🏈 Tennessee football is ready to spring forward

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 football hits the practice field

• The Vols move on in the NCAA Tournament

• Two big upsets to start the tourney

• Big payday (with a cool note) for a VFL

OUR FIRST LOOK AT TENNESSEE’S NEXT TEAM

It’s football time in Tennessee.

Spring football, that is.

The Vols will hit the field on Monday for the first of 15 practice sessions. (The Orange & White Game will serve as the final practice on April 15.)

The idea of spring football practice can often cause a collective… yawn.

But that shouldn’t be the case with Tennessee this year.

The Vols have momentum on their side.

An 11-2 season will often do that. But on top of the success, Tennessee has storylines to sell this spring.

Coach Josh Heupel’s offense has rejuvenated Tennessee football and several new players will be tasked with keeping it running.

The Vols will count on plenty of familiar faces, too.

So what should you look forward to hearing about this spring? Here are three spring storylines for Tennessee football.

1. QB Spotlight

Joe Milton is the guy at quarterback. He helped the Vols beat Vanderbilt to close the regular season before earning MVP honors in Tennessee’s Orange Bowl win over Clemson.

The Milton Hype is back.

He’s receiving early offseason Heisman talk. He’s draining half-court shots on College Gameday.

ESPN analyst Greg McElroy recently highlighted Milton on his national podcast.

“I’ve seen Joe Milton throw it with my own two eyes,” McElroy said. “That guy can rip the football.”

Milton is QB1 again but with increased knowledge and experience in Heupel’s system.

There’s also Nico Iamaleava, Tennessee’s five-star signee.

What can the talented freshman do and how ready might he be in his first year?

We’ll get a better idea over the next month.

Speaking of getting players ready, the Vols…

2. Have a lot of newcomers.

How many is a lot? Tennessee has more than 20 new players on the roster, including 2023 recruits and transfers.

Transfers arrived ready to compete for starting positions on offense and defense.

The same goes for the recruits, several of them highly-rated by the national services.

Tennessee needed to add speed in the defensive backfield.

The Vols did that by signing a freshman class that includes Christian Conyer, Jordan Matthews and John Slaughter.

Tennessee should have more competition thanks to the newcomers.

Transfers like Gabe Jeudy-Lally at cornerback, Keenan Pili at linebacker, and wide receiver Dont’e Thornton will push other players who don’t want to give up playing time.

Throw in other talented freshmen, like four-star linebacker Arion Carter and receiver Nathan Leacock, and the Vols might have a real depth chart on their hands.

Which should lead to…

3. New faces emerging

Hendon Hooker and Jalin Hyatt were the faces of last year’s team.

And Darnell Wright was as important as any player.

Their departures will create new opportunities for others.

The first obvious player is Milton, who we’ve already highlighted.

Elsewhere, Bru McCoy at receiver should see an expanded role.

Who else will emerge?

Running back Jaylen Wright is a candidate after he ran for 249 combined yards in the Vols’ final two games of the season.

Linebacker Aaron Beasley has shown he’s ready to take on a leadership role.

Potential of rising sophomore edge rushers Joshua Josephs and James Pearce offers real excitement.

Yes, it’s spring. Let’s not get too carried away with reports that come out over the next four weeks.

But don’t dismiss spring talk, either. It’s real this year.

Speaking of transfers, we discussed several impact players on Josh and Swain. Watch below.

TENNESSEE SURVIVES AND ADVANCES

That could have been less stressful.

Tennessee survived a late scare from Louisiana on Thursday night to win 58-55 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Tennessee fans rode a roller coaster of emotions on the way to the win.

The Vols struggled with turnovers in the first half, leading to a six-minute scoring drought and tied game at 19-19.

The first half was such a struggle that TV analyst Stan Van Gundy offered this assessment after Jahmai Mashack made a shot to extend Tennessee’s lead to 25-19:

“Just getting shots would be an improvement for Tennessee when you’ve turned it over 12 times.”

Not good when the No. 4-seed receives a compliment for attempting a shot.

But Tennessee settled down on those turnovers Van Gundy mentioned and closed the first half on an 11-0 run.

The Vols built an 18-point lead midway through the second half to take control of the game.

Phew. That was close.

And then the game… got close again.

Jalen Dalcourt and Kobe Julian kept making threes for Louisiana. And Tennessee once again went cold.

Louisiana cut Tennessee’s lead to three points with less than a minute to go before a Josiah-Jordan James free throw mostly iced the game away.

There’s some good and bad here.

Some of the good: The Vols played elite defense for a lot of the game.

Mashack’s ball pressure and Jonas Aidoo’s defense at the rim was a difference maker.

Mashack and Tyreke Key stepped up on offense for Tennessee.

They were the only Vols who scored in double figures

That means Tennessee won despite Santiago Vescovi scoring only three points and James failing to hit double digits.

Louisiana coach Bob Marlin:

“If you would have told me (Vescovi) would have scored three points, and we made more field goals than them and had less turnovers, I would have told you we would have won the game.”

So Tennessee won despite those issues. But that means the Vols still have offensive issues.

Now to what’s important: Tennessee will play No. 5-seed Duke on Saturday afternoon (2:40 ET tip off).

No team in the nation is hotter than the Blue Devils.

They’ve won 10 straight games and destroyed Oral Roberts 74-51 on Thursday.

Tennessee will have to bring it on defense for 40 minutes. James and Vescovi will have to provide more offensive firepower for the Vols to win.

But the Vols are here. Duke is only a 3-point favorite, according to the oddsmakers.

After an up-and-down season, Tennessee is one win away from the ninth Sweet 16 appearance in school history.

A win on Saturday would erase a lot of the regular season frustration — and offer Tennessee a chance to create a special finish to the season.

The beauty of the NCAA Tournament.

SPORTS NUGGETS

🏀 The afternoon slate had two big upsets: No. 13-seed Furman shocked Virginia (see below) and No. 15-seed Princeton rallied to knock off No. 2-seed Arizona.

🏀 Here is the full schedule for the Friday games in the NCAA Tournament.

🏀 The Lady Vols will play Saint Louis in Knoxville on Saturday. Here’s the full women’s bracket.

⚾ Here’s weekend info for Tennessee’s first SEC baseball series of the season at Missouri.

🏈 A new daily topic it seems: NFL Draft gushing over Darnell Wright. He’s earned it.

🏈 Jesse Simonton ranked the 14 SEC football coaches. See where he has Josh Heupel.

⚽ Pro soccer in Knoxville: The One Knox Sporting Club will open the season on Saturday against new rival Lexington. Check out the full season schedule.

🏀 Furman upset Virginia thanks to a wild sequence in the final minute. A bad mistake by Virginia and a huge shot from Furman. Watch below.

STICK TO SPORTS!

Princeton’s upset over Arizona earned the nickname “Revenge of the Nerds” across social media.

Did you know: the 1984 comedy Revenge of the Nerds was filmed in… Tucson, Arizona? With many of the scenes filmed on the University of Arizona’s campus.

If a movie ends up being made about Princeton’s big win on Thursday, filmmakers will likely need to find a new location to shoot the next version.

ONE LAST BYTE OUT THE DOOR

VFL Cameron Sutton signed a three-year, $33 million contract with the Detroit Lions this week.

Sutton arrived at Tennessee in 2013 as a three-star prospect. Four years later, he was a third-round pick by the Pittsburgh Steelers.

And after six seasons with the Steelers, Sutton has a big new contract as one of the top defensive back free agents in the NFL.

Sutton is also one of the best guys in the league. Here’s a quick example:

We talked to Sutton on Josh and Swain last summer as he entered his sixth season with the Steelers.

Sutton shared great insight on the work he put in to become the player he is today.

“You’re always going to put your maximum effort into everything you do,” Sutton told us.

It’s paid off for him. Check out the interview below.

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Thank you for reading.