The Volunteer State
The Volunteer State is a Tennessee Vols sports podcast covering sports topics from the University of Tennessee featuring The Knoxville News Sentinel's John Adams, Mike Wilson and Blake Toppmeyer. The Tennessean, Nashville Tennessee.
Episodes
Tennessee baseball has been here before. Tony Vitello’s success is not new. He’s made winning the expectation. In previous seasons, though, talented Vols teams fizzled before the championship. That doesn’t mean this team will.
In fact, these Vols are a deserving frontrunner to win the national championship. Their path will continue with an NCAA super regional against Evansville. The underdog Purple Aces advanced as a 4-seed out of...
Transfers are a reality of college football in 2024, but Tennessee loses fewer players than most. Even better, the Vols very rarely lose top performers.
Tennessee bid farewell to 15 transfers this offseason, three of whom were walk-ons. That's the fewest number of transfer departures for any SEC team. By comparison, Alabama lost 39 players to the portal.
How does Josh Heupel pull off this impressive roster retention?
Part of coaching the Lady Vols means testing yourself against the nation's best opponents. Kim Caldwell will experience that in her first season at Tennessee.
The Lady Vols will host UConn next season, a restoration of a rivalry that went on a one-year hiatus last season. There was a time when this rivalry of blue bloods and clash of Pat Summitt and Geno Auriemma defined the sport. The rivalry isn't what it once was, and neither i...
Three Tennessee football players were selected in the NFL Draft last week.
Cause for celebration, or concern?
The four qualifying teams for last season’s College Football Playoff combined for 44 draft picks.
That suggests that if Tennessee wants to go from competitive program to national championship program under Josh Heupel, he needs to start producing more NFL talent.
And yet, consider that Tennessee finished 9-4 despite n...
Tennessee football can rest easy about its starting quarterback situation. Not only is Nico Iamaleava the starter, he's a star in the making. Iamaleava's tidy performance in Saturday's spring game reiterated that all is well with Tennessee's QB1.
Elsewhere on the roster, it's more of a mixed situation. The Vols face areas they could solidify entering this spring transfer portal window.
On today's episode, hosts Blake Toppmeyer an...
The Lady Vols are all in on Kim Caldwell's upside.
Tennessee athletic director Danny White didn't want to miss the boat on Caldwell or delay hiring a coach whose career is on an upward trajectory. Two years ago, Caldwell led Division II Glenville State to its first national championship. This season, her first as a Division I coach, she took Marshall to the NCAA Tournament.
Now, she coaches a blueblood. Caldwell's fast track matc...
Danny White faces a big decision – his biggest decision, in fact, since he hired Josh Heupel in 2021.
White is conducting a Lady Vols coaching search that will reshape the direction of the program. Kellie Harper maintained the program as an NCAA Tournament regular, but she repeatedly peaked in the Sweet 16, and the Lady Vols were eliminated in the second round this year. Recruiting momentum had stalled.
White acted boldly by firi...
Rick Barnes and the Sweet 16 go hand and hand.
The Vols are back among the NCAA Tournament’s final 16 teams standing in March Madness for the second straight year and the third time during Barnes’ tenure.
But, this round of March Madness remains a familiar pitfall for Tennessee, which has never made a Final Four.
Barnes’ lone Final Four appearance came in 2003 at Texas. He’s in the Sweet 16 for the ninth time.
Tennessee’s early SEC Tournament exit cost the Vols a likely No. 1 NCAA seed.
The silver lining: Tennessee won’t have to meet No. 1 overall seed UConn in the NCAA Tournament until the national championship. Also good news: Rick Barnes possesses his best team in a handful of years.
But, Tennessee’s NCAA Tournament history remains an elephant in the room. The Vols never have reached a Final Four, and the program’s lone Elite Eight ...
More than a trophy is at stake when the Tennessee basketball team takes the floor at the SEC Tournament in Nashville this week. A No. 1 seed could be on the line for the Vols (24-7).
Some bracket experts are projecting Tennessee as a No. 1 seed for the NCAA Tournament, but such outlooks are subject to fluctuation. If the Vols bow out early in the conference tournament, they could surrender the inside track to a top seed. If t...
We're talking about practice. Spring practice.
Tennessee will begin spring workouts on March 18. Let the Nico Iamaleava era take hold. Iamaleava's performance in his first career start, a bowl victory against Iowa, has Vols fans feeling optimistic about the 2024 season.
The quarterback position being in capable hands could put Tennessee on a path toward College Football Playoff contention – but only if the Vols address a few impo...
Perhaps it goes without saying. We’ll say it anyway.
The Third Saturday in October will be the most important game on Tennessee’s 2024 schedule.
Oh, sure, we realize the importance of a few other games. When the Vols face Georgia in mid-November, Kirby Smart’s Bulldogs may well be ranked No. 1. Tennessee’s September date at Oklahoma, Josh Heupel’s alma mater, will be another biggie. And be careful about overlooking an October gam...
Is this finally the year Tennessee basketball makes a Final Four? We've wondered that about previous Rick Barnes teams, but Barnes has never advanced past the Sweet 16 with the Vols.
That history suggests that Tennessee, despite its No. 5 national ranking and 20-6 record, is just teasing a hungry fan base before another postseason disappointment. But, there's something different about this team. Namely, this team has Dalton Knecht...
Maybe this is the NCAA’s way of doing Tennessee a favor.
UT officials have decried the NCAA’s latest investigation into the Tennessee Vols, but if you think about it, the Vols can use this to their advantage.
Tennessee’s response to this investigation can be loosely summarized as: Rules? What rules? Let’s make some deals.
Sounds like a start to a recruiting pitch: Come to Tennessee, where the NCAA’s flimsy rules don’t matter, a...
Round 1 went to the NCAA.
A more important Round 2 is set to be decided next week.
Tennessee's legal clash with the NCAA is continuing to play out in the courtroom, and the state's attorney general doesn't seem too demoralized that a judge did not grant a temporary restraining order this week that would have halted the NCAA's NIL guidelines.
That's because a bigger, longer-lasting ruling awaits next week.
Tennessee is under NCAA investigation. Again.
This time, the investigation involves potential violations to the NCAA’s flimsy NIL guidelines. And, this time, Tennessee is fighting back.
UT Chancellor Donde Plowman has her elbows sharpened for this fight, and so does Vols AD Danny White. Perhaps more importantly, the Tennessee attorney general, Jonathan Skrmetti, is suing the NCAA. The lawsuit alleges that the NCAA's NIL guideli...
Tennessee football has its quarterback of its present and of its future. His name is Nico Iamaleava. And now, Tennessee appears to have its next quarterback of the future. His name is George MacIntyre.
MacIntyre, a five-star prospect from Brentwood Academy, committed to Tennessee this week. He’s one of the nation’s best quarterback prospects and a top-15 recruit overall. He headlines Josh Heupel’s 2025 recruiting class.
From Knoxville to Auburn and SEC football locales throughout the South, fans can rejoice in Nick Saban's retirement. Saban was especially hard on Tennessee. He went 16-1 against the Vols as Alabama's coach. Josh Heupel, in 2022, became the first UT coach to beat Saban's Tide.
Alabama hired an accomplished coach in Kalen DeBoer, but it nonetheless may need a minute to adjust to life without Saban. Several talented Tide players are ...
Expectations are climbing for Tennessee’s 2024 season after Nico Iamaleava’s smashing success in his first career start in a bowl victory against Iowa.
The freshman smoothly operated Tennessee’s offense while showing his athleticism as a runner during the Vols’ 35-0 victory.
With Iamaleava’s performance still on the brain, there’s now chatter of Tennessee being a playoff contender next season.
On today's episode, hosts Blake Top...
Look up to see that the sky is not falling. It's still up there.
Several Tennessee players are beelining for the transfer portal. That might seem unnerving. Look around, though, and you'll see this is happening at programs across the country.
This exodus is not a UT problem. It's simply a reflection of the state of college football, where immediate eligibility for transfers and portal windows results in a flurry of outbound play...
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