Rock Gullickson focuses on focus, football welcomes a new commit, and punter Trevor Daniel is actually a real live person with a face and everything. This and more in today’s Vols link roundup.
Football and learning to focus
You’ve probably heard that new strength and conditioning coach Rock Gullickson came to Rocky Top from the NFL, where he trained NFL pros for years. Well, he’s finding that kids right out of high school these days have a difficult time paying attention. Gullickson does not seem like a get-off-my-lawn type of guy, though, as he’s not just yelling at the guys to PAY ATTENTION! No, he’s imposed on himself a responsibility to take that observation and make something out of it.
Gullickson is actually onto something really important here. I’m currently reading Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport, the gist of which is that the distraction problem is growing rapidly in today’s world and so people who are able to recognize the issue and overcome it are going to have huge advantages over others who allow their valuable time to be stolen away by invaluable, shallow activities. Basically, the ability to concentrate is becoming more and more scarce and therefore more and more valuable.
So if Gullickson and the Tennessee coaching staff have not only identified distraction as a real problem but are also actively working to correct it, they can create and leverage an additional important advantage for themselves and for the team. So, you know. Go Vols.
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Recruiting
Tennessee received a commitment from 3-star Class of 2018 cornerback Tanner Ingle last night. His commitment moved the Vols up to No. 9 nationally in 247Sports‘ team rankings.
Orange Carpet Day didn’t net the landslide of commitments this year that it did last, but most believe that the Vols field-position game this time around was a success.
New hoops offers:
- Class of 2019 5-star (and No. 12 player in his class) small forward Trendon Watford
- Class of 2019 4-star Top 100 power forward Armando Bacot
- Class of 2019 6’11” center Jason Jitoboh
Other Football
Brady Hoke: Mr. Energy, but (presumably) without the cases of Red Bull:
Phillip Fulmer is playing both sides of the two-quarterback system debate, saying both that playing two QBs can be valuable because it stresses defenses but that it’s really not preferable. He is confident, though, that Butch Jones “will handle that fine.”
Vince Ferrara is posting his take on each of the Tennessee units this week. He started with the quarterbacks and has worked his way through the running backs and the wide receivers.
Trevor Daniel has a face. This is what it looks like. GVX has a nice feature on punter Trevor Daniel, who is just continuing to do what he’s been doing, which would be just fine with all us folks on Rocky Top. There are two especially interesting things about the article, though. First, it includes a video interview with Daniel, which makes you realize you would have no idea who he was if you were standing next to him not wearing a helmet on campus. And second, he’s awesome and everything, but that picture they included with the story is so awkwardly timed that it looks like how I would look trying to punt the football.
VFLs
Alvin Kamara’s new teammates in New Orleans are saying nice things about him, and Josh Dobbs is literally hitting home runs in Pittsburgh:
https://twitter.com/josh_dobbs1/status/876963169469640704
Hoops
Transfer guard James Daniel III should be ready to go by August, but in the meantime, the scoring machine is salivating while watching the Pilot Rocky Top League.
Other Vols news
Tennessee track sensation Christian Coleman, who recently announced that he was going pro, has published a letter to Vols fans. Also, the USTFCCCA (seriously, they are in desperate need of a new acronym) has given Jared Prescott — Tennessee’s media relations contact for track — its 2017 Division I Track & Field Excellence in Communications Award. Maybe he’s the only guy who could memorize the acronym, I don’t know.
We reported this earlier, but it’s now official: Vols baseball has hired former Oklahoma State head coach Frank Anderson as its new pitching coach.
Golfer Lorenzo Scalise is tied for 58th after Monday’s opening round of the 122nd Amateur Championship at Prince’s Golf Club in Sandwich, Kent, England.
That’s it for today. Go Vols!