War Room: Recruiting news, hoops notes, football and 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.

It’s arguably one of the quietest weeks of the year on the football front. Final exams finished up on Wednesday and many players were done before then. So most all of the current team is off-campus and getting a couple of weeks away before they return for the start of summer school and summer works the last week of May, first week of June. 

While it’s down time for the athletes, coaches are still on the road recruiting. Football coaches, basketball coaches as well as athletic directors and presidents will be in Destin, Florida on May 28th for a week of meetings at the annual SEC spring meetings. Typically those meetings are about scheduling, minor rule tweaks and handing out a lot of money. There will still be revenue distribution. There will be scheduling talk and most all the game times for the first three weeks of the year will be released (we think Chattanooga could be a noon start). But the topic that will the focal point is the possibility of revenue sharing that could come from a settlement by the NCAA in the House case as well as guardrails for NIL. Athletic directors are all looking at the possibility losing a couple million dollars in revenue from the NCAA as a part of the settlement and they are trying to figure out the revenue sharing model that no one seems to have a clear definition of aside from tossing out 20 million dollars as a possible number. AD Danny White noted at the final Big Orange Caravan stop in Kingsport that generating revenue has never been more important and not for building things which is why treating fans the right way is paramount. 

“It’s our job to find ways to build an awesome experience and unique ways for our fans to connect with our teams in different ways and interact with our coaches like they will tonight, ultimately find ways to generate revenue as well, because there’s never been a time, as much as we are right now, in the history of college sports where revenue will have an enormous impact on competitive success.”

To help enhance the fan experience, White has nearly 500 million dollars worth of facilities project scheduled. The two most expensive projects in Lindsey Nelson Stadium and Neyland Stadium are all for the fans. But White admitted with the changing landscape in college athletics you don’t look at building buildings the way you used to. 

“I think you probably do (look at it differently than in the past),” White admitted. “We had some catching up to do in the facility area, and our two biggest projects really have nothing to do with recruiting or the student-athlete experience. They have an enormous amount to do with the fan experience. We have the best fan base in sports, but we can’t take them for granted. There’s areas of Neyland Stadium that needed to be addressed, and our baseball stadium situation needed to be addressed. So I don’t care what the environment looks like and the rules of engagement in terms of NIL or all those things from an operational revenue, expense-decision standpoint – we have to get our fan-experience right and we’re in the middle of doing it.”

To make that fan experience better in 2024, crews have battled through rain this week to continue their work at Neyland Stadium ahead of the season opener on August 31st. And demolition will start quickly following the end of post-season play at Lindsey Nelson Stadium which will be sometime in mid-June. 

Here are a few pictures of progress in and around Neyland Stadium.

Recruiting

David Sanders continues to spend his weekends in visits as he will be at UGA this weekend. In our opinion, Georgia is behind a few schools, but they do carry a ton of weight with recruits and they will continue to swing big here for Sanders.

As for Tennessee, he has indicated he hopes to swing by campus either before or after his trip to Nashville for the On3 Elite Series event later this month. Clemson will host him the first weekend of June and will do what they always do in terms of pressuring players to get in the boat and shut things down. You can’t discount it, but it would be one of the more shocking moves. We have seen if Sanders and his family do not go throughout the rest of the month. Ohio State and Tennessee have his attention as much as anyone currently in our opinion. 

Staying with offensive tackle, Kansas product Andrew Babalola has cancelled his official visit to Tennessee. The Vols loved everything they saw when they watched him work out this spring, but obviously he has different ideas in terms of his recruitment and is going in a different direction.

Elsewhere along the offensive line, in continuing to check around on Juan Gaston, we are told he will take an official visit to Tennessee the weekend of June 14th. That is shaping up to be a massive weekend for the Vols, and the addition of the mammoth prospect only adds to it. He plans to see Georgia, South Carolina and Oregon during the month as well. We believe relationships are key in this one, and Tennessee has continued to do an excellent job heading into the summer, along with Georgia.

Offensive guard Antoni Ogumoro will announce on Tuesday his decision. There still remains plenty of optimism with the Oklahoma lineman as he finishes out his visits this weekend with Missouri.

Bryce Donovan-Jenkins and Tennessee just seem like a match long term. The family is very comfortable with Tennessee and are looking forward to getting back down here next weekend for 865Live.

Another player who will be in town for that event is Maryland defensive lineman Darrion Smith. When he was here earlier this spring, he told us that Tennessee and Ohio State had the most momentum with him. It’s always a hard pull from that neck of the woods, but Tennessee seems to be a player for both kids out of that area.

Some positive news at linebacker as Duke Johnson has locked in his official visit to Tennessee for the final weekend in June. Johnson is committed to Alabama but has enough interest to want to check out the Vols again. 

Another player who will not be taking an official visit to Tennessee is wide receiver Derek Meadows. With Tennessee being the first of seven official visits, the staff has elected, not to bring him in and focus on others.

One player, who will be taking a visit to Tennessee in June is St. Louis area wideout Dejerrian Miller. Tennessee is looking for a taller wide receiver to fill out the final spot at that position in this class and Miller much like Travis Smith fits that bill.

Top 2026 quarterback Faizon Brandon will be back in town toward the end of the month. Joey Halzle was in at Grimsley High School to check on Brandon recently, and that relationship continues to grow. Tennessee has continued to position itself nicely heading into another important slate of visits for the prized signal-caller.

Baylor School running back Shekai Mills-Knight got a visit from Joey Halzle and De’Rail Sims earlier in the week. Mills-Knight continues to reiterate plenty of positive thoughts about Tennessee. He will visit officially the weekend of June 14th, and this will be an important visit as his mother will get to accompany him. She will not have the opportunity to travel to all his officials, so he is excited to show her around campus and have her spend time with the staff. They have done an excellent job of making her feel like a priority also.

Sims also checked on top 2026 running back Savion Hiter in Virginia this week, and the first in-person interaction between the two went very well. Hiter enjoyed the time and the fact Sims was able to watch him practice. He tells us he is now working to get a date set to visit Tennessee again in June. 

Also at running back, Todd Robinson continues to tell us he wants to visit next weekend for 865Live, and then again for his June official visit. This would be big for Tennessee, as they, like several others, continue to chase Georgia in this recruitment.  

The Tennessee staff finished out their week on the road on Thursday by continuing to make some important stops. 

Alec Abeln stopped by the school of top-ranked 2026 offensive tackle Immanuel Iheanacho during his travels. He also checked in on the school of four-star interior offensive lineman Carter Scruggs. 

Kelsey Pope also checked in on several prospects in Virginia, including Thomas Wilder, Travis Johnson, and others in the Virginia Beach area.

Willie Martinez spent time in Orlando checking in on prospects across various classes, while Mike Ekeler did the same in Alabama. Rodney Garner checked on multiple schools in Georgia throughout his travels. 

William Inge spent his day in South Florida checking on prospects, most noticeably Ty Jackson and Tarvos Alford. 

Hoops

Well, the waiting game continues with North Florida transfer Chaz Lanier. The shooting guard pretty much qualifies as the ‘prettiest girl left at the ball’ as teams scramble to fill out their rosters with June fast approaching.

Lanier currently has a few fan bases chomping at the bit. 

Many thought when Lanier officially entered the portal a couple of weeks ago that he would be a slam dunk to Tennessee. It made a lot of sense.

He went to high school at Ensworth. Tennessee had a very obvious need for perimeter scoring with the departure of Dalton Knecht. 

Furthermore, with Knecht, Rick Barnes and his staff had just put together a pretty convincing advertisement for how much they can help a grad transfer looking to improve his draft stock late in his college career. 

Obviously, as we know now, Lanier to Tennessee wasn’t a slam dunk. That’s not altogether surprising in the current NIL climate, and we cautioned a couple of weeks ago in this space to not rule out someone coming in with a huge offer for Lanier to muddy the waters.

Apparently that is what has happened. You’re rarely going to have transparency with NIL numbers, but there are unsubstantiated reports out there that Lanier has a seven figure offer on the table from both Kentucky and Arkansas. 

Based off what we’ve heard we believe that offer to be less than $2 million but more than $1 million. 

Now, our understanding is that Tennessee has extended (what we would term) a substantial NIL offer to Lanier, but we don’t believe that offer is in the seven figure range. 

Hard information on what Lanier and his camp may be thinking is hard to come by. Look no further than Wednesday when he was reported to be on campus at Kentucky on a visit only for that report to be debunked shortly later. 

This is speculation on our part, let’s be clear about that, but it seems unlikely to us that Tennessee would match an offer between $1-2 million. And before fans start saying ‘well they don’t want to win,’ you have to consider what kind of impact that would have on team chemistry.

That’s certainly something that this staff takes into consideration in the NIL space. 

What kind of impact would it have on the locker room if a new guy suddenly comes in and is making three to four times more than even the other best players on the team?

It’s a conundrum and just another new wrinkle that college coaches are dealing with in this new era. 

As of now we don’t have Lanier down for an official visit to Knoxville, but that could change quickly. 

Stay tuned, this one still has some drama left.

The current team is packing up and heading home for a short break before returning around Memorial Day to get summer workouts started in earnest.

The three new transfers have been drifting in and in a couple of weeks, what there is, of the current team will be together for the first time.

We don’t want to pump the hype train too much over a few weeks of postseason workouts in the spring, but Cam Carr is a guy that has generated some buzz. That’s not completely surprising as Carr has always been a guy that the staff has been high on.

The rising sophomore has a huge opportunity in front of him, particularly if Lanier doesn’t end up in Knoxville. Early rumbling suggests that Carr is angling to take advantage of his chances. 

Also not surprisingly, as in not remotely surprising, word is that Zakai Zeigler is stepping into an even bigger leadership role if that’s possible. Even as an underclassman Zeigler always had an outsized voice on the team because of his work ethic and his passion. As a senior it feels like he’s going to even crank that up a notch. 

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