KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The Vol Network’s “Big Orange Hotline” radio show debuts for the 2018 football season Monday, August 27 at 8 p.m. Eastern / 7 p.m. Central across the state of Tennessee live from the patio at Dead End BBQ restaurant on Sutherland Avenue in Knoxville.
The Vol Network’s Bob Kesling hosts the show and will be joined each week by former Vol quarterbacks Pat Ryan and Jeff Francis. Numerous special guests and former Vols will visit the restaurant and be on the show this season. Entering its 11th season, “Big Orange Hotline” is a weekly, one-hour, prime time Tennessee football preview show presented and hosted by Dead End BBQ.
In addition to interviews, calls and discussion, Monday’s opening show will also feature a scouting report on Tennessee’s season-opening opponent in Charlotte, the West Virginia Mountaineers.
Fans can call in and ask questions by dialing 1-800-688-8657 (VOLS) or Tweet questions to @VolNetwork_IMG, #AskVolNetwork. Fans are encouraged to check their local listings for the close to 20 Vol Network affiliates in the state that carry “Big Orange Hotline”. The show can also be heard online at utsports.com and on the UT GameDay App.
Dead End BBQ is an award-winning unique American neighborhood barbecue restaurant located at 3612 Sutherland Avenue in Knoxville. Voted one of America’s top 100 barbeque restaurants, Dead End BBQ’s menu has tons of options…from Ribs to Brisket to Pork, Chicken, and Sausage. More information and directions can be found at www.deadendbbq.com.
The bracket for the 2018 NIT Season Tip-Off was announced Friday, and Tennessee will open against Louisville at 5 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Nov. 21, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
The other side of the four-team bracket features Kansas and Marquette. The winners and losers of each game on Nov. 21 will meet two days later on Friday, Nov. 23.
All NIT Season Tip-Off games will be played at the Barclays Center and will be televised on ESPN2. Friday’s championship will air at 7 p.m. ET, and the third-place game follows at 9 p.m. ET.
Tickets for the NIT Season Tip-Off go on sale on Wednesday, Aug. 22, at 10 a.m. ET and can be purchased via Ticketmaster by visiting www.barclayscenter.com, or www.ticketmaster.com, or by calling 800-745-3000. Tickets also will be available at the American Express Box Office at Barclays Center starting on Thursday, Aug. 23 at noon ET. Group Tickets are available by calling 855-GROUP-BK.
Tennessee trails its all-time series with Louisville 7-12, dating to 1913. The Volunteers won the first six meetings between 1913 and 1922, and the Cardinals then reeled off seven straight victories from 1927 through 1983. Tennessee then posted a 100-84 win over Louisville in the 1985 NIT in New York City before the Cardinals recorded wins in each of the five most recent meetings.
The teams last faced one another in the Sweet Sixteen round of the 2008 NCAA Tournament. Louisville defeated the Vols, 79-60, ending UT’s 31-win season (a program record).
In his 31 previous years as a head coach, Tennessee’s Rick Barnes has never faced Louisville.
Chris Mack enters his first season as the head coach at Louisville. During Mack’s nine seasons as the head coach at Xavier from 2009-18, he guided the Musketeers to eight NCAA Tournament appearances, including four Sweet Sixteens and one Elite Eight.
Barnes and Mack have never met as head coaches.
In its last NIT Season Tip-Off appearance, Tennessee won the 2010 championship with victories over VCU and Villanova. That year’s tournament was contested at Madison Square Garden.
In addition to their 2010 championship showing, the Vols also appeared in the 1992 and 2006 NIT Season Tip-Offs. The Big Orange defeated Rutgers before falling to Seton Hall in 1992. In 2006, UT suffered losses to Butler and North Carolina at Madison Square Garden.
The NIT Season Tip-Off is one of 10 college basketball events owned and operated by ESPN Events, a division of ESPN.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The 2019 women’s basketball schedule was announced Thursday by the Southeastern Conference office in Birmingham, Ala., providing dates for Tennessee’s league games this season.
SEC play will begin on Thursday, Jan. 3, and run through Sunday, March 3. The schedule consists of a single round robin (10 games) and home and away with one permanent opponent (2 games) and two rotating opponents (4 games).
The conference’s permanent opponents for women’s basketball are Alabama-Auburn, Arkansas-Missouri, Florida-Georgia, Kentucky-South Carolina, LSU-Texas A&M, Ole Miss-Mississippi State, and Tennessee-Vanderbilt. UT’s two rotating foes this season are Auburn and Missouri.
This marks the 10th year of the 16-game schedule for women’s basketball and the seventh with 14 teams. Each team will play eight home games and eight away games.
During the week of January 20-27, SEC member institutions will participate in the eighth annual “We Back Pat” Week. The initiative is focused on bringing awareness and recognition to the Pat Summitt Foundation, a fund of East Tennessee Foundation, and its fight against Alzheimer’s disease.
The regular season will be followed by the 2019 SEC Women’s Basketball Tournament, which will be held for the third time at Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, S.C. The tournament will include all 14 teams and begins on Wednesday, March 6, and concludes with the championship game on Sunday, March 10.
The women’s basketball television schedule will be announced at a later date, as will tip times for all games.
The Lady Vols open SEC action at Auburn on Jan. 3 before welcoming Missouri to Thompson-Boling Arena on Jan. 6. The Tigers are rated No. 11 in Charlie Crème’s ESPN.com Way-Too-Early Top 25.
In addition to Mizzou, Tennessee will face ranked SEC foes in a home game vs. No. 15 South Carolina (Feb. 24) and road contests at No. 8 Mississippi State (Feb. 10), No. 11 Missouri (Feb. 17), No. 13 Georgia (Jan. 13) and No. 22 Texas A&M (Feb. 21).
The remaining home schedule includes Kentucky (Jan. 10), Arkansas (Jan. 21), LSU (Jan. 27), Florida (Jan. 31), Auburn (Feb. 14) and Vanderbilt (Feb. 28). The Arkansas, LSU and Florida contests are in the midst of a four-game home stand that includes a non-conference tilt with defending NCAA champion Notre Dame on Jan. 24.
Other road trips include stops at unranked opponents Alabama (Jan. 17), Vanderbilt (Feb. 3) and Ole Miss (March 3).
Tennessee released its non-conference slate on Aug. 17. The Lady Vols host Carson-Newman in an exhibition on Nov. 5 followed by home bouts with Presbyterian (Nov. 11), UNC Asheville (Nov. 14), Florida A&M (Nov. 18), Stetson (Dec. 5), Stanford (Dec. 18), East Tennessee State (Dec. 21), Murray State (Dec. 28), Belmont (Dec. 30) and Notre Dame (Jan. 24).
The Lady Vols also have neutral-site, non-league games vs. Clemson and either Oklahoma or UAB at the Junkanoo Jam in Bimini, Bahamas, on Nov. 22-24 and road contests at Oklahoma State (Dec. 2, SEC/Big 12 Challenge) and at Texas (Dec. 9).
LADY VOL SCHEDULE NOTES
UT will open Southeastern Conference play on the road for the fourth time in Holly Warlick‘s seventh season as head coach.
The Lady Vols are 3-0 in SEC away openers under Warlick and 14-3 all-time.
Tennessee is slated to play nine regular-season games vs. teams ranked in Charlie Crème’s espnW Way-Too-Early Preseason Top 25, including four at home.
Those games are vs. No. 1 Notre Dame, vs. No. 6 Stanford, at No. 8 Mississippi State, at No. 10 Texas, vs./at No. 11 Missouri, at No. 13 Georgia, vs. No. 15 South Carolina and at No. 22 Texas A&M.
The Lady Vols will play 17 regular-season games vs. teams that saw postseason action in 2017-18, including 14 at Thompson-Boling Arena.
UT plays two teams that made it to the 2018 NCAA Final Four, including NCAA champion Notre Dame and runner-up Mississippi State.
In addition to Notre Dame and Mississippi State making the NCAA Final Four, South Carolina was a 2018 Elite Eight team, while Stanford, Texas and Texas A&M advanced to the Sweet 16 round.
Other opponents (or potential foes) making the NCAA field in 2018 were Belmont (First Round), Georgia (Second Round), LSU (First Round), Missouri (First Round), Oklahoma (First Round) and Oklahoma State (Second Round).
Alabama (Quarterfinals), East Tennessee State (First Round) and UAB (Second Round) played in the WNIT last season, while Stetson (First Round) and UNC Asheville (First Round) made the WBI.
UT is playing Murray State, Presbyterian and UNC Asheville for the first time ever and is meeting Belmont for the initial time since 1979 (when Holly Warlick was a junior point guard for the Lady Vols). BU leads the series, 6-3.
The Lady Vols are making their third regular-season trip outside the U.S. during the Warlick era, with UT winning the Lucaya Division of the Junkanoo Jam in Freeport, Bahamas, in 2013-14, and the Riviera Division of the Cancun Challenge in Mexico during the 2017-18 season.
Tennessee will play Oklahoma State in Stillwater (Dec. 2) for the first time.
The Lady Vols will host a lone exhibition game vs. Carson-Newman on Nov. 5.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Tennessee sophomore offensive lineman Trey Smith earned yet another preseason accolade on Thursday as he was named to the Coaches Preseason All-SEC First Team.
Smith also captured All-SEC First Team honors from the media at SEC Media Days last month and was named to the preseason watch list for the Outland Trophy.
The Jackson, Tenn., native was the nation’s top freshman offensive lineman in 2017, starting every game for the Vols and capturing FWAA Freshman All-American Team accolades in addition to All-SEC Second Team and All-Freshman honors by the coaches and media.
The versatile Smith earned playing time at right guard, left guard, left tackle and right tackle last fall. He became the first Vol true freshman to start at left tackle in over 30 years when he protected the blind side against Southern Miss on Nov. 4. Smith led the Vols with 55 knockdowns and finished as the SEC’s top-rated freshman offensive player according to Pro Football Focus College.
Smith missed the spring with a medical condition, but has been at every practice during fall camp and was cleared for full contact earlier this week.
The complete preseason All-SEC teams can be found HERE.
The Vols open the season at 3:30 p.m. on Sept. 1 at the Belk College Kickoff against West Virginia in Charlotte, N.C., before hosting ETSU on Sept. 8 and UTEP on Sept. 15. Tennessee welcomes Florida on Sept. 22 (kickoff is TBD) to start SEC play.
Tennessee football single game tickets are on sale now for home games at AllVols.com or by calling 1-800-332-VOLS.
Quotes from Thursday’s Player Media Availability
Senior Defensive Lineman Kyle Phillips
On playing the first game of the season:
“I am very eager, especially coming out of fall camp and playing against our teammates each and every day. We are trying to get better. It is rewarding to go out on Saturdays and showing everybody what we have been working for.”
On how the defense is compared to last year:
“We just believe that we have a different mentality going into this season. We want to be a tough, physical team and be disciplined. I think those are some things that we struggled with sometimes last year and that has been a main focus this year.”
On how game week practice differs from camp practice:
“I don’t really think it is that much different. We will be focusing on other teams now, but I think our approach to practice will be the same. We are going to be working hard each and every day to get better because it is a long season. Teams are continuing to get better, so we have to continue to get better also.”
Redshirt Junior Linebacker Quart’e Sapp
On how he thinks the players have adjusted to the new defense:
“I think we have adjusted really well. Obviously, there is a new defensive front with a different scheme and different technique, but I think overall we have adjusted really well to it.”
On how he feels about the depth at inside linebacker:
“I feel really good. We are actually getting really healthy at the linebacker, and really happy everybody is participating and creating that depth that we have going into the season.”
On how the new scheme fits the talent on the roster:
“It fits really well. We had to adjust to it a little bit, but I feel like our talent, and the players we have, it fits really well.”
On the biggest difference on having a head coach that is a defensive guy:
“It is a little different. The practices are obviously, I would say accustom to the defense, but it’s really more focus on the defense.”
Junior Linebacker Daniel Bituli
On if things feel different as he is shifting from fall camp to classes starting:
“Things are different. Obviously, school has started. Because of fall camp, our team feels comfortable where we are in learning the game plan and just trying to prepare for West Virginia. Things do feel different. I think it is more of the excitement part of it that the first game is at the end of next week.”
On what he is looking forward to most about the upcoming season:
“I could talk about the records and everything, but I am just focused on having a fun time with my teammates. I have been here the past two years with them and I enjoy the comradery part. I think that is what I enjoy the most about the season.”
On how he characterized the staff’s approach to special teams:
“This staff is very serious about everything. When it goes from offense to defense to special teams, they take it serious and they do not overlook any aspect. Special teams is something they really like to focus on and they like to express their importance of it. Special teams is very important with this staff.”
Junior Safety Nigel Warrior
On Coach Pruitt’s defense and adjusting to it:
“Adjusting to this defense is not hard. Coach Pruitt keeps it very simple for us to learn. It will help you on the next level for sure. I feel like I’m going to be more intelligent with my game play and I can play with my instincts.”
On if Coach Pruitt’s arrival has sparked improvement:
“I have seen a gradual change. I’ve been climbing every day. Even if I have a bad day, I get to work on something new.”
On if being a junior changes his role or mindset:
“A little bit. Once you are older everyone looks to you or comes to you for an answer. Sometimes you have to look to the younger guys for answers. I ask questions to freshmen also. They may know something I don’t know. I don’t feel like it’s a big role, but I feel like it’s everyone’s role on the team.”
On where his sense of confidence came from:
“It comes from the coaches, but it really starts with us. We want to go out there and practice. Some days it gets hard, but we still have to go out there and get it. Being tough and being physical comes from being in the playbook and trusting each other and coaches.”
Junior Wide Receiver Brandon Johnson
On how Coach Pruitt’s message and intensity have carried over to the team:
“I’d say that it has carried over to us. There is a lot more accountability because of Coach Pruitt’s directness and voicing exactly what he wants, when he wants it and how he wants it done.”
On his thoughts on the wide receiver group:
“I think we have been looking good. I’m excited about the depth that we have. I feel like all of us can go out there and play the position at a high level. I’m really excited about what we have going on out here.”
On David Johnson as your position coach:
“We all love coach YAC (yards after catch). We call him coach YAC. He’s developed a relationship with coach that we feel we have known him for a long time. We’re really close in the receiver room.”
On some of the things he emphasizes to improve the receiver core:
“One thing that he emphasizes a lot, like the rest of the staff, is protecting the ball. He is always yelling ‘high and tight, high and tight’. That is one of his main things.”
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — With the season opener rapidly approaching, be sure to catch the Vol Network’s annual pre-season television special providing a behind-the-scenes glimpse at Tennessee football like no one else. This year’s special features a wealth of content including head coach Jeremy Pruitt’s first day on the job, key highlights from Spring Practice, a chance to meet both the offensive and defensive staffs, assessments from Pruitt, appearances by some special VFL’s, a glimpse at off-season workouts, Fan Day, and a preview of next Saturday’s opener against West Virginia.
“The Tennessee Football Pre-Season Special” can be seen on affiliates across
the state and on-line at utsports.com. Check your local listings, including Knoxville on WVLT-TV Channel 8 on Saturday, Aug. 25 at 7 p.m. This full hour of unequaled access is made possible by UT Medical Center, the official healthcare provider of Tennessee Athletics.
Broadcast Schedule Chattanooga
WTVC-TV Ch. 9 (ABC)
Sun. Aug 26
12:00 p
Jackson
WJKT-TV Ch. 16 (Fox)
Sun. Aug 26
10:30 p
Knoxville
WVLT-TV Ch. 8 (CBS)
Sat. Aug 25
7:00 p
MyVLT
Sun. Aug 26
10:00 p
Memphis
WATN-TV Ch. 24 (ABC)
Sun. Aug 26
10:00 a
WLMT-TV Ch. 30 (CW)
Sun. Aug 26
10:30 p
Nashville
WUXP-TV Ch. 30 (My)
Sat. Aug 25
5:00 p
Tri Cities
WJHL-TV Ch. 11 (CBS)
Sat. Aug 25
7:00 p
