War Room — Tennessee gears up for huge weekend, more

We begin this edition of the War Room as we always do. The War Room is a collective effort of Tennessee notes and news gathered throughout the week by the Volquest staff. And now, it’s on with the news.

Let’s start with the biggest news of the week and that’s recruiting as Tennessee host their 865live event this weekend.

5-star David Sanders rolls back into town for a third unofficial visit this weekend just weeks ahead of his official visit to Tennessee. He will spend a bunch of time with George MacIntyre for the next week or so as both will also attend the On3 Elite series event in Nashville. It’s by no means done but we continue to feel like the Vols have put their best foot forward every step of the way.

Fellow offensive lineman Josh Petty knows Sanders well and will take an OV to Knoxville next month. Obviously there are ties there with him growing up a Vol fan but for this one to be real, we think a strong visit needs to happen. 

Charles House and the Vols continue to look like a strong match. He has continued to pick up offers like Oregon, Alabama and other others to go along with Georgia and the Vols so his attention has picked up. He continues to maintain with not only us but national outlets that he will decide and commit on June 22nd. 

Ravenwood defensive back Donovan Starr is one that keeps adding offers and traction on the trail. Tennessee offered him a while back and has started to pick up more momentum and recruiting him. He will be in town this weekend so we will be interesting to see his response to the visit.

As we have said in numerous war rooms before, Tennessee has been the team to beat for Lagonza “Shaedy” Hayward for months, and he has said as much, yet has maintained the desire to go through official visits before making a final decision in the summer. Getting him back to campus alongside other top recruits is big for Tennessee this weekend, as they have a prime opportunity to continue to build momentum in this one. Tim Banks has positioned the Vols nicely in this one heading into the summer. 

Tim Merritt is very high on Tennessee’s safety board, and the Vols have prioritized him for months. He will see multiple schools in June, including the Vols and home-state programs Auburn and Alabama. Getting him to campus over the weekend for 865 Live is a step in the right direction as they look to pull Merritt out of the state of Alabama. 

Elsewhere at defensive back, Tennessee has done a nice job with Onis Konanbanny. He is expected on campus this weekend, and this marks his second visit to campus in as many months. He is scheduled to return to Knoxville the weekend of June 21st, as the Vols battle the likes of Florida State, North Carolina, and Penn State in this one. 

Tennessee has made strides in the recruitment of Isaiah Gibson, and they are hopeful to get him back to town this weekend. That would be a significant step in the right direction, and it should give the Vols an opportunity to push for a June official visit which would be big. Many we speak with do not see Gibson’s USC commitment sticking long-term, but on the same hand, many find it hard to envision him anywhere other than Georgia if it doesn’t. Regardless, it is clear, his interest in Tennessee is growing and getting him back to town this weekend would be big for for the Vols, in our opinion. 

Getting Shekai Mills-Knight back to town this weekend can only be viewed as a positive for Tennessee, as he is set to potentially take six official visits in 21 days starting next weekend. De’Rail Sims has done nice work in this one, and the Vols will look to continue building momentum here with this weekend’s visit. 

Also at running back, Todd Robinson has gone back and forth on visiting Tennessee this weekend. He has still not confirmed his plans, and we are also watching to see if his official visit timeline shifts around any in the coming weeks, as some we have spoken with indicate he is weighing the idea of seeing some schools for in-season official visits. It still remains hard for us to see him anywhere other than Georgia. 

All of the talent coming to town this weekend made the decision easy for George MacIntyre to return to Rocky Top. The five-star was scheduled to stay in Mobile (Ala.) for training but tells us he will now fly into town on Saturday ahead of the 865 Live event to spend time around the likes of David Sanders, Jaime Ffrench, and Shaedy Hayward, all of which he has connected with throughout the process. 

Finally, 2026 TE Kendre Harrison continues to rave about the Vols. He spoke glowingly about Tennessee to Chad Simmons earlier this week. He has some interest for basketball so it’s worth watching how that all works out on the court but the Vols have his attention in football. 

Below is the list of names that have expressed interest in being in town this weekend

Tim Merritt
Shaedy Hayward
Jireh Edwards
Dylan Lewis
Tyler Redmond
Onis Konanbanny
Donovan Starr
London Bironas
George MacIntyre
Shekai Mills-Knight
Justin Baker
Todd Robinson
Darrell ‘Duke’ Johnson
Lavar Arrington
Jared Smith
Bryce Jenkins
Isaiah Campbell
Tylon Lee
Darrion Smith
Isaiah Gibson
David Sanders
Nic Moore
Joakim Dodson
Tyreek King
Jaime Ffrench
Shavar Young
Walker Bryson
Raylaun Henry
Zach Groves 

Team

The football team along with the rest of the newcomers from the class of 2024 will make their way back and to Knoxville this weekend to start summer school and to start the summer part of the off-season program before practice starts just over 65 days. 

Obviously it’s a fact and critical two months for the continued develop of the roster. Tennessee’s starting 22 is pretty much set at many spots. And in the cases of receiver and defensive line the two deep is known. That’s not the case every where and what that looks like come kickoff will largely depend an the summer and fall camp.

Offensive line coach Glen Elarbee said back in the spring that his depth will be right where it needs to be by the time they get started. We will see if that is indeed the case. One that didn’t get talked about in the spring and was mentioned by Cole Cubelic on his podcast that took a step in the right direction was Larry Johnson. Johnson did improve this spring and it will be interesting to see if he can find himself in the two deep at right tackle behind John Campbell or that spot will remain Dayne Davis’ along with Davis being the back up at basically all the offensive line spots. Johnson physically is in the best shape he has been in. It’s a matter of him being able to consistently handle the mental side of playing in the offense. The other x-factor in the tackle depth piece of the offensive line is where does Bennett Warren factor in. How quickly can he learn the offense and what does he look like physically. 

With SEC Meetings next week in Destin, the topic of money will be the greatest topic discussed as the NCAA is reaching a settlement in the House case. The landmark settlement obviously means less money from the NCAA but for AD’s in the SEC there are much bigger questions likely to come out of the settlement which is believed to include a revenue sharing model that could mean up to 20 million dollars paid out to student-athletes. However, there’s been no clarity as to who would get that money. Is it all student athletes? It is just student athletes of revenue making sports? Can you put in a plan in place where revenue generating sports got more of that share than non-revenue sports? Where’s the Title IX factor in all of this? Could the NCAA be reaching a landmark settlement and the result of that being another lawsuit? 

We will see, but for AD’s around the country their world right now is about less than playing sports than ever. 

We do expect game times for the first three or four weeks of the season to be released next week and maybe some discussion on future conference scheduling but the story of these meetings is about the expected increased cost in managing athletics and trying to get the conference on the same page in the direction of player pay moving forward. 

One other rule that is coming about in college football is allowing all ga’s, analysts to be on the practice field coaching, which everyone was doing anyway, and to allow them to go on the road recruiting if you wanted to declare them as one of you 10 assistants on the road. This means your full time position coach could be taken off the road (say if they aren’t a strong recruiter) and someone could be on the road in their place. It would make things move closer to a NFL scouting type model if schools elected to go that direction. 

Hoops

There is really only one topic worth discussing in regards to Tennessee basketball at the moment.

The waiting game continues for Chaz Lanier, but not for much longer according to the buzz we’re hearing. We don’t have a deadline for a decision, but based on what we’re hearing it sounds like news will break sooner rather than later. 

Lanier wrapped up his official visit to Tennessee on Wednesday after previously having seen Kentucky and BYU. 

There is tons of chatter out there about this recruitment, but not a ton of hard information. 

Here’s what we believe.

We think that Tennessee felt good about where things stood with Lanier when he ended his visit. 

Tennessee had continued dialogue with Lanier’s family on Thursday following that visit. 

It feels at this time like Tennessee is the team to beat. We believe the earth is getting big in the window and a decision could come as early as Friday and likely no later than the end of the weekend.

As has been discussed at length Tennessee did not come to this recruitment with the largest NIL package of his three finalists. 

We believe that both Kentucky and BYU presented NIL packages in excess of $1 million with BYU’s offer being significantly higher than the ‘Cats’.

Tennessee’s NIL offer is not in the seven figure range, based on the buzz we’re hearing, though it’s considered competitive with Kentucky’s.

All of that is a long-winded way of saying that if Lanier chooses Tennessee he’s going to be leaving money on the table in order to play for the Vols. If that indeed is how things play out, that’s a pretty strong comment on this staff and how they’re perceived in the college basketball community. 

As for the current team and incoming transfers everyone has been getting a break and will start to reconvene on campus over the next week before summer workouts begin in earnest. 

We hope everyone has a great and safe holiday weekend !

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