🏈 Tennessee's BIG 2025 potential

Hello. This is the Josh and Swain Newsletter, a quick roundup of the week’s top stories and topics involving Tennessee and the sports world.

Here’s what we have for you today:

• Tennessee needs to bounce back — and should — after another loss to UK

• Why a national champion coach views Tennessee as a national title darkhorse

• Tennessee Baseball is back to defend its title… a look at how difficult that will be

• An offensive player with a chance to break out for Tennessee in 2025

TENNESSEE’S UPS AND DOWNS

Tuesday night caused plenty of frustration for Tennessee fans.

The Vols went to Lexington seeking revenge against Kentucky after the Wildcats won in Knoxville two weeks earlier.

The result: a 75-64 win for Kentucky.

UK won despite its second-leading scorer (Jaxson Robinson) missing the game and its point guard (Lamont Butler) missing the final eight minutes due to injury.

It didn’t help that Kentucky shot 12-of-24 from three, just as it did in Knoxville two weeks earlier.

While Tennessee shot 3-of-18 from three.

Igor Milicic made three of his four three-point attempts; his teammates went 0-for-14.

Not great.

But it’s also one game (or two, if you’re considering UK’s regular season sweep of Tennessee).

The Vols have six regular season games remaining, starting with Vanderbilt on Saturday.

📍 Food City Center
⏰ 1:00 p.m. ET
📺 SEC Network
📻 99.1 The Sports Animal/WIVK

Where does this leave Tennessee in the NCAA tournament race?

Entering the weekend, the Vols look like the top No. 2 seed.

Losing at Kentucky was costly — Tennessee had been projected as a No. 1 seed entering that game.

But the Vols are in a really good position.

Here are the final six games for Tennessee:

• 2/15 Vanderbilt
• 2/22 at Texas A&M
• 2/25 at LSU
• 3/1 Alabama
• 3/5 at Ole Miss
• 3/8 South Carolina

KenPom projects Tennessee to finish 4-2 in its final six games.

If that happens, the Vols would have a great shot at a No. 2 seed.

Can Tennessee pull off a 5-1 finish?

If so, the No. 1 seed would be in play.

That would also mean Tennessee will have played some great basketball down the stretch.

Saturday feels like a must-win game for Tennessee to finish the way it hopes — and to stop the bad feelings that popped up again this week.

Tennessee’s defense ranks No. 1 in the nation.

The defense has been consistent, despite the issues against Kentucky.

But the offense?

That’s been hit and miss.

On Tuesday, Chaz Lanier and Jordan Gainey shot a combined 0-for-11 from three.

That kind of performance in March will end a team’s season.

Reminder: this applies to every team.

Inconsistency is commonplace in college basketball.

Tennessee is in a favorable position with six games to go until the postseason.

Let’s see if the Vols can take advantage of it.

➡️ We discussed Tennessee’s season and potential for a run in March with David Cobb of CBS Sports. Check out the full conversation below.

THE DARKHORSE VOLS

We’re in the middle of a way-too-early look at the 2025 college football season.

Tennessee ranked No. 10 when Sporting News put together a composite of 12 different rankings for the upcoming season.

The Triple Option podcast took the conversation a step further this week: they chose their top national title contenders for the 2025 season.

Urban Meyer is one of the show’s hosts.

His top national title contender: Texas, ahead of Ohio State and Oregon.

All very reasonable choices based on their talent and position in the way-too-early polls.

Meyer’s “darkhorse” candidate to win the national title?

The Tennessee Volunteers.

Meyer pointed to the strong season Tennessee had in 2024 — and the potential he sees for quarterback Nico Iamaleava.

Meyer on Iamaleava:

Meyer recognized some of the issues Tennessee’s offense dealt with in SEC play last season.

But he still sees promise for Iamaleava and the Vols.

Oddsmakers seem to agree with Meyer’s darkhorse choice.

Tennessee is tied with Alabama for the seventh-best odds to win the title, according to FanDuel.

And DraftKings gives Tennessee and LSU the eighth-best odds to win the national championship.

We’re a long way from the 2025 College Football Playoff.

But Meyer’s comments this week offer a reason for Tennessee fans to believe while they wait.

SPORTS NUGGETS

🏈 Six Tennessee players were invited to the NFL Combine… but center Cooper Mays wasn’t one of them.

🏈 ESPN takes a look at some of the top stories for the 2025 season. (Tennessee receives a mention.)

🏈 Former NFL head coach and defensive coordinator Matt Patricia is expected to become the new defensive coordinator at Ohio State.

🏀 Here is the latest NCAA tournament projection from Jerry Palm of CBS Sports.

📺 Things are getting dicey between YouTube TV and Paramount, which has CBS and CBS Sports (which have the NCAA tournament and The Masters…).

⚾ Here are six storylines to watch as the college baseball season begins this weekend.

⚾ Mike Wilson has an update on Tennessee’s Alberto Osuna and his case against the NCAA.

🍊 Eric Berry and Tony White are two of the eight former Vol athletes included in the 2025 Tennessee Athletics Hall of Fame class.

GUESS WHO’S BACK

The reigning national champions are back. 

Tennessee baseball will open the season on Friday against Hofstra — the two teams will play a three-game series at Lindsey Nelson Stadium. 

Tennessee has to replace several key contributors to last year’s national title run, including Blake Burke, Christian Moore and Drew Beam. 

But the Vols are loaded with talent again. 

Dean Curley, Hunter Ensley and Nate Snead highlight some of the returning players. 

Transfer infielders Gavin Kilen and Andrew Fischer and pitcher Liam Doyle will help replace the lost production. 

Tennessee ranks No. 4 in the nation by D1Baseball and No. 3 by Baseball America, respectively. 

Texas A&M is No. 1 in both rankings.

“Texas A&M … they’re going to be fantastic,” Allan Bell of Driving The Line told us on Thursday. “Tennessee, probably gonna be fantastic again. LSU is going to be really, really good. Arkansas, if they can get the bats going, they always have pitching.”

That’s life in the SEC, which has six of the top 10 teams, according to D1Baseball.

Tennessee will have a target on its back after winning last year’s title. 

But that’s nothing new for UT’s program, which has reached the College World Series in three of the last four seasons. 

According to DraftKings, Tennessee has the best chance of reaching Omaha this season. 

Tennessee still has questions. 

It’s a new team that will have to find its own identity while playing in the nation’s toughest conference. 

There’s also the unknown status of Alberto Osuna, a transfer from North Carolina. 

Osuna has played four years of college baseball, but his first season was at Walters State Community College. (Osuna was the NJCAA D1 Player of the Year.)

He’s suing the NCAA for a fifth year, and based on the Diego Pavia ruling, Osuna should get it. 

But when?

That’s one of the questions to begin the season. (See more on Osuna in the links above.)

What are other questions and storylines to watch with Tennessee as the season begins?

➡️ Ben McKee of GoVols247 filled us in during Thursday’s show. Check out the conversation below or anywhere you get your podcasts.

TIME TO BREAK OUT

Part of the look ahead to 2025 will include the “take a leap” conversation. 

Guys who might break out — or as we discussed on Tuesday’s show, “have the light turn on.”

Swain and I chose two offensive players in our most recent discussion: 

left tackle Lance Heard and wide receiver Mike Matthews. 

Both players were five-star prospects out of high school and project to play key roles for UT this fall. 

Ari Wasserman of On3 put together a list of 10 college football players who could break out  in 2025, and Matthews made the list. 

Here is Wasserman’s reasoning:

That final sentence is worth emphasizing.

Tennessee viewed Matthews as a must-retain player, despite his lack of proven production. 

Few people question the potential of Matthews. 

Everyone at Tennessee expects him to show more of it this fall.

Which Tennessee players do you view as breakout candidates for 2025 (on either side of the ball)?

Let us know — it will be an important topic to cover as we move through the offseason. 

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