War Room: Football heads to Florida, recruiting tidbits and hoops notes
We begin this edition of the War Room as we always do. The War Room is a collective effort of notes and Tennessee news gathered throughout the week by the Volquest staff that is located only on the General’s Quarters. And now, it’s on with the news.
Tennessee heads to Florida looking for a win and obviously to do that they have to play better than they did against Austin-Peay on the offensive side of the ball.
All eyes and attention will be on quarterback Joe Milton and what kind of start he has. Milton is right when he said last week that it’s not how you start but it’s how you finish, but Tennessee needs to start faster and that includes Milton.
In the first quarter, Tennessee has found the end zone one time this year in nine drives. They have a field goal, five punts and two fails on fourth down. Against Virginia, Milton was 7-of-10 in the first quarter but for just 41 yards as Tennessee didn’t try to stretch the field. Against Austin Peay Milton was 1-of-7 for 11 yards in the first quarter with multiple drops by the receivers as Tennessee tried to open the game with a more vertical passing attack.
“Week 1, couple of overthrows, couple of drops. There’s big plays that are there,” Heupel said. “We don’t make them. Last week, a little bit what they’re doing. We worked more of the middle of the football field. That 10-20-yard area. We weren’t as efficient as we need to be, in particular at the beginning of that football game. There’s plays to be made. We have to do a better job throwing it, we have to do a better job catching it.”
Many have wondered and suggested that part of the passing game not being explosive has simply been play calling, making sure they didn’t show too much before playing Florida. A notion Heupel didn’t dismiss on his weekly radio show.
“Yeah, there’s some things, particular probably last week, that situationally you’re trying to hold,” Heupel admitted.
While the focus will be on Joe Milton and the passing game, there will also be plenty of pre-game eyes on Cooper Mays. The center has practiced more this week and the head coach said he anticipated that Mays will be available.
“I anticipate him being ready to play,” Heupel said.
But it’s not completely clear just how much Mays has done this week in team settings. He has done more and more as the week has went on but coming off a hernia surgery, it will depend on how much Mays can take in terms of pain.
A lot of his availability will be dictated by Mays himself and how much he can handle. All eyes will be on Mays in warm ups to see if Heupel’s anticipation does indeed become a reality. Mays will be 5.5 weeks removed from the surgical procedure he had on August 8th. The feeling has been it would be a 4-6 week recovery process. So Mays is certainly in that window of returning. This one truly feels like a game day decision. .
Tennessee is certainly looking for more offense/points. Florida’s defense since the opening play from scrimmage at Utah in week one has given up just 312 yards of offense. So they have been good defensively. They haven’t generated many TFL’s or sacks, but Utah struggled to move the ball against them especially in the second half and hapless McNeese couldn’t do anything. Meanwhile Tennessee comes in 4th nationally in rushing and is obviously the best offense Florida has faced (Utah’s passing offense struggled last week against Baylor).
Tennessee will be without Christian Charles who injured his ankle/foot last week and it’s expected he miss the rest of the season.
Elijah Herring will get his second straight start at linebacker and all indications are that Jeremiah Telander is pushing his way into the two deep as a rotational guy. How this game goes will dictate how much Brian Jean-Mary will rotate at his position.
Up front defensively is where Tennessee has been their best and they are healthy across the board as Rodney Garner will continue with his 12 man rotation.
On the facilities front, as we mentioned earlier in the week the fence is down along the left field line at Lindsey Nelson Stadium and the parking lot has been closed. We expect some construction to start there in the coming days. We have been told that they have already been working on moving some electrical things and pipes to prepare for construction not just on the left field side but for the entire project that will take a couple of years to complete.
As for other construction, we do think they are going to start something at Lindsey Nelson Stadium in September, but no equipment has rolled in yet and nothing has been marked off.
Recruiting
Kam Mikell took an official visit to Colorado last weekend. The Buffs made an impression and are definitely in this one more than they were. That said, Tennessee still sits in a good spot ahead of an official visit to Knoxville at the end of the month. Mikell remains diligent in the process and wants to check out all of the schools recruiting him, which is why he will be at Florida this weekend to watch them play the Vols on Saturday night.
Mississippi RB Daniel Hill continues to have positive dialogue with Jerry Mack. He continues to tell folks he plans to visit Tennessee in the near future, however, It has been a task to get him to campus to this point, so we are in wait and see mode. If he makes it back, Tennessee can certainly make a run at him, but for now, we continue to hear the most about Alabama and South Carolina.
Kelsey Pope checked in on coveted wide receiver Ryan Wingo last Friday night. The Vols have fallen back here some, with Texas and Missouri surging, but Wingo’s timeline remains in flux. The longer this one goes, the more of a chance Tennessee has to get him to campus for an official visit later in the cycle. He will visit Texas again this weekend, and this will be a visit to keep an eye on.
We continue to like where Tennessee sits with Georgia DL Nasir Smith as he continues to produce early in his senior season. He is scheduled to visit officially at the end of the month.
Staying on the DL, the Vols continue to have consistent dialogue with Florida commit Amaris Willams. He still plans to visit at some point this fall. We wouldn’t rule out one of Tennessee’s next two home games, but nothing is currently set in stone.
Tennessee extended an offer to 2024 Texas A&M DL commit Gabriel Reliford. We will see where things go here but he has expressed early interest in taking a visit this fall. Since the summer, he has been a fast riser, and the Aggies will likely have to battle down the stretch to hold onto him as new teams continue to come into the mix.
Alec Abeln will be at IMG Academy to check on TE commit Jonathan Echols on Friday night. He will be joined by Tennessee linebackers coach Brian Jean-Mary. IMG is home to multiple touted linebackers in the 2025 class,
The duo are the only Tennessee coaches expected to be on the road on Friday night.
Staying in 2025, Tennessee has done a nice job with in-state, four-star Cameron Sparks. Georgia is in this one heavily and Auburn is a team working hard to get to him campus. Sparks will be in Knoxville for the Texas A&M and Georgia games.
Another touted pass-catcher that plans to check out Tennessee again is Marcus Harris. He will be in town for the South Carolina game. He visited during the spring and has been intrigued with the Tennessee offense since. It is tough to pull prospects out of California and Harris will be no different, but getting him to campus again is a start.
Another big name that Tennessee has been able to get to campus a couple of times already in the 2025 class is Na’eem Offord. The elite cornerback has all of the big time schools in pursuit currently. He has a strong relationship with former teammate and current Vols RB Khalifa Keith. After coming in for a visit during the summer, Offord tells us he is currently working on which game he will visit Tennessee for this fall.
Hoops
Tennessee is now playing the waiting game for four-star point guard Bishop Boswell who was in town last week for an official visit. Boswell is taking his final official visit this weekend to Georgia. Following that trip he will take some time to mull over his decision and told us earlier this week that he will make an announcement by the end of September.
Boswell is deciding between Tennessee, Wake Forest, Xavier, Missouri and Georgia. There’s been plenty of speculation that Tennessee and Wake Forest are out in front, but Boswell himself hasn’t indicated that anyone is in the lead.
Rick Barnes and associate head coach Justin Gainey were in Charlotte on Wednesday to visit with Boswell.
The Vols will host Las Vegas forward Pharaoh Compton next weekend, and as of now that’s the final Class of 2024 prospect on the books for an official visit.
Tennessee is still waiting on Chase McCarty from IMG Academy as well. McCarty is making an official visit to Houston this weekend. In addition to Tennessee, McCarty has visited Kansas, Oklahoma and Georgia Tech. He currently has a November visit slated for Ole Miss.
Preseason workouts, three days a week with the coaching staff, are underway for the current team. The biggest question for fans is when will Zakai Zeigler be ready to roll?
Zeigler isn’t doing any on court stuff with the team at this point, but we’re picking up some optimistic buzz about his rehab. There’s no precise return date for him that we’re aware of, but as of now there’s a real feeling that Zeigler could be ready to go at the start of the regular season barring any setbacks.
The post War Room: Football heads to Florida, recruiting tidbits and hoops notes appeared first on On3.
