GoVols247: A Tennessee Volunteers athletics podcast

GoVols247’s Wes Rucker and Grant Ramey convened via the magic of Al Gore’s Internets to discuss five-star point guard Kennedy Chandler’s commitment to Tennessee.

Chandler, the nation’s No. 11 overall prospect and No. 1 point guard prospect in the 2021 industry-generated 247Sports Composite, is a Memphis native who recently transferred to play his senior season at powerhouse Sunrise Christian Academy in Wichita, Kan. He could have played anywhere but ultimately chose the Vols over Duke, Kentucky, North Carolina and hometown Memphis — who will be especially irked to lose a five-star Memphian to the hated Vols?

Why did Chandler pick Tennessee? Who helped him make that decision? How could Chandler’s game best be described? How has Rick Barnes turned Tennessee into a place where so many five-star prospects want to play? How has assistant coach Kim English already established himself as an elite recruiter? And perhaps most importantly, which elite prospects across the nation might follow Chandler to give the Vols another blockbuster class? Those are the primary discussion points in this one-segment, breaking-news episode.

The next GoVols247 Podcast episode will be released Monday, unless breaking news occurs before that point.

GoVols247’s Wes Rucker and Grant Ramey convened via the magic of Al Gore’s Internets to discuss Tennessee’s desire to play football this fall and answer tailback questions from Vols fans across the world.

The Big Ten and Pac-12 announced earlier this week that they were suspending football this fall in light of the worldwide novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, but the other three Power 5 conferences — including the SEC — are still moving ahead and trying to play. Tennessee and the rest of the SEC is scheduled to start the season Sept. 26. Is that still a realistic goal? Where is the disconnect between college football’s most powerful leagues on this issue? That’s the main point of discussion in the first segment, but there’s also some discussion on Tennessee basketball recruiting after the Vols offered another 2022 prospect from Knoxville Catholic High School — 7-footer Handje Tamba.

As usual on Thursday episodes, a mailbag was featured in the second segment of this episode. Disappointingly, there were no hand-to-hand combat questions this week, but there were tons of fun questions about Tennessee football, Tennessee basketball, the SEC, COVID-19, recruiting, best and most movie sequels, which vehicle best represents every GoVols247 staff member and even the art (or whatever) of podcasting.

The next GoVols247 Podcast episode will be released Monday, unless breaking news occurs before that point.

GoVols247’s Wes Rucker (from Fort Rucker Studio) and Patrick Brown (from an undisclosed location) convened via the magic of Al Gore’s Internets to discuss confusing reports questioning whether the Big Ten still plans to play football this fall, and the impact of those reports on Tennessee, the SEC and all of college football.

Just days after announcing its conference-only 2020 schedule, the Big Ten appears to be considering a quick about-face and postponing the season. Reports Monday morning indicated that the Big Ten voted 12-2 to postpone the season, with Nebraska and Iowa serving as the voices of dissent. Then several Big Ten coaches publicly insisted that they and their teams still wanted to play this season, and a Big Ten spokesperson then claimed the conference hadn’t held a final vote on the matter.

So … yeah. Good luck making heads or tails from that.

What is happening in the Big Ten, and what impact will that have on Tennessee, the SEC and the rest of college football? That’s the main topic of this episode, but a few other items are mentioned along the way.

The next GoVols247 Podcast episode will be released Thursday, unless major breaking news occurs before that point. And let's be honest ... there will probably be big news of some sort before Thursday.

GoVols247’s Wes Rucker and Patrick Brown convened via the magic of Al Gore’s Internets to discuss Auburn and Texas A&M being added to Tennessee’s 2020 football schedule.

The SEC on Friday night announced the two new league opponents for every team in the league, and Tennessee inarguably got one of the tougher draws. The Vols were given a road game at Auburn and a visit from from Texas A&M. Auburn is ranked No. 11 in the preseason coaches’ poll, and Texas A&M is ranked No. 13.

Why did the SEC decide to tinker with the schedule as opposed to just fast-forwarding the rotation that was already in place? Why didn’t the league just have a random lottery drawing? Who are the league's winners and losers in this deal? How tough will those matchups be for Tennessee? Was this scheduling news a good thing, a bad thing or both for the Vols? Those are the primary topics discussed in this one-segment, breaking-news episode.

The next GoVols247 Podcast episode will be released Monday, unless major breaking news occurs before that point.

GoVols247’s Wes Rucker and Patrick Brown convened via the magic of Al Gore’s Internets to discuss Tennessee being the first team outside the preseason coaches’ poll, which was released Thursday afternoon.

The Vols (and Boise State) were the first teams left out of the poll, coming in just behind No. 24 Virginia Tech and No. 25 Iowa State.

Should the Vols have been in the poll after winning their final six games last season? Should that streak have given the Vols more respect heading into the season? Does any of that even matter? Those are the main points of discussion on this episode, though some other recruiting and schedule items are discussed, as well.

The next GoVols247 Podcast episode will be released later in the week, unless major breaking news occurs before that point.

GoVols247’s Wes Rucker and Ryan Callahan convened via the magic of Al Gore’s Internets to discuss top-100 prospect Damarius McGhee’s commitment to Tennessee and other recent development for the Vols on the trail.

McGhee, a 6-foot-1 cornerback from Pensacola, Fla., is the No. 89 overall prospect in 247Sports’ 2021 recruiting rankings, and he’s been near the top of Tennessee’s board for a while. The Vols identified him early and offered him 12 months ago, well before some of college football’s other blue bloods jumped on board. That clearly meant a lot to McGhee, who chose the Vols over a long and impressive list of suitors.

What kind of prospect is McGhee? Is he quick enough to stay at cornerback despite his 6-foot-1 frame? Is it slender frame any kind of a concern? How is Tennessee able to identify so many prospects so quickly, and how important has that been to the Vols’ recruiting success in the Jeremy Pruitt era? Those are the main points of discussion in the first segment of this episode.

Updates on several other Tennessee targets are included in the second segment of this episode.

The next GoVols247 Podcast episode will be released Thursday, unless major breaking news occurs before that point.

GoVols247’s Wes Rucker and Grant Ramey convened via the magic of Al Gore’s Internets to discuss the importance of Yves Pons’ decision to return to Tennessee for his senior season.

Pons, the reigning SEC Defensive Player of the Year, initially declared for the NBA Draft before reversing course Monday night and choosing to return for his senior season with the Vols.

What was already a championship-contending roster suddenly looks even stronger. Pons’ return makes a sturdy crop of returning players even stronger, and Tennessee just enrolled one of the nation’s top recruiting classes to bolster it.

How close was Pons to remaining in the draft? Why did he choose to come back? What does that return mean for Tennessee’s rotation? How many more options will the Vols have now, assuming everyone stays healthy? What can Pons do as a senior to improve his stock heading into the 2021 draft? Those are the primary points of discussion in this one-segment, breaking-news episode.

The next GoVols247 Podcast episode will be released Tuesday morning, unless major breaking news occurs before that point.

GoVols247’s Wes Rucker and Patrick Brown convened via the magic of Al Gore’s Internets to discuss the possibilities for Tennessee football’s SEC-only 202 schedule.

After monitoring the latest COVID-19 updates and delaying the decision as long as it could, the SEC finally followed a trend set by the Big 10 and PAC-12 and chose to go with a conference-only schedule for the 2020 season. What was a 12-game mixed schedule will now be a 10-game conference-only schedule for Tennessee and the SEC’s other 13 programs, and it won’t start earlier than Sept. 26.

Who will Tennessee’s two new SEC opponents be this season? Will the eight league games already on the schedule be played as scheduled, or will have they have to be moved? How will the SEC find its desired “fair and equitable” solution to the situation? And perhaps most importantly, will the revised schedule be played at all? Those are the primary points of discussion in this episode.

The next GoVols247 Podcast episode will be released later Monday night, unless major breaking news occurs before that point.

GoVols247’s Wes Rucker (from Fort Rucker Studio) and Grant Ramey (from GoVols247’s Blount County Satellite Office in Maryville) convened via the magic of Al Gore’s Internets to kickoff the week with a discussion on how much concern there should be about college football after an outbreak of coronavirus has thrown a wrench into Major League Baseball.

The first segment of this episode features a quick discussion on some recent Tennessee football and basketball news. There’s good news (Yves Pons making the cut for players who could be invited to the upcoming NBA Combine) and bad news (two former Vols football players being cut by the same NFL team, plus another former Vols football player being placed on COVID-19 injury reserve) in that discussion.

COVID-19 becomes the sole topic in the second segment of this episode. News emerged Monday that at least 13 Miami Marlins (and perhaps more) have tested positive for coronavirus, causing the postponement of two separate MLB games Monday night. Does that news combined with some recent college football developments — including the entire Michigan State program being placed in quarantine — spell doom for the possibility of college football this fall? Should it at least cause more significant levels of concern? Or is this something that can be worked around moving forward? That’s the primary discussion in the second segment, and many possibilities are tossed into the mix.

Just to make sure everyone is clear, the GoVols247 Podcast isn’t opining on whether college football should be played this season. Last we checked, we don’t have any epidemiologists on our staff. We’ll leave those decisions to those qualified enough to make them. We’re simply discussing the complicated set of possibilities that could come into play if games are played this fall.

The next GoVols247 Podcast episode will be released Thursday, unless major breaking news occurs before that point.