Jeremy Pruitt is reportedly adding former Auburn defensive coordinator Kevin Steele to his staff. The financials of the deal or the specific role are both unknown at the time.
Tennessee currently has a defensive line coaching position open while inside linebacker Brian Niedermeyer’s contract expires at the end of the month.
Newly-named Auburn coach Bryan Harsin brought in former Vanderbilt head coach Derek Mason to run his defense last week – thus putting Steele out of work. Just over a year ago, Auburn made Steele the nation’s highest-paid assistant coach at $2.5 million annually over a three-year extension through the 2022 season.
Prior to taking the Tennessee gig, Auburn was to pay Steele $5.2 million in monthly installments through January of 2023. The amount the Vols sign the 62-year-old for will be subtracted from the total.
The move comes a week after ESPN reported the university placed a hiring freeze on the football program as it continues to navigate through a lengthy internal investigation into alleged impermissible recruiting violations.
The investigation is still ongoing.
Steele could take over a position group for the Volunteers that was oversaw by head coach Jeremy Pruitt last season for the final six games – following the firing of former defensive line coach Jimmy Brumbaugh four games into his two-year contract agreement.
It received a big boost Monday afternoon when senior leader Matthew Butler announce his intentions on returning for the 2021 campaign. Senior Darel Middleton declared earlier this fall that he would return also, but the plans are still unclear on what fellow seniors Aubrey Solomon, LaTrell Bumphus and Ja’Quain Blakely will do with the extra year of eligibility.
Steele will also have returning lettermen Elijah Simmons, Omari Thomas, Kurrott Garland, Greg Emerson and John Mincey to work with in 2021, with the additions of Dominic Bailey and RJ Perry – who combined for one appearance in their true freshmen seasons.
Four-star KaTron Evans and three-star Isaac Washington signed with Tennessee in December as defensive linemen.
Jimmy Hyams is reporting the hire would likely to be to coach linebackers where sophomore Henry To’o To’o had little help following the loss of Daniel Bituli from last year’s squad.
BREAKING NEWS: Tennessee has hired Kevin Steele to be an assistant on the defensive staff, sources said. Steele, a former UT assistant (1987-88) and player (1978-79), will likely coach linebackers. It is not known if he will carry a title, such as co-DC or assistant head coach.
Regardless, the unit was a disappointment in 2020 after surging late in the 2019 season. Tennessee’s defensive line helped aid the fifth-best rush defense (141.6 yds/game) in the SEC but failed to put pressure on the quarterback – finishing with only 20 sacks in 10 games (9th in SEC).
The Vols were picked on in the passing game all year long – surrendering 265.8 passing yards per game (11th in SEC). Failing to rush the passer did not help an injury-plagued and underperforming secondary in 2020.
Steele is a Tennessee guy – playing for the Volunteers in the late 1970s before breaking into coaching as a student-assistant in 1980. He was a graduate assistant on Then Hill the following seasons before coaching the outside linebackers in 1982.
After making stops as a defensive assistant at New Mexico State and Oklahoma State, Steele returned to Knoxville to coach the defensive backs for two seasons in 1987 and 1988. He then made two more pitstops that included a four-year stint with the Carolina Panthers, before taking over as head coach at Baylor in 1999.
Jeremy Pruitt – Vols HC / Credit: UT Athletics
As Baylor’s head man, Steele’s record was 9-36, including a 1-31 mark n Big 12 conference play.
Steele then made stops at Florida State, Alabama, Clemson and LSU before landing in Auburn as defensive coordinator in 2016.
In his first four years with the Tigers, Steele’s units ranked in the nation’s top-20 for scoring defense. He was also a finalist for the Tennessee head coaching vacancy in 2017.
Steele and Vols head coach Jeremy Pruitt spent time together on Alabama’s staff.
Tennessee has hired Kevin Steele to be an assistant on the defensive staff, according to sources.
Steele, a former Tennessee assistant and player, will likely coach linebackers. It is not known if he will carry a title, such as co-defensive coordinator or assistant head coach.
Steele, 62, was Auburn’s defensive coordinator for the past five years. He was not retained by new Auburn coach Bryan Harsin. Steele has two years left on his Auburn contract that pays him $2.6 million a year.
Whatever Steele is paid by Tennessee would be subtracted from the $5.2 million Auburn owes him.
It had been reported that Tennessee coach Jeremy Pruitt did not have the authority from UT to hire an assistant considering UT is undergoing an internal investigation from its compliance office for potential NCAA recruiting violations.
While sources said UT approved the hiring of Steele, it is not known if Pruitt has the clearance to hire an offensive line coach after Will Friend left in late December.
Also, Steele would be retained even if UT and Pruitt part ways, sources said.
Steele was one of three finalists for the Tennessee head coaching job in 2017 when Pruitt was hired. Pruitt and Steele are close friends and coached together at Alabama.
Steele has also been considered more than once for defensive coordinator at Tennessee, but one flirtation was nixed because Clemson’s defense allowed 70 points in a bowl game against West Virginia, although not all of the points allowed were the defensive’s fault.
At Auburn, Steele coordinated a defense that ranked among the SEC’s best for several years.
Before joining the Auburn staff, he was defensive coordinator at LSU for one year (2015) and had two different stints at Alabama (2007-08, 2013-14). He was defensive coordinator at Clemson (2009-11). He also had stops at Florida State, Nebraska (which won a national championship in 1994), Tennessee (1987-88), Oklahoma State and New Mexico State.
He spent four years in the NFL as linebacker coach for the Carolina Panthers.
His only head coaching job did not go well. He was 9-36 in four years at Baylor (1999-2002).
A native of Dillon, S.C., Steele played one year at Furman before transferring to Tennessee (1978-79) where he played with good friend John Chavis, also from Dillon.
Pruitt is also looking to replace assistant strength and conditioning coach Mike Farrell, who left in November.
The Tennessee at Vanderbilt men’s basketball game scheduled for today (Tuesday, Jan. 12) has been postponed due to a combination of positive tests, contact tracing and subsequent quarantining of individuals within the Vanderbilt basketball program, consistent with Southeastern Conference COVID-19 management requirements.
The SEC’s COVID-19 management requirements, as developed by the SEC’s Return to Activity and Medical Guidance Task Force, are available on SECsports.com (PDF).
The Volunteers will return to Knoxville Tuesday morning and prepare to host Vanderbilt Saturday at 6 p.m. ET on the SEC Network.
Tennessee basketball coach Rick Barnes sat down with the media via Zoom to discuss this week’s games with Vanderbilt.
On the uniqueness of the schedule this week and if he’s ever had an experience playing the same team twice in a week:
“Only one time that I can tell you. I was at Providence, in the Big East we had a snow date on the last day of the regular season. The game got moved from Saturday to Monday and then we ended up playing Georgetown again that Sunday the year we won the Big East Championship. That’s the only time I can remember playing the same team multiple times in a week. We obviously played some other games in between, but I don’t think we’ve ever played back-to-back. If we have, I don’t remember it.”
On what the communication was like from SEC to play Vanderbilt on Tuesday:
“We had heard rumors. This time of year, we understand it. When cancellations start happening we’re going to have these kinds of situations. But, we had heard about it prior to the game. We heard that there was potential for it to happen. The SEC is on it, they put it out there as a possibility and then once we got through with media on Saturday and got back to the bus they had confirmed it.”
On if they’re testing three times a week and if he gets nervous awaiting the results:
“We do test three times a week. Do I get nervous about it? Probably not as much. For me, it’s what it is. What it’s going to be, it’s going to be. But, for like Mary-Carter and Chad and for everyone that’s on it every day, we get the text that whether it’s negative or positive, the bus driver is getting tested along with everyone. It’s something you can’t really worry about. You’re always concerned about it, because it ultimately falls on the safety of the people in your program that you feel responsible for, but we’re doing it three times a week and we’re still trying to do everything we can when we’re on the road. Teams I think are doing everything they can to accommodate us. But, if we walk in and things aren’t how we need them and us as coaches need to sit out in the hallway to get the social distancing—we have a great setup here at Thompson-Boling. We have four locker rooms we can give teams so they can really spread out. Everything we’re doing here—like when I get finished with you all, we’re in a big room spread out. Everything we do, we’re staying within the regulations with what needs to be going on. We’ll take two buses to Nashville tonight, then we’ll make sure tomorrow when we get over there, that we’re spaced out the way we need to, even if it means that us as coaches need to do something we don’t normally do, because we’re going to try to do everything we can to prevent what we can prevent.”
On what he looks at first when he picks up a stat sheet:
“The final score. It depends though. I’m big on assist/turnover ratio. I’m big on field goal percentage. But, probably the first thing I’m looking at is individual guys on our team and maybe individuals on the other team to see if we’ve done the things we talked about. I think it varies depending on where my mind is at that time. You have about a thousand thoughts going through your mind depending on how the game ended. Rebounds is a big thing for this team and is an area we need to improve. I also think stats early in the year can be a bit misleading, because until you really start playing over a long period of time and obviously early in the year, you’re playing against competition—even though this year we didn’t play against the teams we normally play against in our normal buy games where you would expect to do things that will show up statistically that are good for you and your team. But, as you get into conference play and start breaking down non-league and conference play, you really start to get a feel for where you really are as a rebounding team, or an assist/turnover team. So much of it also depends on players too. When a game ends, I can’t tell you how many thoughts are going through my mind. Sometimes, I don’t even pick it up until I’m about to talk to Bob and Bert. I’ll just look at some things to have some thoughts in my head, so I don’t put out the things I’m actually thinking.”
On Vanderbilt:
“I think Jerry Stackhouse has done a really good job. He’s overhauled the team in terms of what he had last year. They run a lot of different things and you would expect that. He played for one of the greatest coaches in college basketball. He grew up in a great sports town in Kinston, North Carolina. My college coach is actually from Kinston. I kid with Jerry all the time about my coach being the best player to come out of Kinston, because he’s still East Carolina’s all-time leading scorer and he’s held that record since 1954. But, I think playing at North Carolina has meant that Jerry has put a little bit of the Carolina break in their game. I think he’s mixed in some of their defensive schemes and those things. Jerry is terrific. He’s got a lot of different things that he does, which I think comes from his experience in the NBA as both a player and a coach. His players have gotten better. When you look at the improvement of Scotty Pippen Jr. you have to be impressed. He’s building—the word culture is thrown around pretty freely at times, but I think he’s building the culture in the way that he wants it. I think he’s great for the game too. Being on conference calls with him and talking with him, I think he’s a great person to be in the college game and I think he’s done a lot more as a coach which we’ll see in his program, which is something we should all envy with how he goes about his business.”
On if preparing for the same team for back-to-back games changes his preparation at all:
“No, it won’t. We’ll go about this game the way we do it and then we’ll turn around and do it again. The difference is, that Vandy is a team we play twice a year anyway, it’s just that it’ll be there. In between you won’t have other games to see how other teams may have approached them in ways that you didn’t, but otherwise it’s just a quicker turnaround. Obviously, they will be fresher on our players memories after the game, but we’ll proceed as we always do. Normally you have some games in between where you can see against them go up against some different things to make some adjustments to your plan, but in this case the adjustments from one game to the other will be made off of the first game.”
On if he’s reached out to any coaches in other conferences to see how they may be dealing with this situation:
“We haven’t. Like I said, the preparation will be the same for us, with us going about doing what we do. I watched our games from a year ago. I saw the adjustments we made from a year ago. I saw the adjustments that we made and the adjustments they made. There will be adjustments made obviously, but I think both teams will go about preparation in the same way, because it’s a Tuesday Saturday game. It’s not like it’s a Tuesday Wednesday situation. If its Tuesday Wednesday, that would be very much different. In that case you would approach it like a conference tournament or an NCAA tournament game where you probably wouldn’t do anything on the floor. This week, we’ll go about our regular week. Wednesday will be our day off like it would have been had we played South Carolina. It would be a day off, then we’ll have Thursday and Friday to prep for Vanderbilt, so we’ll stick with that schedule.”
On the team’s rotation:
“I don’t think we have a set thing. We played with a lineup the other day that we’ve never practiced with. They did a terrific job. We had four guards out there with Yves (Pons) for a couple of possessions. I know this: We’re going to need Olivier (Nkamhoua). We think Olivier’s got a great future. The fact that E.J. (Anosike) is with us for another year after this year. He’s got a great future. Uroš (Plavšic) is getting better and better. There are certain games where you just can’t get that deep into your bench, as much as you’d like to. The fact is, these guys will continue approach practice (the right way) and do the things. That’s what’s it’s going to be. I tell them this – If they want to stay in the rotation, and there’s not a set rotation – it’s going to be based on what they do in practice every day. That’s where they build confidence, not only for themselves, but for us. When games start out, we have an idea, sometimes of what we’re going to do for the first couple of subs. Depending on foul trouble, that can change. In my mind, we’ve got 10 guys, 11 guys that are ready to play. Hopefully, even a 12th or 13th wants to do enough that they make us think about what they do. That’s what happens with good teams. It’s those guys that you would consider your rotational players – they say, ‘I’m going to do more. I want more playing time.’ We’re open-minded enough that if they do it, they’re going to get an opportunity.”
On if E.J. Anosike will return to Tennessee next season:
“I don’t think there’s any question he will. I think it’s going to be good for him. I actually told him the day that they made that announcement, I went to him and told him that we had just got a call from the NCAA that he wasn’t eligible this year and he has to come back next year. He looked at me and said, that’s OK, but I’d like to play this year to. I told him and he had a big smile on his face. He is excited about it.”
On how much improvement Vanderbilt sophomore Scotty Pippen Jr. has shown from last season:
“He’s much, much, much improved. He’s responsible for about half of their points, in production offensively. I love the demeanor that he plays with. He is a guy that went in last year and had to learn on the job. He had to stay out there. They needed him on the court. Just like I told our young freshman a year ago, Josiah(-Jordan) James. He didn’t get a chance to sit on the bench when he wasn’t playing well. He had to stay out there when he knew he wasn’t playing up to the level he wanted to play to. People were probably getting down on him, but in some ways that’s what helps guys grow quicker than anything. The fact that they’ve got to fight through those tough days. Last year, we struggled. We lost 14 or 15 games a year ago. That’s a tough thing when you’re a freshman out there being a big part of it and things aren’t going well. You’ve got to stay out there and fight through it. I know it helped Josiah and I think it helped Scotty Pippen Jr.”
On what he saw from freshmen Keon Johnson and Jaden Springer after earning their first career starts (against Arkansas and Texas A&M, respectively):
“I think they both have done well. I go back to what you said about starting. I don’t know that it really matters. I don’t think it does because I mentioned we had a lineup out there with both of them on the floor with Santi (Santiago Vescovi), V.J. (Victor Bailey Jr.) and Yves. Those guys, they’re very competitive – both of them. They want to be good. It’s going to be fun watching the get better over the next couple of weeks. They’re getting better now. They’re learning how to play with good players. They’re learning how to play with a post player, really for the first time. They’re starting to understand what goes into being a good basketball player, what goes into being a good team. I think they also realize that it’s probably harder than they thought it would be. There’s no reason for them to think differently, because they’ve had great success everywhere they’ve been. The biggest thing it they’re willingness to continue to want to be coached. They’re getting themselves in better shape, as I think we are as a team, which is important. They’ve been hurt by this late start, going back all the way to the summertime. They’ve also bene hurt by the stops and starts. The key now is that we can stay consistent, they can stay healthy and keep moving forward.”
On if senior E.J. Anosike needs to focus on doing something more consistently in order to increase his playing time:
“No, it really doesn’t have anything to do with it. It goes back to personnel and sometimes the game is going on and they have a guard lineup out there. The one thing you don’t want to do and we don’t want to do as a coaching staff is put guys on guys and make it very difficult for them to switch. We do quite a bit of switching at times. Most of what dictates who plays is matchups, but if guys aren’t doing the things we expect them to do, then certainly they won’t play. He hasn’t done that. It’s just that we were in a game the other day where we felt we needed to open the court up We needed to get out, get the ball moving and drive the ball. Our opponent will dictate sometimes who plays. I think one of the really neat things about this team is that we do have the versatility to play a number of different ways. I was impressed the other day. We had a group of guys that came out of a timeout and Coach (Kim) English wanted to try something that he had scouted on the team that we had not practiced. He drew it up, we came out and executed it perfectly. I told the team yesterday watching that, that’s a big step for us. We haven’t always done the things that we’ve wanted to do coming out of a timeout – just a little tweak here or a tweak there. Most of the time it’s the younger players, or the newer guys in a program. The older guys have been around long enough and they’ve seen those tweaks. It’s going to get back to opponents, what they have and what we feel we need to do at that point in time in the game.”
On if sophomore Santiago Vescovi’s confidence during Saturday win over Texas A&M is something that can ‘rub off’ on other teammates:
“I think it did. I think you saw him shooting the ball the way he does and doing some other things. I said it before, he’s a very deceptive defensive guy. He’s not going to be the guy out there that’s jumping round, but he understands angles. He’s a sophomore. Because he played so much a year ago, we take for granted that he’s an older guy. I think he’s 19. He’s young and he’s gotten himself in the best shape. The players do have a great respect for him because he works very hard. I said before the last game, I think the reason he had struggled is me not making it consistent for him in practice. He wants to take every rep and he doesn’t need to do that. He doesn’t, because when he’s in, he’s going to go all out. I do think that when he gets to shooting the ball like that, it does rub off on some guys and it certainly spreads things out for everybody else to give them room to operate.”
On why two of their best games have been on the road with Missouri and Texas A&M:
“First of all, Arkansas is a terrific team and we didn’t shoot the ball well against them and we certainly didn’t shoot the ball well against Alabama. You have two teams that came in here that are terrific offensive teams. Looking back, I can go back and look at the Alabama game – Keon said it – he wasn’t as sharp as he needed to be. We had won some games where they thought it would be easy, but it’s never easy. With the young guys, they have to get stronger a little bit to do that and learn that. The fact is, we’ve grown on the road and we’ve been focused. I don’t want to take anything away from Alabama and their win here, but we weren’t very good and we didn’t deserve to win the game and we got exactly what we deserved. We fought hard against Arkansas, and when you think about it, coming off a game with the way we felt we got beat, we didn’t deserve to win because we weren’t who we were supposed to be – we broke down too many ways – you go into the next game with a little bit of doubt, and you’re playing a really good team that lost one game and arguably a team in the conference that people thought was one of the better teams and you expect it to be a dog fight and it was. We also had a lead that game, and we didn’t put it away like we should have – give them credit – we made too many mistakes on the defensive end. With that said, we go on the road feeling good about beating Arkansas, but my message to them was that last time we started feeling good, we got beat. We better lock in and think about what we’re doing every game. I’ll go back to last year – even though we got some guys from a year ago, that doesn’t mean anything, unless we learn from the mistakes we made a year ago and I felt like we did that because last year when A&M came in here – they beat us and annihilated us on the boards. Even though they beat us on the boards the other day, it wasn’t anything like what happened to us a year ago. I can tell you that watching that tape going in was hard to watch, but I thought our guys did what we talked about over our scouting report.”
On if he thinks more SEC teams should be ranked, or if there are better SEC teams out there than people realize:
“I don’t know what you can put into rankings right now, because of the way we’ve played the schedule. If we had a full regular season by now, we would’ve already played Gonzaga, Notre Dame, and Wisconsin. I don’t know if we have got a full feel for what it is really like right now, but the fact is this league is good. Conference games are difficult because coaches know each other, we play each other, and we go back and look there’s a total makeover with teams. Once we get into conference play and get into a round robin, it’s difficult. We have our common opponents we play every year, but our league is really good, and you also look around and see teams doing well. I really feel for South Carolina and what they’ve had to go through. I know what we felt like when we had to sit and watch teams play at the beginning of the year and in some ways that would be better than getting to play a few games and then get shut down, that’s tough. I feel for Missouri as they are going through it at this point in time, but I’m not sure who else because I haven’t read that much. I do know that South Carolina’s going through it, and I hate it for Frank and Cuonzo as well as their teams, because we’ve said it many times that these guys are wanting to play basketball, but we know that we have to protect them the best way that we can.”
On what Corey Walker has to do in practice to earn some minutes and how difficult it is for him, considering he’s a true freshman during a COVID season and wasn’t able to start out the season because of injury:
“It’s extremely hard to catch up – when you missed what he’s missed, it’s really hard and difficult. He will have to continue to do what he’s doing and get himself in the kind of shape he needs to be in. He will need to get the speed and aggressiveness of what we play with, but it’s difficult. It’s hard to play more than 10 guys in games in what would be quality minutes. He’s like anyone else, and if he proves he’s ready to do it and we think he can help us, it’ll happen.”
On how confident he is that there will be an SEC tournament, or if the thinks they will use that week to make up games:
“I don’t know if I can say I am confident about anything beyond today. The commissioner and his staff will do an unbelievable job of doing what they need to at that point in time, but I just don’t know what it looks like. I don’t know what it’ll look like with the games we’ll have to make up, but we’ll be able to do whatever. Some people say why do that – when you qualify for the NCAA tournament – why go there and jeopardize playing and doing that. It’ll be different, and obviously teams aren’t going to there early. We tried to use the SEC tournament when we knew that it would be a postseason tournament like you would do where you got to be there a couple day early, which I think will change with the NCAA too, because of what we are doing now, and we could do it at any time. So, I don’t know if that will come up, and if you know you qualify for the tournament, why jeopardize it. It goes back to players want to play, and they want to play as many games as they can play. If you think about It right now, we’ve played 10 games, so we have 15 games left. At this point in time we would have normally played closer to 15 games, but my point is we want to play. Would they rather take a week off and practice – I can tell you that answer quick, No. They would tell you that they would much rather be in Nashville playing the tournament and it does mean something to go and try to win a SEC conference tournament championship. As we move forward, I don’t know the answer, but we’ve all be naïve to think that we we’re going through now, we didn’t think would happen. We knew that we would have some stoppage along the way, and I thought our football season worked through it the best way they could, and I think we will be in the same situation. Just like they played the SEC championship game, I like to think any at all possibility we will play a conference tournament.”
On how he thinks the home court advantage has changed this year, as well as going on the road:
“They are more similar than not now obviously. When you talk about Thompson-Boling, we have one of the best. I thought our crowd was great during the home games, and at the Arkansas game we probably had one the biggest crowds that we’ve had, and I don’t know what we had for the Alabama game, but we heard them I can tell you that. It’s more similar now than you would expect. I don’t know what it’ll be like with Vanderbilt. I felt like the noise the other day stayed on a bit longer at Missouri. It is very similar, and the crowd as you all know will pipe in noise level, so everyone can do it different. When we go, we are trying our best, and close contact is we are most concerned about, and I do think the arenas are more similar now. We just have to get ready to play, and we have to communicate better, I can tell you that.”
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – It took an 8-1 start to the season and victories over a pair of top-15 teams, but the Tennessee women’s basketball team has returned to the AP Top 25 poll. The Lady Vols have appeared in the rankings every season since the AP Poll began in 1976-77.
UT, which is 2-0 in SEC play following victories over (then) No. 13/13 Arkansas (88-73) and LSU (64-63) last week, checks in at No. 23 after receiving votes and sitting just outside the Top 25 for the majority of the 2020-21 campaign.
Tennessee is one of six SEC teams ranked this week. Arkansas stands at No. 17, while the other Big Orange top-15 conquest this season, Big Ten favorite Indiana, is ranked No. 18 this time around. The only team to defeat UT, West Virginia, is receiving votes after crushing (then) No. 17 and current No. 21 Texas last week. Also garnering votes are Georgia and Alabama, Tennessee’s next two opponents.
The Lady Vols climbed as high as No. 17 in 2019-20 in the first year of the Kellie Harper era and stayed in the polls for most of the season before finishing just outside the rankings. This marks the 14th week the program has been included in the AP Poll under Harper’s direction.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The No. 10 Tennessee basketball team hits the road for a newly scheduled Tuesday night bout with Vanderbilt. Tipoff from Memorial Gymnasium is slated for 7 p.m. ET on ESPN2.
Fans can catch Tuesday’s game on ESPN2 and online or on any mobile device through WatchESPN. WatchESPN can be accessed through the ESPN App, or online at espn.com/watch. Dave Neal and Jimmy Dykes will have the call.
Fans can also listen live on their local Vol Network affiliate to hear Bob Kesling and Bert Bertlekamp describing the action.
Last time out, Tennessee rolled past Texas A&M, 68-54. The Vols were led by Santiago Vescovi who poured in a career-high 23 points on a career-high eight made field goals and a career-high-tying six made 3-point attempts.
Tuesday’s game will be the 200th meeting between Vanderbilt and Tennessee on the hardwood and a victory would keep every current Vol with an unblemished record inside Vanderbilt’s Memorial Gym.
Up next, the Vols will take on Vanderbilt again in the second of the programs back-to-back matchups, when the Commodores make a return trip to Knoxville. The opening tip from Thompson-Boling Arena is set for 6 p.m. ET on SEC Network.
THE SERIES
• Tennessee leads its all-time series with Vanderbilt, 124-75, dating to 1922.
• The programs are meeting for the 200th time Tuesday. Longtime Tennessee athletic trainer Chad Newman has been on the Vols’ bench for 25 percent of those games. Tuesday marks his 51st Tennessee-Vanderbilt game.
• Tennessee has won eight of the last nine meetings in this series, including each of the last six and four straight at Memorial Gym.
• Just 181 miles separate UT’s Thompson-Boling Arena and Vanderbilt’s Memorial Gymnasium.
• No active Vol has ever lost a game at Vanderbilt’s Memorial Gym.
A WIN WOULD…
• Tie Rick Barnes with Phog Allen and Don Haskins for 20th on the all-time Division I wins list (719).
• Extend UT’s win streak over Vandy to seven games.
LAYUP LINES
• Tennessee is set to host Vanderbilt Saturday in Knoxville.
• Tennessee made history in its last trip to Memorial Gym (Jan. 18, 2020), as it held Vanderbilt without a 3-pointer for the first time since the 3-point line was introduced (snapping Vandy’s streak of 1,080 games with at least one make). See Page 3.
• Tennessee has forced nine of 10 opponents to turn the ball over on 20 percent or more of their possessions.
• In their two road games this season, the Vols are shooting .540 as a team with a +5.5 turnover margin.
• Santiago Vescovi is shooting .650 (13-20) from the field and .643 (9-14) from 3-point range in UT’s two road wins while averaging a team-best 19.0 points.
• Senior John Fulkerson was named to the Wooden Award’s Midseason Top-25 List last week.
DEFENSE WINS
• Tennessee ranks second in the NCAA in scoring defense, allowing just 56.8 points per game.
• According to KenPom, the Vols rank second in the NCAA in adjusted defensive efficiency, allowing only 87.0 points per 100 possessions so far this season. College teams average close to 70 possessions per game.
• The Vols are forcing 17.4 turnovers per game while converting those turnovers into 19.2 points per game. Tennessee’s turnover margin stands at +7.4 (fourth nationally).
• Tennessee has blocked 18.2 percent of its opponents’ two-point field goals this season.
• Tennessee has yet to allow an opposing player to score 20 points this season.
• Reigning SEC Defensive Player of the Year Yves Pons has an incredible 15 blocks through UT’s first four SEC games.
• Pons has 95 blocks in his last 41 games.
ABOUT VANDERBILT
• Through nine games, the Commodores are 4-5 overall and 0-3 in SEC play. Their most recent games have ended in narrow three-point losses to Kentucky (77-74) and Mississippi State (84-81).
• After a tough 2019-20 season that ended in the first round of the SEC Tournament (11-21, 3-15 SEC), second-year head coach Jerry Stackhouse is relying on the abilities of returners Scotty Pippen Jr. and Dylan Disu to help lead Vanderbilt to a much improved 2020-21 campaign.
• Pippen Jr. has started his sophomore year with nothing short of a bang. The son of NBA Hall of Famer Scotty Pippen, Pippen Jr. leads the team and ranks second in the SEC in both points (21.6 ppg) and assists (5.8 apg). He has scored at least 25 points on four separate occasions and has scored 18 points in each of Vanderbilt’s three SEC games. On the defensive end, he leads the Commodores with 1.6 steals per game.
• His classmate, Disu, has been a steady presence as well, ranking second on the team with 12.7 points per game. Disu’s 8.8 rebounds per game lead both the team and the SEC through nine games. He, too, has been solid on the defensive end, recording more than one block per game.
• Vanderbilt University is named after Cornelius Vanderbilt, the railway magnate who gifted the school its initial $1 million endowment in hopes of healing the sectional wounds left by the Civil War.
LAST MEETING WITH VANDERBILT
• Tennessee defeated in-state rival Vanderbilt for the sixth consecutive time on Feb. 18, 2020, 65-61, at Thompson-Boling Arena.
• The Vols fended off a furious late push by the Commodores to secure the home victory.
• Senior Jordan Bowden and junior John Fulkerson led the Big Orange with 17 points each.
• Fulkerson, who recorded 16 of those points in the second half, also accounted for seven rebounds and three blocks.
• Jordan Wright came off the bench to lead Vanderbilt in scoring, posting 23 points.
• Tennessee shot 42 percent from the field on the night.
• While both teams struggled early from the field, the Vols held a 9-2 advantage after six minutes of action. Along with providing strong defensive play, Josiah-Jordan James corralled four rebounds during that early stretch.
• The game was tied, 28-28, after 20 minutes, with Bowden leading the Vols with 12 points at the break. Yves Pons was 3-of-5 from the field at the half.
• In a back-and-forth start to the second stanza, a Commodore basket six minutes into the half tied the game for the fifth time.
• Just prior to the under-12 media timeout, a Santiago Vescovi jumper snapped a 9-0 run by Vanderbilt.
• Midway through the second half, Bowden and Fulkerson converted three-point plays on consecutive possessions. Then, quick, scoring cuts to the basket by Jalen Johnson and Fulkerson allowed the Vols to maintain momentum.
• Thompson-Boling Arena came alive after Tennessee blocks on two straight possessions and a nifty layup by Fulkerson off a feed from Vescovi. That series was followed by a 3-point make by Vescovi, giving Tennessee an eight-point lead.
• Vescovi darted to the rim and finished with a finger roll with just over four minutes remaining. He finished the game with 14 points on 5-of-11 shooting.
• Tennessee clinched the victory on a pair of made free throws from Bowden in the closing seconds.
THE NIGHT THE STREAK ENDED…
• Nearly one year ago, on Jan. 18, 2020, Tennessee ended Vanderbilt’s decades-long 3-point streak during a 66-45 win at Memorial Gym.
• The Vols held Vanderbilt to an 0-25 night from 3-point range. It was the first time since the 3-point shot was introduced in the 1986-87 season (spanning 1,080 games) that the Commodores failed to knock down at least one 3-point attempt.
• The 0-for-25 effort represented one of the worst 3-point-shooting performances by a men’s Division I team in 20 seasons. According to ESPN Stats & Information research, only Northwestern State’s 0-for-26 effort in a game in 2012 was worse during that span.
MEMORABLE VOL PERFORMANCES AGAINST VANDERBILT
• Grant Williams (now with the Boston Celtics) erupted for a record-setting performance as the No. 1-ranked Volunteers held off Vanderbilt, 88-83, in overtime in Nashville on Jan. 23, 2019. Williams finished with a career-high 43 points and also tallied eight rebounds, four blocks, two assists and a steal. The junior forward was 10-of-15 from the field and a program-record 23-of-23 from the free-throw line.
• Josh Richardson (now a starter for the Philadelphia 76ers) helped the Vols rally from two separate double-digit deficits in the second half by scoring 15 of his game-high 22 points in the final stanza to lift Tennessee to a 67-61 comeback win over Vanderbilt in the 2015 SEC Tournament in Nashville on March 12, 2015. In what was the second-to-last game of his career, Richardson also led all players with three steals and was a perfect 6-for-6 from the foul line.
• Dyron Nix (17 points, 18 rebounds) and Doug Roth (10 points, 10 rebounds) recorded double-doubles and Tennessee beat Vanderbilt 79-69 in overtime in Stokely Athletics Center Feb. 4, 1987, in Knoxville.
• Dick Johnston made six free throws in double overtime to lift UT to a 77-72 win over the Dores in Nashville on Feb. 2, 1970. Jimmy England led the charge with 27 points, and Bobby Croft had an 18-16 double-double.
• Tennessee All-Century Team member Paul “Lefty” Walther (1948-49) never lost to Vanderbilt during his career as a Vol. The Covington, Kentucky, native helped lead Tennessee to a 4-0 record over the Dores, beating Vandy by an average of 9.8 points.
VOLS SUCCESSFUL ON THE IN-STATE CIRCUIT
• Tennessee has won its last three games against in-state opponents and is 18-5 vs. in-state foes under coach Rick Barnes.
• Those 18 wins include triumphs over Chattanooga, ETSU (twice), Tennessee State, Vanderbilt (8x), Tennessee Tech (3x), Lipscomb (twice) and Memphis.
With technology these days, more and more people can make studio quality music right at home.
This was very helpful to Dan + Shay during 2020’s quarantine when it came time to make their song “I Should Probably Go To Bed.”
First, when it came to the writing of the song, the guys say that it actually was started on the West Coast, and finished in Nashville with some time in between.
Dan Smyers explains, “We wrote this song in Los Angeles during Grammy week, I think we had about 4 hours to spare…we jumped into the studio with our friends. And I think we got a verse and a chorus down…we didn’t have the whole song written. We were back in Nashville a few weeks later…maybe a few months later…Some time had passed, at my house working on some other songs, and we sat down at the piano…just kind of messing around and the rest of the song just kind of wrote itself. This song has one of the most impressive vocals I’ve ever heard in my life, your vocals on this…absolutely insane.”
Shay Mooney graciously responded to the compliment with, “Thanks man.”
After listening to the final version of the song, both Dan + Shay shared, “So proud of the way it turned out”
But between it being written cross country and then it being played on country radio, a little production happened.
Dan recently shared a step-by-step tutorial of how he put the song “I Should Probably Go To Bed” together, “Starting from scratch, here’s how we produced ‘I Should Probably Go To Bed’ at home during quarantine. check it out and comment your favorite part! thanks for all the love on this song. we’re so proud of the way it turned out and your kind words mean the world!
Before she was a “Girl Goin’ Nowhere” in “A Little Dive Bar In Dahlonega” with “One Night Standards” Ashley McBryde was a little girl who was inspired to find her way to Music City because of Lacy J Dalton‘s “16th Avenue,” “‘God bless the boys, that make the noise on 16th Avenue,’ inspired me at 12-years old to want to move to Nashville.”
Ashley recalls listening to the song and being enthralled by not only the lyrics, but the structure of the story within the track that Lacy J sang, and Thom Schuyler wrote, “I think the way the songwriter…set it up, ‘From the corners of the country, From the cities and the farms. With years and years of living, Tucked up underneath their arms. They walk away from everything, Just to see a dream come true. God bless the boys who make the noise, On 16th Avenue.’ This inspires me to ask my mother ‘Where are they going with everything they own tucked up underneath their arms?’ ‘They drove to town with all they own, In a hundred dollar car’…all of this. Where is that? Because I’ve been told that they will go there, they will walk away from everything they know to go there.”
Ashley remembers her mom’s answer, “Mom said ‘Oh, 16th Avenue is in Nashville, Tennessee’, I said ‘Then that’s where I’m going to go. That’s what I want to be.'”
Ashley McBryde is the one making noise on 16th Avenue now…and this Wednesday, January 13th, she’ll be bringing her latest song “Martha Divine” to The Ellen DeGeneres Show–her first performance on the popular talk show.
Check out the music video for the “killer” track from her album Never Will, right here…
Tennessee men’s basketball head coach Rick Barnes spoke with the media Monday to look back on the win over Texas A&M and preview the first of two straight vs. Vanderbilt.
IRVING, Texas – Al Wilson, one of the most decorated defensive players in Tennessee history, has been named to the illustrious 2021 College Football Hall of Fame Class, the National Football Foundation (NFF) announced Monday prior to the national championship game.
Wilson, who led the Volunteers to their sixth national championship in 1998, will officially be inducted with the 2021 and 2020 classes during the 63rd NFF Annual Awards Dinner on Dec. 7. The 2020 event was canceled due to COVID-19.
“It’s truly a blessing to be considered one of the best to play the game at the collegiate level,” said Wilson. “To my teammates, coaches and all of Vol Nation, this is our award!”
Wilson is one of 11 first-team All-America players being inducted in 2021 along with two standout coaches – Rudy Hubbard (Florida A&M) and Bob Stoops (Oklahoma).
Wilson becomes the 25th Vol to be enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame and first since Peyton Manning in 2017. Of the 25 inductees, 21 were enshrined as players and four as coaches. The 25 inductees are the most in the SEC and sixth-most nationally.
“I am so proud of Al Wilson being selected into the College Football Hall of Fame,” said Tennessee Director of Athletics Phillip Fulmer, a 2012 College Football Hall of Fame inductee and Wilson’s former coach. “He is so deserving, not only for the passion and effort he played with but for his leadership as captain of our 1998 national championship team.
“Al was the epitome of a competitor. He knew the importance of preparation to be great, and he influenced others to follow his lead during the offseason, spring practice, summer workouts and certainly through the fall of that wonderful 1998 season. He was the ultimate teammate and respected by everyone for his dedication, hard work, love of the game and physical play. He found a way to connect personally with everyone on the team on and off the field.”
Wilson was a consensus first-team All-American in 1998 from the perfect 13-0 Vols squad that won the inaugural BCS National Championship at the Fiesta Bowl against Florida State. He also guided Tennessee to three other bowl games, including consecutive wins at the Citrus Bowl in 1996 and 1997. During his career in Knoxville, Wilson led the Vols to back-to-back Southeastern Conference titles (1997, 1998) and four top 10 finishes (No. 3 in 1995, No. 9 in 1996, No. 7 in 1997 and No. 1 in 1998).
A finalist for the 1998 Nagurski Trophy, Wilson earned first-team All-SEC honors as a senior and second team all-conference laurels as a junior while losing only three conference games in four years. The 1998 team captain posted 12 tackles and a school-record three forced fumbles in the Vols’ win over No. 6 Florida that season. The heart of the UT defense, the linebacker tallied 77 tackles during the 1998 undefeated season despite missing three games to injury.
A 1999 Senior Bowl participant, Wilson finished his stellar career with 272 total tackles. The Jackson, Tennessee, native was enshrined in the University of Tennessee Athletics Hall of Fame in 2016 and the state of Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame in 2017.
A first-round pick by the Denver Broncos in the 1999 NFL Draft, Wilson was a five-time Pro Bowl selection while playing for the team from 1999-2006.
Wilson co-founded Project FANchise, which previously established the first-ever fan-controlled professional sports franchise, the Salt Lake Screaming Eagles, and operated the Colorado Crush to play in the Indoor Football League. Off the field, he has annually hosted children’s football camps and resides in Atlanta.
2021 College Football Hall of Fame Class
Harris Barton – OT, North Carolina (1983-86)
David Fulcher – DB, Arizona State (1983-85)
Rudy Hubbard – Head Coach, Florida A&M (1974-85)
Dan Morgan – LB, Miami (Fla.) (1997-2000)
Carson Palmer – QB, Southern Cal (1998-2002)
Tony Romo – QB, Eastern Illinois (1999-2002)
Kenneth Sims – DT, Texas (1978-81)
C.J. Spiller – RB/KR, Clemson (2006-09)
Darren Sproles – RB, Kansas State (2001-04)
Bob Stoops – Head Coach, Oklahoma (1999-2016)
Aaron Taylor – OT, Notre Dame (1990-93)
Andre Tippett – DE, Iowa (1979-81) Al Wilson – LB, Tennessee (1995-98)
Tennessee All-Time College Football Hall of Famers (year inducted)
Doug Atkins, T (1985)
George Cafego, QB (1969)
Steve DeLong, G (1993)
Doug Dickey, Coach (2003)
Bobby Dodd, QB (1959)
Nathan Dougherty, T (1967)
Frank Emanuel, LB (2004)
Beattie Feathers, B (1955) Phillip Fulmer, Coach (2012)
Herman Hickman, G (1959)
Bob Johnson, C (1989)
Chip Kell, G (2006)
Steve Kiner, LB (1999)
Hank Lauricella, TB (1981)
Johnny Majors, TB (1987)
Peyton Manning, QB (2017)
Gene McEver, HB (1954)
John Michels, G (1996)
Ed Molinski, G (1990)
Robert R. Neyland, Coach (1956)
Bob Suffridge, G (1961)
Reggie White, DT (2002) Al Wilson, LB (2021)
Bowden Wyatt, E (1972)
Bowden Wyatt, Coach (1997)
