024?
We could get some news from Destin next week on the 2024 SEC football schedule, with the long-awaited debut of Texas and Oklahoma in the league. Everything in college football, from the expanded playoff to the return of the video game, is headed toward change one year from now.
Both of the proposed models would solve the SEC’s problem of teams not seeing each other for a thousand years. The 7-1 rotation in an eight game conference schedule would feature one annual opponent and seven rotating foes. The 6-3 rotation in a nine game conference schedule would feature three annual opponents and six rotating foes.
If you’re a Tennessee fan, which one do you prefer?
Staying at eight games keeps the league balanced with home and away games each year, which you obviously can’t do at nine. It also “protects” the opportunity for better records. In a 12-team playoff with six at-large selections, the SEC would certainly stand to benefit. Tennessee and Alabama would’ve both made such a field last season. With a nine game conference schedule, you’re playing five road games and four home games every other year. And a scenario could exist some years where the second-best team in the SEC ends up with a 9-3 record. How would the playoff committee consider such a team against an 11-1 counterpart from the ACC?
Moving to nine gives you an additional meaningful SEC game; it would be interesting to see if the league voted to keep its provision that each school has to play a power five non-conference opponent. More meaningful inventory could lead to more dollars for everyone through an adjusted TV deal.
And nine would certainly protect additional annual rivalries. A fun exercise for Tennessee fans right now: do you want to go to nine and keep the Alabama rivalry, or play eight and potentially be the only team in the league who plays Vanderbilt every year?
There are things to be excited about with either model. And either way, the league should strive for balance in breaking up the remaining opponents over the next two seasons.
Eight Game Schedule
In this format, let’s assume the annual rivalries look like this:
Alabama vs Auburn
Arkansas vs Missouri
Florida vs Georgia
Kentucky vs South Carolina
LSU vs Texas A&M
Mississippi State vs Ole Miss
Oklahoma vs Texas
Tennessee vs Vanderbilt
For simplicity’s sake, let’s assume teams would then play one of each of the above pairs in even years, and the other in odd years. This keeps some notion of balance in play; you wouldn’t want to play Alabama, Georgia, LSU, Oklahoma, etc. one year and play Missouri, Kentucky, Mississippi State, etc. the next.
If you’re Tennessee, such a breakdown might look like this:
Even Years: Alabama, Florida, Oklahoma, LSU, Ole Miss, Missouri, Kentucky
If we then break these down in balancing out the home and away portion, let’s take a stab at mock future schedules.
Mock 2024 Tennessee Schedule – Eight SEC Games
8.31 Chattanooga
9.7 vs NC State (Charlotte)
9.14 Kent State
9.21 Florida
9.28 Missouri
10.5 at LSU
10.12 bye
10.19 Alabama
10.26 at Ole Miss
11.2 Kentucky
11.9 bye
11.16 at Oklahoma
11.23 UTEP
11.30 at Vanderbilt
Mock 2025 Tennessee Schedule – Eight SEC Games
8.30 vs Syracuse (Atlanta)
9.6 FCS home opener
9.13 at Auburn
9.20 UAB
9.27 Texas A&M
10.4 at Mississippi State
10.11 bye
10.18 South Carolina
10.25 at Arkansas
11.1 non-conf homecoming
11.8 at Texas
11.15 bye
11.22 Georgia
11.29 Vanderbilt
You’d then flip the home/away components for 2026 and 2027. So in ’26, you’d go to Gainesville and Tuscaloosa but have LSU and Oklahoma come to Knoxville, etc.
The 2025 schedule is where it starts to look strange to me. You could have a year when Tennessee doesn’t play Alabama, Florida, or Kentucky. I’m not sure how deep in the weeds they’d go to balance out things like that, but if you base it somewhat on competitive balance, such a thing could easily exist.
Let’s give this a try with the nine game format.
Nine Game Schedule
In this format, we’re following the chatter and assuming Tennessee’s annual rivals are Alabama, South Carolina, and Vanderbilt. For competitive balance, we’re breaking up the other 12 teams in the same kinds of pairings in odd and even years. So you’d get something like this:
Even Years: Florida, LSU, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi State, Kentucky
Odd Years: Georgia, Auburn, Texas, Texas A&M, Ole Miss, Missouri
Mock 2024 Tennessee Schedule – Nine SEC Games
8.31 Chattanooga
9.7 vs NC State (Charlotte)
9.14 Kent State
9.21 Florida
9.28 at Mississippi State
10.5 at LSU
10.12 bye
10.19 Alabama
10.26 at South Carolina
11.2 Arkansas
11.9 bye
11.16 Kentucky
11.23 at Oklahoma
11.30 at Vanderbilt
Mock 2025 Tennessee Schedule – Nine SEC Games
8.30 vs Syracuse (Atlanta)
9.6 FCS home opener
9.13 at Auburn
9.20 UAB
9.27 Texas A&M
10.4 at Missouri
10.11 bye
10.18 at Alabama
10.25 South Carolina
11.1 Ole Miss
11.8 at Texas
11.15 bye
11.22 Georgia
11.29 Vanderbilt
Again, you’d flip the home/away in 2026 and 2027. So the Vols would go to Gainesville in ’26 and welcome LSU, etc. This one drops the UTEP game from the schedule in 2024, with no room in the inn for four non-conference games.
The college football fan in me loves the nine game model; I think it makes the most sense for a number of reasons, including the retention of the Third Saturday in October in a time when it is less disadvantageous to do so. Of course, if we’re making decisions exclusively through the competitive advantage lens, an eight game schedule with Vanderbilt as our annual rival is difficult to say no to; Tennessee has probably played the most difficult strength of schedule in the SEC for the last 30+ years of divisional play.
Either way, the fantasy element is fun to play with, but I’ll be eager to see the real thing, if we get any news next week or whenever. Which model would you prefer?
Tennessee’s sports calendar never really ends, which is great when you’re good at everything. Softball hosts their regional this weekend, while baseball is at South Carolina, trying to play their way into hosting theirs. The hope is both teams give us the chance to watch them play into the month of June.
This time of year also marks the full turn into lookahead season for football, led by the tangible sign of preseason magazines. It’s no longer way-too-early season. And though we’re still a hair more than 100 days to Tennessee’s kickoff on September 3, what’s being put out into the world by many prognosticators now represents their final draft of 2023 expectations.
For the first time since 2016, we don’t have to wonder if Tennessee will be ranked. The Vols were the proverbial last team in for the preseason AP Top 25 in 2015, 2017, and 2020. They were the first team out last season, the first “also receiving votes” in the 2022 preseason poll.
Now that we’ve rectified all that with a season as good as any other around here that didn’t end in a national championship, where will the Vols begin again?
In 247’s post-spring consensus Top 25, Tennessee was ranked tenth. As you’ll see, that would put them in excellent company with what this program was at its peak.
When we talked about Tennessee being back, that wasn’t just to 1998. Are you in the hunt? And, in a sport preparing to move to a 12-team playoff, anything in that range for preseason expectations is a good sign.
That’s exactly where the Vols found themselves in the proverbial good old days:
Tennessee in the Preseason AP Top 25 Era (1989-Present)
Rank
Years
1
2
1996
1999
3
2005
4
5
1997
2002
6
7
8
1990
1995
2001
9
2016
10
1993
1998
11
1991
12
2000
2003
13
1994
14
2004
15
2007
16
17
18
2008
19
20
21
1992
22
23
2006
24
25
2015
2017
2020
From 1990 to 2007, Tennessee was ranked in the Top 15 of the preseason poll 16 times in 18 years.
That kind of consistency in that kind of company is what this kind of program is looking for. Roughly, the Top 12 (six automatic qualifiers plus six at-large) is getting ready to be the cutoff point. So anything in that neighborhood to start the season means you’re, again, in the hunt.
Last year’s team put Tennessee back in the promised land. And I believe this year’s team is going to begin their hunt from the same kind of ground we’re accustomed to seeing the Vols stand on when things are working well.
Something I find myself saying a lot – and will continue to do so joyfully – is that the 2022 team is best understood not just in how they left the wilderness, but that they found the promised land. It wasn’t just the first time in 15 years the Vols had a successful season by any definition. It was that, outside of 1998? What the 2022 Vols did stacks up against any other season you want in the modern era.
In my lifetime, I’d put them on the list with 1985, 1989, 1995, 1997, 1998, and 2001 as the Tennessee teams that came the closest to the mountaintop (you can add the 1990 SEC Champions if you want; more on them in a second). Those six seasons, along with 2022, featured landmark victories and the real belief that the Vols could be the best team in the country at various points along the way.
So…what do you do for an encore?
Here’s what happened the year after those years:
1985 (SEC Champions) to 1986
1985 Final Poll: 4
1986 Preseason: 10
1986 Final Poll: NR
The ’85 SugarVols cashed in on the promise of Johnny Majors and routed #2 Miami in New Orleans as their final act. They were the first Vol squad to finish a season ranked in 11 years, first in the Top 5 in 15 years.
In 1986, Tennessee went 0-3 in one possession games in the regular season, with each of those losses coming in September and October. The Vols lost to Mississippi State by four, Georgia Tech by one, and Army by five. They were also blown out by #2 Alabama and #8 Auburn.
But Tennessee did rebound down the stretch, winning their final five games including the Liberty Bowl over Minnesota. They carried that momentum into 1987, when they’d finish 10-2-1 and ranked 17th.
1989 (SEC Champions) to 1990
1989 Final Poll: 5
1990 Preseason: 8
1990 Final Poll: 8
Maybe the wildest of all seasons in Knoxville, the ’90 Vols went 9-2-2 and won their second consecutive SEC title. They tied a pair of Top 5 teams in Colorado and Auburn. They lost a heartbreaker to #1 Notre Dame, then won a thriller against former #1 Virginia in the Sugar Bowl. They blew out Steve Spurrier and #9 Florida 45-3, then suffered what I still think is the second-hardest loss of my lifetime to unranked Alabama 9-6. In the end, they finished right where they started: eighth in the polls, and SEC Champions once again. I don’t have them with this group of six teams because they played four games they didn’t win. But on sheer entertainment, this group is hard to beat.
1995 (#3 Final Poll) to 1996
1995 Final Poll: 3
1996 Preseason: 2
1996 Final Poll: 9
The only one of these teams to start the year higher than their predecessors finished it. Peyton Manning’s junior year saw the Vols give up 35 straight points to Florida in Knoxville at the start of the game before scoring the next 29 to almost come back. This team was still on track for a huge year, but lost at Memphis for the first (and only) time in program history. That sent the Vols back to Orlando, where blowing out Northwestern wasn’t quite the same as the showdown with #4 Ohio State that capped off the previous year.
1997 (SEC Champions, Bowl Alliance) to 1998
1997 Final Poll: 7
1998 Preseason: 10
1998 Final Poll: 1
The Vols were ranked third in the next-to-last AP poll of 1997 before getting blown away by #2 Nebraska in the Orange Bowl, a game that would’ve been for the national title if Michigan had lost the day before. Manning and his cohort left for the NFL. Fun fact: 10th was the lowest the Vols had been ranked in the preseason poll in four years.
It mattered little: this bunch finally beat Florida and ran the table, winning the national championship.
1998 (National Champions) to 1999
1998 Final Poll: 1
1999 Preseason: 2
1999 Final Poll: 9
And a lot of those dudes were back the next year. The Vols gave up five sacks to Alex Brown in The Swamp, but were still ranked second in the BCS on November 8. Alas: Clint Stoerner got his revenge, with Arkansas knocking the Vols out of the national championship conversation. Nebraska beat them in the Fiesta Bowl for a 9-3 finish.
2001 (Opportunity to play for BCS title) to 2002
2001 Final Poll: 4
2002 Preseason: 5
2002 Final Poll: NR
Man, that sentence about 2001 does indeed hurt a little less, at least to me, when you just beat Nick Saban.
Injuries and weirdness struck in 2002, the first truly disappointing season in Knoxville in almost 15 years. The Vols fumbled 134581740 times in the rain against Florida, the first of five losses, all to Top 20 opponents. Casey Clausen missed time after Tennessee’s six overtime win against Arkansas, the Vols caught the Miami superpower on the schedule, etc. A Peach Bowl blowout loss to Maryland put the stamp on a frustrating season, but Tennessee won 10 games each of the next two years.
Only the 1998 Vols finished higher than their predecessors. It’s hard to do when those are your predecessors! If you asked fans right now to take the over/under on finishing 6th in the final poll of 2023? Our spring expected win total of 8.65 regular season victories suggests an understanding that improving on last year isn’t necessarily at the top of our wish list.
Two of these teams finished unranked, but the other four all finished in the Top 10. That’s program building, and it’s an interesting question for Josh Heupel in year three. The two groups that finished unranked were 1986 and 2002, coming before and after Tennessee’s “decade” of dominance from 1989-2001. So even though seasons like 1996 and 1999 may have had their disappointments, they still ended in the Top 10, and the Vols were still in the promised land, so to speak.
Where will the 2023 Vols start and finish? And can they show the program-building strength that can carry Tennessee into the College Football Playoff conversation every year?
Last May, when Tennessee baseball was on its historic tear, we started looking at how hard it is to win an SEC Championship. When a team was making it look as easy as that group was, you can forget that the Vols had just four league titles in the five lead sports (football, men’s & women’s basketball, baseball, softball) since expansion in 2012.
And, as we discovered in doing that research last year? When it can feel like things were down for Tennessee’s athletic department for so long, it’s gratifying to remember how those five league titles compare to the rest of the SEC. Because “just” five titles is actually good for fourth on this list:
SEC Regular Season Championships since 2012 Expansion
Since 2012
Football
Men’s Bball
Women’s Bball
Baseball
Softball
Total
Alabama
7
2
0
0
2
11
Florida
0
2
0
3
6
11
South Carolina
0
0
7
0
0
7
Tennessee
0
1
2
1
1
5
Kentucky
0
4
0
0
0
4
LSU
1
1
0
2
0
4
Arkansas
0
0
0
1
2
3
Auburn
1
2
0
0
0
3
Mississippi State
0
0
2
1
0
3
Georgia
2
0
0
0
0
2
Texas A&M
0
1
1
0
0
2
Vanderbilt
0
0
0
2
0
2
Missouri
0
0
0
0
0
0
Ole Miss
0
0
0
0
0
0
The 2023 baseball crown is still up for grabs, with five teams within two games of the lead. But no matter who wins it, this will still be true:
Since the league added Missouri and Texas A&M in 2012-13, Tennessee is the only program to win an SEC title in four of these five sports.
Only Alabama, Florida, and LSU claim titles in three sports during that span.
And Tennessee’s lone blemish on this chart is football, which just enjoyed its best season in two decades.
Something we echo a lot on this site: there are always meaningful moments available, in any sport, in any season. I don’t know what you’d consider to be the “worst” period in Tennessee’s athletic history, but there was certainly a lack of consistent momentum in many of these sports not too very long ago. Among the breadwinners, football’s worst campaign was 2017, basketball struggled in the transition from Donnie Tyndall to Rick Barnes in 2015 and 2016, and Lady Vol basketball didn’t make the Sweet 16 from 2017-2021. Softball missed the super regionals in 2016. Tony Vitello was hired to begin the 2018 season.
Even in seasons like these, meaningful opportunities are always available. But just a few years later, every one of these sports is in the hunt.
That’s the linked component of that echo: the hunt is the real prize. It’s not winning national championships or bust, which makes for a terrible quality of life. It’s the belief that you can win one. That’s the promised land. And across the board, that’s where Tennessee’s programs now find themselves.
So while baseball may not be winning the league title in more dominant fashion than it’s ever been done like last year, are they in the hunt? Softball is ranked fourth in the nation as they open play in the SEC Tournament today. They’re in the hunt.
I don’t know if football will end up with 11 wins again this fall or not. But coming in, I believe they’ll be in the hunt. In 2024 projections and bracketologies, you’ll find Rick Barnes’ squad in the same hunt they’ve pursued now for the past six seasons. And Lady Vol basketball, now back in the tournament’s second weekend for consecutive years, is a three seed in ESPN’s 2024 bracketology.
I’m a big believer in today being the most important day and all that good stuff. I find it most meaningful to do life and faith that way. And that meaning is always available.
These days, that’s as easy to believe for Tennessee as it’s ever been. This is what it looks like to be the ol’ everything school. And it’s a great gift to turn on any of these programs in any season, and believe we can win.
Tennessee tied its second-best mark with five players taken in the first three rounds of the NFL Draft last weekend. The 2023 draft class joined 2007, 2002, 1998, and 1992 at that mark, trailing only the 2000 draft class with a boatload of players from the 1998 national champions. That draft saw eight Vols taken in the first three rounds, the clear program record.
The history major in me really enjoyed this stat from Jesse Simonton:
CRAZY STAT: Georgia's entire starting defense (+ No. 9 overall pick Jalen Carter, who didn't start) from its 2021 National Championship win over Alabama has been drafted.
DE Walker NT Davis DT Wyatt OLB Beal OLB Smith ILB Walker ILB Dean CB Kendrick CB Ringo S Cine S Smith
My first question: “Has Tennessee ever done this?”
If you use the starting lineups from the media guide in the seven-round draft era since 1994, the answer is…almost. The vaunted 1998 champs had nine starters drafted from its defense. Three years later, the 2001 defense had eight “official” starters drafted plus Teddy Gaines.
The 2022 Vols put four players from its record-breaking offense in the first three rounds. How does that compare to the best the Vols have done from that side of the ball in the draft?
You have to go back ten years to find the nearest context:
2012: Cordarrelle Patterson (R1), Justin Hunter (R2), Dallas Thomas (R3), Mychal Rivera (R6), plus Ja’Wuan James (R1) and Zach Fulton (R6) from the 2014 draft
This is Tennessee’s last position group to have two players taken in the first round…for now. CBS Sports has Javontez Spraggins in the first round of their 2024 mock draft. If he, Bru McCoy, any of the running backs or any others from last year’s starting lineup are taken next April, the 2022 offense will start reaching back even farther:
2001: Donte Stallworth (R1), Fred Weary (R3), Travis Stephens (R4), Reggie Coleman (R6), plus Kelley Washington (R3) and Jason Witten (R3) from the 2003 draft, plus Scott Wells (R7) from the 2004 draft.
Seven players from the 2001 offense makes for a strong total picture for that group, with 15 starters drafted overall. On one side of the ball, seven players from the 2005 defense were also drafted.
No surprise: it remains the 1998 national champs who have the overall record in the modern era, with those nine defensive starters joining seven offensive starters to make 16 overall draft picks from that starting lineup.
If you’re looking for the most impressive group on offense, you’ve gotta go back one more year:
1997: Peyton Manning (R1), Marcus Nash (R1), Trey Teague (R7), plus Peerless Price (R2) and Shawn Bryson (R3) from the 1999 draft, plus Jamal Lewis (R1), Chad Clifton (R2), and Cosey Coleman (R2) from the 2000 draft.
That’s eight starters from the 1997 SEC Champions, plus a non-official starter in WR Andy McCullough, taken in the seventh round in 1998. Three first rounders, three second rounders, and a third round pick. Chad Clifton made two Pro Bowls, Jamal Lewis won the MVP, and Peyton’s in the Hall of Fame. Cosey Coleman was a starter on Tampa’s Super Bowl team. And both Shawn Bryson and Peerless Price played 7+ seasons in the league.
Not bad.
So from this perspective, the 1997 offense sets the bar on that side of the ball, and the 1998 defense earns its reputation as the top unit overall. But here again, the 2022 group has already done things we haven’t seen around here in 10+ years…and with another strong season from some of its returning starters, could find itself in more of the same elite program history at Tennessee.
The transfer portal is all the rage nowadays in college sports, especially in basketball. I think fans follow transfers more closely than they do recruiting now, at least based off the interactions and discussion I’ve seen online.
In this era of player freedom, the impact of transfers is under even more scrutiny than ever before. That seems especially true for Tennessee and a fanbase that hasn’t seen a true major-impact transfer in…well, quite some time.
This offseason, Rick Barnes has done something he’s never done at Tennessee: He’s brought in more than one transfer who can play immediately. USC Upstate guard Jordan Gainey, Harvard wing/forward Chris Ledlum, and Northern Colorado guard Dalton Knecht have all three announced their intentions to transfer to the Vols, marking the first time Barnes has added multiple transfers in the same offseason with the expectation of them playing the following season. Prior to the 2019-20 campaign, Barnes and his staff landed Victor Bailey Jr. from Oregon and Uros Plavsic from Arizona State, but Bailey redshirted his first year on campus, and Plavsic didn’t get to play till midseason as he fought for eligibility.
How Gainey, Ledlum, and Knecht will perform for the Vols remains to be seen, but there’s hope that all three can fill holes on Tennessee’s roster for the upcoming season, particularly Knecht.
But based on the Vols’ recent history with transfers, it’s understandable if fans’ expectations are low for UT’s newest additions.
I looked back over the last 20 years to see what kind of impact transfers have made for Tennessee’s men’s basketball program. I looked exclusively at transfers from one college to another, whether they were multi-year transfers or grad transfers. I didn’t include JUCO transfers or walk-on transfers just to simplify things, so someone like Josh Bone wasn’t included in this research.
The results backed up what I suspected: Tennessee has had some really bad luck with transfers over the last couple decades, and it’s only been more glaring over the last 5-8 years.
Starting with Jemere Hendrix in 2003 all the way to Tyreke Key this past season, the list of transfers into Tennessee’s basketball program is a rollercoaster of production. For the first decade or so of this millennium, the Vols actually had a pretty good run with who they brought in as transfers. Scooter McFadgon was an exceptional scorer on some bad Tennessee teams, and Andre Patterson was a solid contributor for his two seasons, especially in his one year under Bruce Pearl.
Speaking of Pearl, he also brought in J.P. Prince, who was instrumental in Tennessee’s 2010 Elite Eight run and was a consistent third option on the offensive end. He also nabbed Tyler Smith, who was on his way to possibly being the best transfer in Vols’ history until he was kicked off the team after his arrest. Pearl also got Jeronne Maymon to come to Tennessee from Marquette, but Maymon’s impact wasn’t felt until Cuonzo Martin took over as head coach. Maymon and Jarnell Stokes were a one-two punch in the post for multiple years, and both gobbled up rebounds like machines.
Martin also reeled in Antonio Barton from Memphis, and he was a serviceable point guard who played a larger role than fans may remember in that 2013-14 season when UT went on a surprising Sweet Sixteen run.
After Barton, though, things have become…less memorable on the transfer front.
Donnie Tyndall had to completely remake Tennessee’s roster in his one and only season, and his two transfers amounted to very little on the court. Dominic Woodson played in a handful of games before deciding to leave the program, and Ian Chiles barely got to play before suffering a season-ending injury.
Then came Rick Barnes.
Barnes’ luck with transfers at Tennessee has been poor, to say the least. In Barnes’ first few years at the helm, he brought in Lew Evans, who wasn’t much more than a depth piece, and James Daniel III, who was a good three-point shooter but never could return to form from his time at Howard.
Then came Uros Plavsic and Victory Bailey Jr. in the same offseason. Plavsic is still on Tennessee’s roster as of now and has actually played more games than any other incoming transfer at Tennessee over the last 20 years. But his play is probably best described as “sporadic,” and he has failed to be as impressive on the boards as most would like. As for Bailey, his first season after redshirting was pretty solid, averaging almost nine points a game while connecting on almost 34% of his threes. His production fell off a cliff in his second season, though, and he left the program and followed Kim English to George Mason after that.
Following those two additions was E.J. Anosike, who might be the most disappointing transfer for the Vols in the last 20 years, if not longer. Justin Powell transferred from Auburn the next offseason and showed some promise as a three-point shooter, but he never saw a lot of minutes and didn’t thrive in Knoxville.
And that brings us to Tyreke Key, who transferred from Indiana State for this past season.
This may surprise you, but Key may actually be Barnes’ best transfer addition to date at Tennessee. Which says more about Barnes’ luck with transfers than it does Key’s production with the Vols.
Now, unlike a lot of people, I’m not going to sit here and trash Key. I think he got a lot of undue hate tossed his way, and while his play deserved criticism, I believe some went over the top with it and either didn’t know, forgot, or willfully ignored the fact that he was coming off shoulder surgery and missed the entire 2021-22 season at Indiana State and was asked to play out of position a good chunk of this past season due to injuries to Tennessee’s roster.
Anyway.
Key finished the year averaging just over eight points, 2.5 rebounds, and 1.3 assists while making 33.3% of his threes. Nothing stellar there at all, but he made some good contributions, albeit with a lot of inconsistency.
The fact that Key is probably Tennessee’s best transfer in the last 9-10 years says a lot about the production the Vols have gotten from transfers recently, though. And it makes sense why fans would question just how good a transfer can be at Tennessee under Barnes.
Personally, I think someone like Ledlum is the exact type of player who can thrive with Barnes, even though there definitely will be a regression with his numbers considering he’s jumping from the Ivy League to the SEC. And I think Knecht will play a vital role on the team next season and could be the perfect versatile scoring threat the Vols have lacked the last few years.
Only time will tell if my suspicions about Ledlum and Knecht are true, and both have a lot of years’ worth of bad transfer juju to overcome for fans to get more on board.
Both of those players, and Gainey, all have something in common: They’re transferring to Tennessee from a “smaller” school in a non-high major conference. That’s been the trend under Barnes, too. He’s mainly grabbed players from mid-majors to come to Knoxville, and only three of the transfers he’s brought in have been from other Power Six programs (Uros Plavsic, Victor Bailey Jr., and Justin Powell).
From the 2003-04 season to the 2014-15 season, only two of Tennessee’s 10 transfers were from mid-major schools. The Vols scored three scholarship transfers from Memphis in that span (Scooter McFadgon, Antonio Barton, and Dominic Woodson), and the other five were from other Power Six conferences. Only John Fields (UNC Wilmington) and Ian Chiles (IUPUI) were from smaller schools.
All that isn’t to say that you have to come from a Power Six conference to have success at Tennessee as a transfer, but so far those have been the most accomplished transfers into Knoxville this millennium.
Here’s a full look at the stats of Tennessee’s transfers over the last 20 years:
When I was a kid, I watched the NFL Draft from almost start to finish every year. And the only reason why was the Vols: nine players selected in 1991, nine again in 1992. Even when the draft was shortened to seven rounds, the Vols put 14 names on the board in 1995 and 1996 combined.
There’s a depth component to that Tennessee is still trying to build overall today. But in the early rounds, and especially on offense? You’ve got a chance to see it just about as good as it’s ever been done at Tennessee this weekend.
Here are the most recent comparisons overall; as with just about everything else regarding the 2022 Vols, it’s been awhile:
The Last Time…
Three players taken in the first three rounds: 2017 (Derek Barnett, Alvin Kamara, Cam Sutton)
Three players taken in the first two rounds: 2010 (Eric Berry, Dan Williams, Montario Hardesty)
Four players taken in the first three rounds: 2007 (Justin Harrell, Robert Meachem, Arron Sears, Turk McBride, Jonathan Wade)
Four players taken in the first two rounds: 2007 (Harrell, Meachem, Sears, McBride)
Three players taken in the first round: 2002 (John Henderson, Donte Stallworth, Albert Haynesworth)
If we get to that last benchmark – Darnell Wright, Hendon Hooker, and Jalin Hyatt all have first round mocks out there – it would tie the UT record. Along with 2002, three Tennessee players were taken in the first round in 1998 (Peyton Manning, Terry Fair, Marcus Nash) and 1991 (Charles McRae, Antone Davis, Alvin Harper).
And if both Byron Young and Cedric Tillman join Hooker, Hyatt, and Wright in the first three rounds? You’d have five players taken in the first three rounds for the first time since 2007, and just the sixth time ever:
Five Players Taken in the First Three Rounds:
2007: Justin Harrell, Robert Meachem, Arron Sears, Turk McBride, Jonathan Wade
2002: John Henderson, Donte Stallworth, Albert Haynesworth, Fred Weary, Will Overstreet
2000: Jamal Lewis, Shaun Ellis, Raynoch Thompson, Chad Clifton, Dwayne Goodrich, Cosey Coleman, Deon Grant, Darwin Walker (that’s eight from the 1998 national champions)
1998: Peyton Manning, Terry Fair, Marcus Nash, Leonard Little, Jonathan Brown
1992: Dale Carter, Chris Mims, Carl Pickens, Chuck Smith, Jeremy Lincoln
Once again: other than the 1998 national champions, you can put the 2022 Vols in the conversation with any other modern era team at Tennessee. On-field success is getting ready to translate into the NFL.
