GoVols247: A Tennessee Volunteers athletics podcast

GoVols247’s full crew — Wes Rucker, Ryan Callahan, Grant Ramey and Patrick Brown — went into Fort Rucker Studio to discuss the state of Tennessee’s defense heading into its first preseason camp with new head coach Jeremy Pruitt.

Pruitt has spent the past decade cultivating a reputation as one of the best up-and-coming defensive minds in the college game, and he's already got a handful of national championship rings as an assistant coach. His first season as a head coach will be spent trying to fix (or at least patch) a Tennessee defense that hasn't been consistently solid for several years.

The Vols will have a new base defense this season, but it's not nearly as simple as suggesting they're switching from a 4-3-base defense to a 3-4-base defense. If Pruitt's history proves to be an accurate barometer, they'll be multiple and they'll be very aggressive. But it remains to be seen how aggressive Pruitt and co-defensive coordinators Kevin Sherrer and Chris Rumph will be with a defense that has tons of questions marks in the secondary aside from junior star Nigel Warrior.

Defense is the only topic in this episode, but there's plenty to discuss on that side of the ball.

GoVols247’s full crew — Wes Rucker, Ryan Callahan, Grant Ramey and Patrick Brown — went into Fort Rucker Studio to discuss the state of Tennessee’s offense heading into its first preseason camp with new head coach Jeremy Pruitt.

Pruitt completely overhauled Tennessee’s offensive staff, and that new staff — a group led by offensive coordinator Tyson Helton, who came to the Vols from USC — is installing a new system that’s supposedly a more traditional, pro-style offense. That will be a big change for a group that’s been spread-based on offense the past five seasons.

There will be position battles all over the field, but the most prominent battle will be at the quarterback position, and Pruitt insists that all four of his scholarship quarterbacks — sophomore Jarrett Guarantano, senior graduate transfer Keller Chryst from Stanford, sophomore Will McBride and freshman JT Shrout — will be given a fair chance to earn the starting spot in the team’s season opener against West Virginia.

Position battles across the board will be a major theme in Tennessee’s preseason camp, though. Few players can be truly confident that they’ll start the game against the Mountaineers, but several players will head into camp believing — and with good season — that they could win first-team spots. That should make this camp an exciting one.

This week’s second GoVols247 Podcast — an episode looking at Tennessee’s defense heading into camp — will be published Friday morning.

GoVols247's Wes Rucker, Ryan Callahan and Patrick Brown went into Fort Rucker Studio to recap the news and notes of this week's SEC Media Days at the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta.

In case you missed it — surely you didn't miss it — there's been a silly controversy surrounding new Tennessee football coach Jeremy Pruitt's personality and whether it's a good fit for his new position. Several Georgia players have weighed in on the matter, with two former Bulldogs who never played for Pruitt (Aaron Murray and David Pollack) on one side and a quarterback who played for Pruitt at Georgia (Hutson Mason) on the other, at least in some ways.

We break down the many reasons why this quasi-controversy centered around the former Alabama, Georgia and Florida State defensive coordinator is silly, but there's also plenty of other things to discuss. We have updates on the statuses of two key Tennessee players — sophomore offensive lineman Trey Smith and junior wide receiver Jauan Jennings — as well an update of the status of touted linebacker signee JJ Peterson.

Tennessee's quarterback battle, the players' thoughts on Pruitt and several other topics also are included in this episode.

GoVols247's Wes Rucker, Grant Ramey and Patrick Brown went into Fort Rucker Studio to break down another interesting week for the Tennessee football and men's basketball programs.

Bovada this week released the SEC divisional and conference-champion odds, and things look about as grim as you'd expect for Jeremy Pruitt and his rebuilding Tennessee program. We break down those odds for the Vols, and all three GoVols247 writers in the studio offer their unsolicited advice on teams they'd feel good dropping a few bucks on.

In much better news, though, Tennessee added another big offensive line commitment. And this commit — Nigerian-born Chris  Akporoghene of Florida powerhouse IMG Academy — has a great story that featured a couple of years at The King's Academy School in the Knoxville area. We break down Akporoghene's pledge and what it means for the Vols and their class moving forward.

We also spent time discussing the Tennessee commitments who got big bumps in the most recent 247Sports Recruiting Rankings. Atlanta-area offensive line commit Wanya Morris is now a consensus five-star prospect and the nation's No. 6 overall prospect and No. 1 offensive tackle prospect in the 2019 industry-generated 247Sports Composite. Tennessee wide receiver commit Ramel Keyton got an even bigger bump. He rose 66 spots to No. 104 overall in 247Sports' rankings, where he's now the No. 17 wide receiver in the 2019 class. And there were others, too. And we discuss all of them.

Tennessee basketball continues to hit the recruiting trail hard, as well, and the Vols have gotten themselves in solid-or-better shape with two of the nation's top four point guard prospects in the 2019 cycle. One of those point guards — Tre Mann from Florida — is deciding soon and likes Tennessee a lot, despite the home-state Florida Gators keeping themselves very much in the mix. The Vols are also very much in the mix for consensus five-star point guard Josiah James, though he's not ready to commit anywhere anytime soon.

It was another week full of news, but we've got you covered on it.

GoVols247's Wes Rucker, Grant Ramey and Patrick Brown went into Fort Rucker Studio to hold the second annual Preseason Camp Buzz Draft.

The rules were simple: Pick three players who aren't surefire starters who could generate plenty of buzz in preseason camp, and at least one of those players can't be a newcomer.

The first annual Preseason Camp Buzz draft was "not a snake draft," according to Ramey, who anointed himself as the staff's Decider Of Whether Drafts Are Snake Drafts Or Not Snake Drafts. Things were different this year, with Ramey choosing to use the snake draft format.

BONUS: Ryan Callahan couldn't make it to Fort Rucker Studio this week, so he wasn't around to tell everyone why their picks weren't good.

GoVols247's Wes Rucker, Ryan Callahan and Patrick Brown went into Fort Rucker Studio to break down some reasons why the Tennessee football team might exceed expectations in its first season under coach Jeremy Pruitt. Media who cover one team on a consistent basis can at times seem a bit jaded and focus so much on a team's weaknesses rather than its strengths, and that's a natural feeling when you really think about it. But with the start of preseason camp less than a month away, we threw all that aside for at least one week to examine some reasons why Tennessee might not be quite to bad, after all. We discussed a few other things in this episode, including former Vols wide receiver Josh Smith opening up about the frustrations he had with coach Butch Jones, one former Tennessee star perhaps trolling Jones a bit on social media and a recruiting update from Callahan, but the bulk of this long episode is spent walking on the sunny side of the street.

GoVols247's Wes Rucker and Patrick Brown went into Fort Rucker Studio to break down the latest news from another week of Tennessee football. It's been a newsy week for first-year coach Jeremy Pruitt's Vols, who added two commitments — including a quarterback — to their 2019 class. We also break down Tennessee quarterback Jarrett Guarantano's performance at the annual Manning Passing Academy, take a look bad at the emotional celebration of life the Vols held for former broadcaster John Ward and debate and discuss Patrick's recent article detailing 10 bold predictions for the 2018 season.

GoVols247's Wes Rucker and Grant Ramey went into Fort Rucker Studio to break down the offseason that's been and the offseason that will be for the Tennessee basketball team — a team that's been ranked in the preseason top-five by several analysts heading into next season. Are the Vols ready for that kind of target? Does having virtually your entire team returning from last season guarantee anything regarding chemistry? Does this team have the point guard play to compete for a national championship? How much does Admiral Schofield's return mean? Which players can and will take big steps forward next season? Will touted big man signee DJ Burns make an impact on an already-deep frontcourt? There are so many interesting offseason storylines for this Tennessee basketball team, and we discuss several of them in this episode.

GoVols247's Wes Rucker, Ryan Callahan and Grant Ramey went into Fort Rucker Studio to discuss the career and legacy of iconic former Voice of the Vols John Ward, who passed away this week at the age of 88. Tennessee's four-decade broadcaster was consistently regarded as one of the nation's best for a reason, and he was a beloved figure in the Volunteer State for a reason. This episode is focused mostly on Ward, and it features an interview with his predecessor — current Voice of the Vols Bob Kesling. Other topics are discussed in brief in this episode, but the meat and potatoes is focused on one the greatest broadcasters in American sports history.

GoVols247's full staff — Wes Rucker, Ryan Callahan, Patrick Brown and Grant Ramey — went into Fort Rucker studio to break some some of the wildest things we've seen during our time covering Tennessee athletics over the years. Wes' recent wedding was something no one else on the staff thought would ever happen, and in honor of that, we held a roundtable discussion on some of the other crazy things we've seen covering one of the craziest beats in all of sports. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll want to punch things. The Tennessee beat has been many, many things over the years, but it has never been boring.