Gameday Today wishes Greg Emerson a speedy recovery, ignores Mom and listens to Dad, and asks unanswerable questions. This and more in today’s Vols link roundup.
Recruiting
As we posted last night, defensive tackle target Greg Emerson suffered an injury at The Opening Finals. Initial reports were gloomy, but later reports cited a source as saying Emerson would be out only 4-6 weeks. Now we have it from the horse’s mouth:
https://twitter.com/sneakerhad_greg/status/881672962071420928
Good news. GoVols247 has a compilation of well-wishes from Tennessee guys and others.
Football
- New wide receiver Jacquez Jones is a huge fan of new wide receiver coach Kevin Beard.
- This article leads with news that defensive end Darrell Taylor is leading in the weight room, but the best part is what strength coach Rock Gullickson told his players upon sending them home for a week-long break:
“Their friends and family haven’t seen them for a while, so then they go home and they say, ‘holy smokes, what have you been doing,’” Gullickson said. “But I tell them that your mom is always going to say you look good, but if your dad or your uncle says you look good, you are probably doing it right.”
All moms are liars. 🙂
- SEC Country asks five questions about Tennessee football and wonders why no one has started the 7-on-7 drills we heard so much about a few weeks ago. Um, yeah. We thought that was important.
- Jimmy Hyams asks an interesting question: Just how much did injuries impact Tennessee’s defense last year? There’s no real answer there (likely because there’s no real answer to be found), but it is an interesting discussion.
- John Adams says we should neither write off LSU as a loss nor count Kentucky and Missouri as wins this November. In other words, enjoy the actual games instead of trying to decide beforehand whether to enjoy them.
- Another Vegas outlet weighs in on Tennessee this season and lists the Vols as 3.5-point favorites over Georgia Tech to open the season.
- Athlon Sports named quarterback Quentin Dormady and defensive back Nigel Warrior as Tennessee’s wild card players for the upcoming season.
- Phil Steele picks Tennessee to finish third in the SEC East.
- If you’re interested, the SEC released its Football Media Days schedule, and Tennessee is slotted third on Monday, July 10.
- If you’re interested in a 16-click slideshow, GoVols247 has an interesting list of individual single-game Tennessee record-holders.
Hoops
- Guard Chris Darrington is apparently really, really fast. Also, Rick Barnes says that everybody has gotten better. I know that’s what you want and expect and isn’t really news, but his emphasis is on “everybody,” which could very well be news. Also, hoops commit Davonte Gaines just received a 4-star rating from 247Sports.
- Tennessee basketball hired Aubin Goporo as Director of Player Development.
VFLs
Loved this quote from VFL Jalen Reeves-Maybin about Butch Jones being on the hot seat this fall:
“It’s the SEC, and everybody is on the hot seat. There might be two or three guys in the SEC who are not on the hot seat, and the rest of them are. At the end of the day, you’ve just got to win. If you meet the expectations in five straight games and then don’t in one, then you’re on the hot seat. Everybody is on it.”
Other Vols news
Tennessee golfer Lorenzo Scalise finished second after 72 holes of stroke play and a five-hole playoff in the 2017 European Amateur Championship.