GoVols247: A Tennessee Volunteers athletics podcast

GoVols247's Wes Rucker, Patrick Brown and Ryan Callahan went into Fort Rucker Studio to break down Tennessee's offensive coordinator coup.

Vols head coach Jeremy Pruitt’s 44-day search for an offensive coordinator took longer than most on the outside expected, but it ended in style. Pruitt plucked Georgia offensive coordinator Jim Chaney, who coordinated some explosive offenses at Tennessee from 2009-12 but wasn’t retained by Butch Jones.

Chaney’s track record of producing explosive offenses and sending several players to the NFL continued during his time at Arkansas, Pittsburgh and Georgia, and bringing him back to Knoxville looks like a coup — an expensive coup, but a coup nonetheless.

Hiring Chaney was a strong statement from Pruitt, but every situation comes with questions that must be answered: How did Tennessee convince Chaney to leave a strong situation at Georgia for a rebuilding situation in Knoxville? How much did Georgia fight to keep him? What kind of system will the versatile coordinator install at Tennessee? How will his football philosophy and personality mesh with Pruitt?

And, perhaps most interestingly, what position will Chaney coach for the Vols? And what does that mean for those currently on Tennessee’s staff? Will there be more staff moves in the near future?

Those and several other topics are discussed in details in this episode.

GoVols247's Wes Rucker and the Knoxville News Sentinel’s Mike Wilson (pinch-hitting for Grant Ramey) went into Fort Rucker Studio to break down all things Tennessee basketball heading into the start of SEC play this weekend.

Tennessee will begin its conference-title-defense tour with a Saturday home game against Georgia, and there are several interesting topics to discuss heading into SEC play.

Is this Tennessee team as good as it looks, or are there potential problems lurking in the weeds? When will Lamonte Turner return? If Turner doesn’t return soon, do Rick Barnes and his staff need to tweak the rotation and lengthen the bench to avoid over-burdening some of the team’s stars? Is this team’s defense really as problematic as Rick Barnes suggests, considering it’s ranked top-30 nationally in adjusted defensive efficiency? What potential potholes sit on this team’s title-defense path? What would be a great, good or acceptable mark in SEC play? Does SEC really even matter, as long as this team is peaking at the right time heading into the postseason?

Also, why does Mike Wilson have a Midwestern American accent despite being a Kiwi who was born in New Zealand, spent the first four years of his life in New Zealand and then three elementary-school years in Japan?

Those and several other topics are discussed in details in this episode.

GoVols247's Wes Rucker and Grant Ramey went into Fort Rucker Studio to briefly touch on some of the week’s football news before diving into a discussion about the state of Vols hoops heading into 2019.

Rick Barnes and his staff and players went their own separate ways for a few-day Christmas break, but the Vols are reassembled and preparing for Saturday’s game against Tennessee Tech — the final opponent before SEC play opens with a Jan. 5 game against Georgia.

What looks good for the Vols at the moment? What needs some work? When will Lamonte Turner return? Was the team being leapfrogged by Michigan to stay in the No. 3 spot in this week’s Associated Press poll a snub, and did it matter, either way? Does Tennessee Tech pose any kind of a threat?

Those and several other topics are discussed in details in this episode.

GoVols247's Wes Rucker and Grant Ramey went into Fort Rucker Studio to break down a big week full of news for the Tennessee football and basketball programs.

Tennessee didn’t have a blockbuster start to Early Signing Period of Wednesday, but that solid-yet-unspectacular start was just, in fact, a start. Thursday and Friday certainly turned things up a notch. Some big recruiting news actually broke in the middle of Friday’s podcast recording, which made for an interesting episode.

What did Tennessee get? What did Tennessee not get? What does Tennessee need to do in the coming weeks? All of that is discussed in detail on this episode.

It’s also been a huge week for Rick Barnes and his third-ranked Tennessee basketball team. The Vols went to Memphis last weekend and put on a show in a big win over the in-state-rival Tigers at FedExForum, but that game — exciting as it was — was merely the start of the week’s fireworks. First-year Memphis coach Penny Hardaway teed off on veteran Vols coach Rick Barnes and his program, and that incident also is discussed in detail on this episode. Plenty of other hoops topic are discussed, too, including Wednesday’s win over Samford, Saturday’s game against Wake Forest and some injury updates.

A couple of strong contenders for Grant's Gun Show Question of the Week also are included in this episode.

GoVols247's Wes Rucker, Patrick Brown and Ryan Callahan went into Fort Rucker Studio to break down the latest on Tennessee's search for a new offensive coordinator and a bunch of new football football players.

Tennessee's search for a replacement for the departed Tyson Helton is now well into its third week, but Vols coach Jeremy Pruitt doesn't seem to be panicking. Pruitt continues speaking with candidates and confidantes about the position, but it doesn't seem like a hire will be made before next Wednesday's start of the Early Signing Period. Sources close to Pruitt insist the head coach is confident in the process, but that hasn't done much to assuage at least a good-sized chunk of Tennessee's fan base. Is there reason for concern or at least cause for pause regarding this search? That's a main topic of conversation in this episode.

It's not the only topic of conversation in this episode, though.

The NCAA's Early Signing Period opens Wednesday, and so many things could happen for the Vols between now and then. Several Tennessee commitments are set to sign as soon as possible next week, but some could wait until February's traditional National Signing Day, and in this episode we discuss those players and their potential reasons for delaying the arrivals of their National Letters of Intent.

Several top Tennessee targets are set to commit — to the Vols or elsewhere — in the next week, and this episode features a thorough discussion of several of those prospects.

If Tennessee wants to sign anywhere near a full class of 25 players, though, basic math demands that several players on the current roster will have to leave the program before next season. The NCAA allows just 85 scholarship players at the NCAA Division I FBS level, and signing a full class would put the Vols well above that line. Just two non-seniors (quarterback Will McBride and cornerback Marquill Osborne) have announced plans to transfer, but several more players will have to join that list at some point. We don't mention specific names of any potential transfers, but we don't ignore the fact that others will be out the door at some point, and we discuss that, as well.

This episode features a couple of strong contenders for Grant's Gun Show Question of the Week, too.

GoVols247's Wes Rucker (from Fort Rucker Studio) and Grant Ramey (from Denver International Airport) conversed as if in the same room thanks to the miracle of Al Gore’s Internets, and there was plenty to discuss after Tennessee’s come-from-behind, 76-73 win over top-ranked Gonzaga in the Jerry Colangelo Classic at Talking Stick Resort Arena in Phoenix.

A performance for the ages from senior wing Admiral Schofield propelled Tennessee back from the brink against the Zags. With junior guard Lamonte Turner (the reigning SEC Sixth Man of the Year) still sidelined with a shoulder issue and star junior forward Grant Williams (the reigning SEC Player of the Year) sidelined for the final 2 minutes, 30 seconds after fouling out, the Vols needed something special from Schofield. And that’s exactly what they got. Schofield scored Tennessee’s final 11 points, including eight huge points after Williams was forced to the bench.

Schofield’s fifth 3-pointer of the game gave Tennessee a 73-71 lead with 1:20 left, and he responded to Gonzaga tying the score by promptly putting the Vols back in front — this time for good — on his sixth 3-pointer of the game. His NBA-range dagger with 23.1 seconds left proved to be the difference.

There’s plenty of discuss from Sunday’s game, and this episode covers just about all of it. First we speak with Vols head coach Rick Barnes, and then we break down the game with one of the reporters covering it in person.

GoVols247's Wes Rucker (from Fort Rucker Studio) and Grant Ramey (from GoVols247’s Blount County Satellite Office) conversed as if in the same room thanks to the miracle of Al Gore’s Internets, and there was plenty of Tennessee basketball to break down heading into Sunday’s game between the seventh-ranked Vols and top-ranked Gonzaga Bulldogs in Phoenix.

Tennessee lost a golden opportunity in an overtime setback against second-ranked Kansas two weeks ago in New York, but the Vols get a quick opportunity to more than make up for that this weekend.

It doesn’t look like the Vols will be a full-strength for the game, though, because Lamonte Turner is continuing to deal with a shoulder issue. How much will the absence of the reigning SEC Sixth Man of the Year hurt Tennessee against Gonzaga? Will the Vols continue to go with their new-look lineup of sophomore Yves Pons starting at the shooting guard spot, with junior Jordan Bowden coming off the bench? Is Tennessee having a full week to prepare for this game a good thing or a bad thing? Will the Vols look like a locked-in, veteran team in this big-game environment?

And what, exactly, do the individual matchups between Tennessee and Gonzaga look like?

There are so many subplots heading this huge game, and many of those subplots are discussed in this episode.

GoVols247's Wes Rucker, Patrick Brown and Ryan Callahan went into Fort Rucker Studio to break down the latest on two pressing issues — the search for a new offensive coordinator, and all things recruiting — for the Tennessee football program.

It’s now been a week-and-a-half since Tennessee offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Tyson Helton left to become the head coach at Western Kentucky, and Pruitt is still going through the process of finding a replacement. He’s not moving as quickly as many Tennessee fans would prefer, but he remains in no hurry to make a hire and is confident that his due-diligence process will end the right way.

Who would be the ideal fit to replace Helton? It’s a fair question, and we debate that question in this episode. We also discuss all things Hugh Freeze, because that’s very clearly a pressing issue with a significant portion of Tennessee’s fan base.

The offensive coordinator search has been far from the only thing on Pruitt’s mind these days, though. With the early signing period getting closer and closer on the horizon, and a critical visiting period open, Pruitt and his staff are hitting the trail hard. The Vols are very much in play with some of the nation’s top prospects, and we have updates on some of those prospects in this episode.

GoVols247's Wes Rucker, Patrick Brown and Ryan Callahan went into Fort Rucker Studio to break down a hectic week full of highs and lows for Jeremy Pruitt's rebuilding Tennessee football program.

Just days after ending their regular season with a tough loss at in-state rival Vanderbilt that removed them from bowl contention and learning that offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Tyson Helton, Pruitt changed the narrative by securing a commitment from Atlanta-area native Harrison Bailey, the nation's No. 59 overall prospect and No. 3 pro-style quarterback prospect in the 2020 industry-generated 247Sports Composite.

Adding a commitment from an elite quarterback prospect when you don't have an offensive coordinator or quarterbacks coach is a stunning achievement, and it's something Pruitt needed to flip the script after Tennessee ended the season with rough performances against Missouri and Vanderbilt.

This podcast episode begins with a quick look back at the Vanderbilt loss and the 2018 season before flipping forward to things currently on Tennessee's radar — the impact of Bailey's commitment and the ongoing search to replace Helton.

A few prominent names have ben mentioned in connection with Tennessee's OC vacancy, and the strengths and potential snags with some of those candidates are discussed in this episode.

This episode also touches briefly on sophomore quarterback Will McBride's decision to leave the Tennessee program in search of more playing time. McBride always kind of seemed to be the player squeezed the hardest by Tennessee's new offensive scheme, and him being passed by freshman JT Shrout in the pecking order late this season left little doubt regarding McBride's future with the program.

It's been a busy week at Tennessee, and this episode touches on much of that news.

GoVols247's Wes Rucker went into Fort Rucker Studio solo this week — which made sense, given the staff’s location all over the country during this holiday week — but nonetheless served as conduit to anything and everything related to this season’s crucial Vols-Dores game at Vanderbilt Stadium.

A brief intro on all things Vols football and hoops set the stage for an episode featuring interviews of three pertinent Vols — first-year head coach Jeremy Pruitt snd senior defensive linemen Shy Tuttle and Paul Bain.

Tuttle and Bain have a ton to play for this week, because a loss to the Commodores might be the final game of their careers at any level of football, especially in the case of Bain, a former walk-on who plans to enroll in dental school following his playing days. Neither D-linemen wants to be part of the first Tennessee team to lose three consecutive games to Vanderbilt since the mid-1920s. Both are playing for plenty of “pride” — a word Pruitt has used plenty of times this week.

Speaking of Pruitt, a mid-week interview with the head coach featured plenty of discussion on all things Vols-Vandy, including the health of three Tennessee offensive starters — sophomore quarterback Jarrett Guarantano, junior wide receiver Marquez Callaway and sophomore running back Ty Chandler — and the list of players who won’t play Saturday in order to keep them eligible for a redshirt under new NCAA rules and regulations.

Pruitt also praised several things about the Commodores, especially senior quarterback Kyle Shurmur and junior running back Ke’Shawn Vaughn and the toughness Vandy has seemingly always had under veteran coach Derek Mason.

It’s Vols-Vandy week. Make a plate full of festive leftovers, sit back, watch some football, pop on this podcast and get yourself ready for Saturday’s win-or-no-bowl showdown.