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🏈 Why Tennessee is a contender

🏈 Why Tennessee is a contender

The nation appears to believe in the Vols after two weeks of play

Josh Ward
September 13, 2024

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:

Why Tennessee belongs in the national title discussion
Just how good Tennessee’s defense can be this season
What to watch as Tennessee plays lowly FBS team Kent State
The takeover of the NCAA women’s basketball tournament

And the winners of our Tennessee hats giveaway from Rainbox are…

Parker A. and Greggory H.!

Congrats to Parker and Greggory and thank you to everyone who registered for a chance to win.

If you’d like to check out Rainbox’s hats, here’s their website. They gave us a promo code to share for 20% off a full order: JOSHANDSWAIN20

➡️ OK, let’s get to the newsletter.

TENNESSEE’S CHANCE TO CONTEND

The lights are shining on Nico Iamaleava and Big Orange Nation

Tennessee football has the nation’s attention.

After blowing out North Carolina State 51-10 last weekend, Tennessee moved up to No. 7 in the Associated Press poll.

That wasn’t high enough for a number of folks.

ESPN’s Football Power Index ranks Tennessee No. 5; the SP+ from Bill Connelly has the Vols at No. 6.

On this week’s show, Jayson Swain said Tennessee deserves the love it’s getting.

“Tennessee is a top 5 football team,” Swain said. “Tennessee is a championship caliber football team. Right now.”

Swain noted that things can change — a serious injury could alter the Vols’ season, for example.

But the Tennessee team that Swain has seen the last two weeks belongs in the national title conversation.

Swain on Tuesday’s show:

“Tennessee (in) 2022 was a team that was a championship caliber team. We didn't know that until we beat LSU and Alabama. But Tennessee was No.1 ranked in the country in the first week of the college football playoff. Tennessee messed up against South Carolina and those championship hopes were dashed. Two years later, with a lot of the same players on that 2022 team, here we are again… with more athleticism, more talent, along with experience, explosiveness at quarterback, a deeper room at wide receiver, the deepest in the country at defensive line. We’re here; we belong in this conversation as a championship quality team.

Now we’ve got work to do. We’ve got to improve. We’ve got to clean up on penalties. Keep Nico cleaner.

But folks, embrace it. We're here. We work for it. It's year four for Josh Heupel. This is not a fluke. We're supposed to be where we are right now. Got to maintain. Got to get better.”

So Swain has seen enough to believe Tennessee can compete for a national title.

He’s not the only one.

Josh Pate listed 10 things he’s learned through two weeks of the college football season on his national show earlier this week.

One of those items:

“Tennessee is a national title contender,” he said on Tuesday.

Pate, who ranked the Vols No. 5 nationally in his JP Poll, pointed to Tennessee’s defense.

We know the Vols have big potential on offense.

But the defense has changed Pate’s belief in what Tennessee can accomplish this year.

“What did we always say with these coaches like Heupel? ‘Man, if they can ever pair a pretty good to elite defense with what they do offensively, whoo!’ Now, normally that doesn’t happen, because normally, stylistically, DNA-wise, you've got to give something up to get something, but Tennessee's figured something out. And that travels.

They'll go to Oklahoma in a couple of weeks. Eventually, they'll go to Georgia. They didn't have a shot against Georgia last time they went down there. They'll have a shot now. They will have a shot because they got things that travel.”

There’s a long way to go.

Tennessee hasn’t even played its first SEC game.

But through two games, the Vols have done everything expected of them… and then some.

TENNESSEE’S DOMINANT D

The talk coming out of Week 1 focused on quarterback Nico Iamaleava.

Coming out of Week 2?

It’s all about the defense.

The defense is why Pate sees Tennessee as a national title contender.

Defensive coordinator Tim Banks said in the spring that Tennessee’s expectation was to have the best defensive line in the country.

Do they?

There’s no definitive answer yet… but the Vols’ D-line is on the ballot.

Former Tennessee and All-SEC defensive end Will Overstreet heaped praise on UT’s defense and the play up front on Sunday’s Sports Source on WATE.

“The defense is for real. There’s no other way around it. You had 13 tackles for loss (vs NC State). You had three sacks. You’ve gone 12 quarters without giving up a touchdown on defense. At this point you have to look at this team and say, ‘This is a strength of this team.’

That front seven right now — the way those guys were playing and flying around — physically were beating NC State every time to the punch. When they tried to run the ball, there was nothing there. It was one of the more impressive defensive (performances), especially in that front seven, that I’ve seen from a Tennessee team in a long time.”

Tennessee’s defensive line has high-end talent and a bunch of depth.

Adam Sparks of the Knoxville News Sentinel compared the average snap counts of Tennessee’s starting defensive linemen to other SEC teams through two games.

The Vols average the least snaps per starting defensive lineman in the SEC through two games.

There have been times in the past when Tennessee’s starting D-linemen played more than twice as many snaps per game as they have so far this season.

Now, Tennessee is able to rotate defensive linemen without skipping a beat.

And have everyone as fresh in the second half as they were when the game kicked off.

SEC Network analyst Cole Cubelic, who will be part of the television call this Saturday, praised Tennessee’s play on both the offensive and defensive line during The Cube Show this week.

“Offensive and defensive line — that's what we said going into the season that this team maybe could be really different and could allow them to sort of separate. It looks like they did.”

And that’s why this Tennessee team could be different.

SPORTS NUGGETS

🏈 The Pac-12 is back up to six teams. Who else could join the conference (and does this move do anything for you)?.

🏈 Tennessee climbed to No. 3 in the SEC in this week’s SEC Power Poll from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (FYI: I’m one of the voters).

🏈 Tennessee moved way up in On3’s CFB Playoff projections after the beatdown of NC State. College football bracketology will remain a fluid process during the season.

🏈 Here is this weekend’s college football schedule with game times and TV channels. Important game in Gainesville at 3:30 ET.

⚾ Texas A&M will come to Knoxville for a series with Tennessee this spring. Here’s a look at UT’s 2025 SEC schedule.

🎧 Here is this week’s conversation with ESPN’s Chris Low, who discussed UT’s dominant start, Billy Napier’s future at Florida, and whether College GameDay will go to Norman, Okla., next week.

FOCUS ON THE OPPONENT

Part of Josh Heupel’s task this week: Keep the players focused

Tennessee will play one of the worst FBS teams to ever appear at Neyland Stadium on Saturday night.

Kent State isn’t just bad… they barely resemble an FBS team.

St. Francis (PA) beat Kent State last week.

And Kent State hasn’t beaten an FBS team since 2022 — last year’s only win came against FCS opponent Central Connecticut.

*️⃣ Disclaimer: we never know what will happen in a game.

Last year, Tennessee only beat Austin Peay 30-13.

But this year’s Tennessee team looks better than last year’s group.

So Saturday shouldn’t be much of a game.

📍 Neyland Stadium
⏰ 7:45 p.m. ET
📺 SEC Network
📻 99.1 The Sports Animal/WIVK

That doesn’t mean the players and coaches can overlook the opponent.

And Tennessee fans always have a reason to look forward to a UT game.

Here are a few things to watch on Saturday night:

🟠 Wide receiver play

So far, Dont’e Thornton is the only Tennessee wide receiver to score a touchdown this season.

The tight ends have gotten involved, which is a good thing for the Vols’ offense, but it’s left UT’s receivers without many appearances in the end zone.

Which receiver (besides Thornton is most likely to score a touchdown on Saturday?

Put me down for Bru McCoy, a favorite target of Nico Iamaleava, but expect to see multiple receivers score some points this week.

There’s another wide receiver storyline for the game: freshman receivers Mike Matthews and Braylon Staley.

They’ve been slowed down by hamstring injuries but should play on Saturday, Volquest’s Austin Price told us this week.

Let’s see if the talented freshmen show us something.

⚫ Running back rotation

This is still a question about the running back rotation two games into the season.

Price told us that Cameron Seldon should return this week after missing the NC State game due to a reported head injury from the opener.

Seldon missed most of summer workouts and was limited during part of fall camp due to a labrum injury.

Does Seldon reclaim the RB2 spot behind Dylan Sampson this week?

Seldon and DeSean Bishop should both factor into the backfield moving forward.

Let’s see how even the split might be for those two this weekend.

🟠 A lot of young players

Matthews and Staley are two of many freshman to watch for this weekend.

Tennessee has several lineman that should get an opportunity.

The same goes for quarterback Jake Merklinger, who played in the Chattanooga game two weeks ago.

On defense, edge rusher Jordan Ross and linebacker Edwin Spillman are two exciting freshmen to watch.

Remember, players can participate in up to four regular season games and maintain their redshirt status.

This is one of the games coaches circle for players who are redshirting.

⚫ Points

For the freshmen to play, the veteran players need to pile up the points.

Tennessee should provide the fans some excitement to make that late kickoff worth it.

Another reason to pull for points: it will show that Tennessee players stayed locked in after rolling NC State and receiving praise all week.

It’s easy for a team to lose focus, especially when the next game is a huge SEC opener at Oklahoma.

So how many points will Tennessee score this week?

The 2022 team, which led the nation in scoring that season, scored 156 total points in its first three games.

This Tennessee team has 120 points through two games.

Can the Vols keep their 60 points a game average intact?

➡️ Check out our full conversation with Austin Price below or anywhere you listen to podcasts.

THE WOMEN’S GAME SHINES

Josh Heupel was fired up in Charlotte

You might have seen the above celebration from Josh Heupel during the ABC broadcast on Saturday or afterward as it made its way through social media.

Tennessee fans seemed to love seeing that kind of emotion from Heupel, who’s often even-keeled in a public setting.

Heupel was asked about his on-field celebration when he met with the media on Monday.

What Heupel said:

“I am still a kid at heart. You got to enjoy this. This game’s hard. They got good coaches. They got scholarships, too. Every Saturday you look at scores across America, it unfolds differently. So that’s why you got to prepare and practice the same way. Be consistent in that. Be an elite competitor every day, not just on game day.

We talked about that inside of our team room today. But man, if you’re not going to enjoy the opportunities that you get, and if you are successful, we think you’re missing the boat. And so we try to have fun inside of our building. That’s after a game in the locker room, but it’s also every day. We should enjoy what we’re doing and who we’re doing it with — and we do inside of this building.”

It’s probably fair to say Tennessee fans are having fun watching this team, too.

That’s part of the storyline from the last few years.

Since Heupel arrived as Tennessee’s coach, the fans have had fun watching the Vols.

Some of the UT teams before the 2021 season… weren’t so fun.

Winning and competing for championships will remain the priority.

But Heupel wants to have fun in the process.

Looks like it’s caught on.

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