Tag Archives: Skyler DeLong

Gameday Today: History lessons, accelerators, and brakes

Butch Jones is bringing back the history lessons and trying to find the brake on the Trey Smith hype train. Plus hoops updates and more in today’s Vols link roundup.

Football

I’ll just leave this here:

https://twitter.com/vol_football/status/875442820676411393

And now that your pump is primed, let’s get on with the football news:

Butch Jones is bringing back the Tennessee Football history assignments this fall. Each player has to get up in front of the team and present a little lesson on the guys who have worn their numbers before them. I love this, no joke. 

SEC Country has a great feature on Tennessee commit D’Andre Litaker. That dude has had a rough time of it lately and is somehow managing to keep his head above water.

More praise for the quiet monster on the offensive line, Trey Smith. Jones is doing his best to fight the urge to mash the accelerator instead of the brakes on the Trey Smith hype, but man do we have legit high hopes for this guy.

VFLs

Phillip Fulmer thinks that Jones has made some especially nice tweaks in the offseason:

“The coaching changes give him a great opportunity, and it’s not like this team is coming from nowhere, they had a pretty good season,” Fulmer said. “This can put him over the hump and that’s what everyone wants.

“That’s what Butch is trying to do, to take it to a championship level. The coaching experience he has hired around him is obvious, and it should project on the field.”

Hoops

The NCAA has instituted some new rules changes for the upcoming season, including extending the coach’s box from 28 feet to 38 feet, presumably to make it easier for them to communicate with their team. Except at Vandy, of course, where its insidious court configuration necessitates a satellite phone to reach your players if they’re on the opposite end. “HEAD THREE CLICKS WEST. OVER!”

Other rules changes affect the resetting of the shot clock and the locations of throw-ins.

Injury updates: Graduate-transfer James Daniel III should be back from injury in time for the team’s trip to Europe, and guard Lamonte Turner could also be back. Forward John Fulkerson probably won’t be by then, but Rick Barnes does expect him back in time for preseason practice in October.

Barnes is also excited to finally have the depth to be able to take the governor off the strength and conditioning coach without worrying whether he’ll wear his guys out before the season ends.

And in case you weren’t aware of this fact, Barnes is also a funny and entertaining guy. In discussing the Pilot Rocky Top League, he said:

“That league is so good defensively, I’m going to play,” the 62-year-old Barnes said Sunday.

Baseball

UTSports.com has a compilation of information about all five baseball Vols recently drafted.

Recruiting

Punter Skyler DeLong’s commitment to Tennessee lasted about as long as most high school relationships, as he’s now smitten with Alabama and has given his committed heart to the Evil Empire.

New offers:

Odds and Ends

Athletic Director John Currie has written you a letter on the web, and it has actual links and stuff. Particularly impressive for what has traditionally been a real curmudgeon when it comes to new media.

And shoot, that man is going to totally wear himself out reaching for the prize(s):

“We’re not gonna relax until we win all the championships . . . .”

Currie’s also going to have Neyland Stadium painted over the course of three summers at the same time. I don’t really know why it takes three years, unless they just don’t know that they can rent a paint sprayer at Home Depot.

AND, Currie’s also going to upgrade the stadium’s curb appeal along the river. The man’s going to need a vacation after we win everything while painting. 

Track and field star Christian Coleman is a finalist for The Bowerman Award, given to the top male collegiate track athlete.

Tennessee has golfers at the 17th Annual Tennessee Match Play Championship, and they’re apparently doing well.

That’s it for today. Happy Friday to y’all.

 

 

Gameday Today: Butch Jones, “classic over-explainer”

Gameday Today nods its head at the suggestion that Butch Jones is a “classic over-explainer,” loves new punters and old defensive ends, and wonders how many coaches will carry bullhorns on the sidelines this fall.

Butch Jones, Pitchforks, and Kum Ba Yah: An epilogue

Another national columnist weighs in, as USA Today’s Dan Wolken discusses Jones and his somewhat fragile relationship with a portion of the Tennessee fan base. Particularly interesting is Wolken’s suggestion that “you’re losing if you’re explaining, no matter how much you’re winning,” and his description of Jones as a “classic over-explainer.” It would seem that one of new athletic director John Currie’s main priorities is going to be managing “the disconnect between the real progress Tennessee has made under Jones and the toxic assessment of him that swirls around the social media sphere.” Well, that and deciding how best to undo the Lady Vols brand mess.

Local guy Mike Griffith says in a bit of a throwaway comment that UT is actively limiting access to Jones and encouraging less discussion about football, presumably as part of a strategy to give Jones the time he needs this fall to let his performance speak for itself.

In not unrelated news, Jones and his staff will be in Chattanooga this Saturday to attend the Big Orange Caravan, which has been remade into a “low-cost, family-friendly deal, where if your kid runs around a little bit, you don’t have to keep them quiet the whole time.” That sounds like more of a tailgate party than a star chamber for the head coach, and I’m all for it. As long as they actually make it to the Tri Cities.

Recruiting

Tennessee got a commitment yesterday from the nation’s top-ranked punter, Skyler DeLong. Tennessee’s class currently ranks ninth in the nation, according to 247Sports.

Congrats to Tennessee quarterback commit Adrian Martinez, who was recently named an Under Armour All-American.

Tennessee extended several new offers to recruits yesterday, including linebacker Caleb Kelly, defensive end/linebacker Andrew Johnson, Top 50 defensive end Nathan Pickering, and offensive lineman Harry Miller. 

VFLs

Congratulations to VFL Derek Barnett for signing a four-year contract with the Philadelphia Eagles. No word on the details yet, but Spotrac had projected it to be nearly $13M.

Miscellaneous fun stuff

SEC head of football officials Steve Shaw has apparently said (via quote on Twitter, thus the crazy grammar) that “coaches coming onto the field to argue calls will get automatic 15-yard unsportsmanlike penalty.” Who’s your pick for the first coach to start carrying a bullhorn on the sideline?

Tennessee barely snuck in to the Sporting News’ Preseason Top 25, at the 25th spot. SEC East teams ahead of them are Georgia (No. 10) and Florida (No. 15). So, Tennessee just has to beat them, and they’ll be in the Top 10, no problem.

RTT suggests that the mere presence of Chip Kelly is going to give athletic directors all over the country itchy trigger fingers this fall. That’s probably right.

If you can’t wait for the new roster to be updated, 247Sports has a 28-click list of jersey numbers for the Vols’ newcomers.

The punter with the greatest punting name in the history of names commits to Tennessee

A punter with a very Tennessee name and a very appropriate name committed to the Volunteers out of the blue on Thursday, and he has a ranking worthy of excitement, no matter how unsexy a kicking commit is.

Skyler DeLong — that’s right, SKYler DeLONG, an awesome name for a kid who will earn his scholarship booming footballs — a punter from Nation Ford High School in Fort Mill, South Carolina, decided to become the 12th Tennessee pledge on Tuesday, and while he told GoVols247’s Ryan Callahan that he was firmly committed, he is still visiting Alabama this weekend and drawing interest from instate Clemson, too.

Sounds like the Vols are going to have to work to keep him. Even so, DeLong sounds like he’s excited to be a Vol.

“Hopefully I’ll be getting (an offer from) N.C. State, but I think I’m totally done with my recruiting and just ready to be part of Tennessee football,” said DeLong, who’s also ranked the nation’s No. 3 punter in the 2018 class by Kohl’s Professional Camps and the nation’s No. 2 punter by Chris Sailer Kicking, according to the article from Callahan.

“There’s probably, like, 15 to 17 schools, but I just told them, ‘Yeah, I’m done with my recruiting. Tennessee is where I want to be, but I thank you so much for recruiting me,’ and stuff like that.”

The kid is the nation’s top-ranked punter, according to 247Sports, and he averaged 48 yards per punt a season ago. If UT hangs onto him, DeLong has the potential to be a huge pickup, especially considering star punter Trevor Daniel is a senior who is out of eligibility following the 2017 season.

That means there’s opportunity for DeLong to step right in and be UT’s punter from Day One.

The punter’s pledge was met with excitement from some Vols assistants.

https://twitter.com/UTWWells/status/870363758740332544

https://twitter.com/coachcanales/status/870364578068213760

If you follow those two on Twitter, they’ve got some pretty hilarious reactions to pledges.

Also, while there hasn’t been any mention in the articles about it, the punter shares a common last name with a couple of Tennessee legends. Steve and Keith DeLong were All-American Volunteers, and those who follow UT closely knows that’s a name that is up there with Majors, Colquitts and others in the history books. So, even though Skyler isn’t likely a relative of the duo, it’s still pretty cool that he shares a common (uncommon) last name.

One of the most underrated facets of football is field position, and it cannot be overstated just how much of a weapon Daniel has been for the Vols the past couple of years and how vital it is to the health of the program to continue that by getting a strong-legged punter with which to replace him.

It seems the Vols have the guy they think is the answer in DeLong. He may not be the most exciting of UT’s commitments thus far in the 2018 class, but he very well may be one of the most important.