War Room: July recruiting key for Vols, summer notes, portal chatter, facilities updates
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.
It was a final couple of days off for Tennessee players before the start of fall camp which begins the end of this month. First session of summer school classes end on Tuesday, July 9th, but there were no classes on Thursday or Friday of this weekso the players had a four day weekend. Second session of summer school starts on Wednesday, July 10th and it’s game on come July 31st.
For head strength coach and his staff Kurt Schmidt it’s about cardio and staying healthy the rest of this month. Rehab for guys like Bru McCoy, Cam Seldon and Peyton Lewis continues to be going well and on schedule.
For the coaches, it’s some down time and some vacations over the next couple of weeks before they crank things up. It’s also the time of year where you work on self scouting and some fine details of things. For example last week, the offensive staff had an afternoon meeting where the whole meeting and afternoon was devoted to how to manage the end of the half and game now that college football has a two minute drill. So that meant a lot of watching NFL scenarios and looking at scenarios Tennessee had last year and how you would have managed it with an extra timeout. The little things are always important.
On the facilities front, there’s been plenty of movement the last couple of weeks. While the backhoes are digging around the outside of Lindsey Nelson Stadium between the stadium and the fraternity houses and on Pat Summit Drive to re-route utilities, there’s some deconstruction going on as the press box has been completely gutted and appears to be close to being completely removed. Down the right field line where the new seats are going, drainage piping is set to be added and they are digging there. With all that is going on the field is still plenty usable for anyone wanting to have batting practice or any kind of field work. Speaking of the field, it is not on the docket to be replaced in the renovation plans for the stadium.
Here are a few baseball stadium pics:
Right field line
behind left field, Pat Summitt Drive
Right field between stadium and frat houses
A gutted press box
In Neyland Stadium, concrete is scheduled to be poured for new restrooms on the second level on the north end. But the heavy lifting is being done on the south end as crews are working to take advantage of the dry weather. New concrete walks are being poured out of the G-10 garage to the engineering buildings, also a new entrance is being done into the G-10 garage off of Neyland Drive. The new student gate continues to go up which will basically be a scissor type ramp. The exterior walls on the first concourse level are nearly complete as is the loading dock area.
Here are a few Neyland Stadium pics.
New student gate
New sidewalk and entrance into G-10 garage
Updated look at south concourse expansion
Recruiting
As the calendar turns over to July, there are several scheduled announcements and the possibility for more in the coming weeks.
There continue to be plenty of positives around Tennessee and Travis Smith as his decision is now a little over a week away. Alabama and Georgia grabbed momentum at different times, but the Vols have been a constant for the four-star. Still, Smith is quiet ahead of his decision and is processing plenty of information with his family, so if Tennessee wins out on the 13th, his relationship with Kelsey Pope will have proven vital. We firmly believe no school has been notified any decision has been made.
Christian Gass made his plans to commit on July 20th public earlier in the week, and while USC is still hanging around, this remains a two-team race between Georgia and Tennessee, in our opinion. The Vols left June with momentum and we like their position in this one roughly two weeks out, but the Bulldogs covet the versatile linebacker and are recruiting him hard to the finish line.
Juan Gaston will commit in early August, and this is another two-team race between Georgia and Tennessee, in our estimation. Oregon remains in the picture, and you cannot rule out them trying to make a late run, but we ultimately believe Gaston ends up in SEC country. Many view Georgia as the team to beat with a little over a month to go, but the Vols remain very much in this race, and they have been a real threat to pull the massive lineman away from the Bulldogs for months. He continues to have strong relationships in Knoxville that Tennessee will lean on in the coming weeks.
Elsewhere in the Peach State, Jadon Perlotte does not have a date set for a final decision, and while we would not be shocked if he does not play up the moment and drop a date, we do believe he could make a final decision before the end of this month. Tennessee left June with plenty of momentum, and this pairing continues to make a lot of sense to us. As DawgsHQ’s Jeremy Johnson said when he dropped in the GQ on Wednesday, many don’t see Perlotte in the Georgia class.
Shaedy Hayward still plans to announce on July 27th, and nothing has changed for us here in the past week as we continue to like where Tennessee sits for the four-star safety.
Tennessee left June in a great spot for four-star cornerback Onis Konanbanny, and they have maintained momentum since. He has strong relationships on Rocky Top and has been to Knoxville seven times now. We look for him to make a decision sometime next month, with Florida State and North Carolina remaining very much in the picture here. He told us it could be August 2nd or the 15th.
David Sanders camp remains quiet as they continue to process plenty of information following a slew of official visits. Ohio State is a very realistic option, in what we view as a two-team race, for the elite prospect, but nothing has changed for us on our end, as we continue to believe the Vols are end a tremendous spot here.
Josh Petty and Tennessee continue to talk and while he originally planned on making a decision at the end of June but wasn’t ready. He is now off to Poland on a family trip and will work towards a decision then and announce upon his return. FSU remains the team most like for him but we have said for a while, Petty wouldn’t be a surprise to pick the Vols or Georgia Tech.
Hoops
The current team—minus Polish Olympian Igor Milicic (Congrats!!)—will get a short break with the holiday weekend before returning for the second leg of summer workouts.
You never (I mean ever) hear that someone is having a ‘bad’ summer, so you learn to take all the positive buzz with a grain of salt.
With that said Felix Okpara is a guy we’ve heard good things about pretty consistently just regarding his work ethic, high-motor and high-end athleticism. Tennessee was looking for an effective rim protector to replace Jonas Aidoo and there may not be any drop off on that end of the court. In fact Okpara may be more effective when you’re just talking about a shot-blocker.
Newcomers Chaz Lanier and Darlinstone Dubar have both displayed the kind of offensive skill in the gym that made them such coveted targets. No one is suggesting Tennessee has another Dalton Knecht in the fold, but there is a feeling that both should be—at the very least—effective offensive players at this level.
On the recruiting front the last two weekends have been two of the favorite evaluation windows for many college coaches. Prospects play with their own high school teams in ‘showcase’ events in their home states. It’s a different environment than the travel scene, which is what July is all about.
Tennessee’s staff and every other college coach in America will descend on Augusta next weekend for the NIKE Peach Jam, which starts next Saturday.
High school recruiting has changed drastically (to say the least) with the proliferation of the transfer portal. Look no further than Tennessee’s freshman class of one (hello Bishop Boswell) for evidence of that.
It just feels like there’s less urgency surrounding the recruiting of high school prospects and that makes an abundant amount of sense when you look at the relative impacts made by freshmen vs. older transfers in the college game.
With that said, you’re obviously not going to stop recruiting high school kids.
Going into July we would consider Tennessee’s board to be maybe a little less defined than in the ‘pre-transfer portal’ era, but this would be a list of 2025 guys we would say to ‘keep an eye on’ in July in terms of who the staff is tracking based on what we’ve been hearing and where they’ve spent their energies previously.
Dewayne Brown (commitment)
We would definitely consider that a ‘working list’ that could most certainly see some additions and/or subtractions as July progresses.
Baseball
The transfer portal has officially closed and Tennessee saw eight departures leave the program. None were shocking – though we wouldn’t say expected – as the opportunity for playing time elsewhere was appealing. Now the chase to add players is fully underway and Tennessee is being extremely selective in its process.
With former Louisville infielder Gavin Kilen committed to the program, the focus shifts to former Long Beach State lefty Myles Patton as the top-priority. As mentioned, several times, plenty of programs around the country are in play here, so Vols certainly have competition. Tony Vitello has taken the lead in this recruitment for the Vols.
Left-handed pitcher Cade Fisher (Florida) entered the portal a week ago today and has a lot of upside on the mound. He was a Freshman All-American in 2023, but struggled some in the rotation this past spring. He has family ties to East Tennessee, however Mississippi State, Wake Forest and Texas are all in play here.
A pair of Ole Miss players officially entered the portal the past few days after reports of their departures for about a week now. Tennessee has real interest in both third baseman Andrew Fischer and left-handed pitcher Liam Doyle. Remember, Doyle pitched for Coastal Carolina as a freshman in 2023 and Vols had big interest there in the portal last summer.
Tennessee is expected to have a good group of visitors on hand over the course of the next five days or so. Portal targets who will be making their way to campus either this weekend of first of next week include former Niagara first baseman Eric Rataczak, former Texas A&M lefty Kaiden Wilson, Fisher (Florida), Fischer (Ole Miss) and Doyle (Ole Miss).
One note on the Ole Miss duo of Fischer and Doyle. They are both expected to be at Florida this weekend and then come to Knoxville right after – probably the first of next week. Tennessee obviously wants a couple of bats, but also needs to pick up some left-handed pitching. These two players would help in both regards.
Former Kennesaw State righty Tanner Franklin became Tennessee’s first addition from the portal earlier this week. The Jefferson County native has a big arm, one with a fastball that sits in the upper 90s.
Gavin Kilen jumped in the boat on Independence Day afternoon. He was coveted heavily by the Vols since the day he jumped in the portal, along with Florida and LSU. This is a big get for Tennessee as Kilen is considered by some to be the best player in the transfer portal. He can play either middle infield position – and that will play itself out over the fall. But the goal was getting him in the boat and Tennessee accomplished just that as he was priority No. 1.
Dean Curley and Nate Snead continue their work with Team USA this summer. Dylan Loy was also on the bump for USA earlier this week and is now reporting to Kingsport for Appalachian League play.
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