Big Orange Rewind | March 1, 2026

Voice of the Vols Mike Keith and Vol Network's Brent Hubbs recap the latest happenings in Big Orange country while previewing the week ahead.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:03

What happened this weekend? What lies ahead? Analysis and insight from the inside. This is Big Orange Rewind.

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Presented by Calhoun's A Taste of Tennessee. Calhoun's is the perfect place to rewind after every Tennessee game.

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This is Big Orange Rewind with the voice of the Vols, Mike Keith, and VolQuest.com's Brett Hubs.

SPEAKER_03 0:33

We're so glad that you joined us. And we hope that you'll join us via the Vol Network text line. Send us your questions or comments at 865-657-1278. 865-657-1278. Mr. Hubs, hello. Hello, Mr. Keith. How are you, sir? Welcome to March. Welcome to March and Sunshine. Oh, nice, huh? 70 degrees. Nice nice. We like it. And with March, when we say March Madness, obviously the references to basketball. But when you cover the University of Tennessee's athletic department, March Madness is everything. And that's why we will lead off with the Rackley Roofing Recap, a breakdown of Tennessee athletics from the past week presented by Rackley Roofing, transforming the roofing industry with unmatched customer service, detailed documentation, and the highest safety standards. Rackley Roofing, the proud official roofer of the Tennessee Volunteers. So what sport do you want to begin with? You're running this thing. I mean, I think we probably don't you think we start basketball, right? Start with basketball. Let's go there. Lose at Missouri by four. And then Saturday night, Food City Center electric. The wristbands that lit up. It was cool. I mean, the whole thing, it was just a tremendous atmosphere. Students fully here, no weather problems to keep anybody from going to a game. Vols play, outstanding basketball until realistically the last six minutes. And then it all goes haywire down the stretch, and Alabama takes their only lead of the game and wins in the final 25 seconds.

SPEAKER_04 2:21

Yeah, it kind of felt like a reverse of what happened a year ago in Knoxville in that game. And um, Tennessee just did not get defensive stops down the stretch. And I know we'll talk a lot about the offense. Tennessee went without a point the last 205. That's certainly concerning. Uh, but Alabama scored um seven out of their last nine shots. The problem with that is the two they missed to get offensive rebounds on. Right.

SPEAKER_03 2:46

So they hadn't gotten offensive rebounds basically the whole night. Right.

SPEAKER_04 2:50

So they scored on seven straight trips, is what it ended what it ended up being. Tennessee just did not get the any stop that they needed to get, you know, down the stretch of the game. And um, you know, they had, I mean, Jacoby Glespa, who I agree with Rick Barnes, you certainly knows basketball a lot better than me. He was terrific. He was really terrific. Great look at the end to tie it. Just couldn't get it to go down on the layup. I like the decision there. Get it to the rim and see if you can, you know, get the layup to tie it. If you get an and one, great. If you miss it, you get an offensive put back, uh, as opposed to settling for a three or taking a three there. I like the decision there. And it just didn't fall for Jacoby Gillespie. But it's maddening because the floor for this team is not the floor you want to have because you could be done early. The ceiling for this team has ever been as high as you want to make it. I mean, they can they can go as far as they want to go. The maddening part is they have been up and they've ridden the elevator up and down this season with the floor. They've not raised their floor enough. The floor's still the floor, the ceiling's still the season, and there's a pretty big gap between the two.

SPEAKER_03 3:59

And the real problem with the two losses last week is you got both of those teams in the kind of games you wanted them in.

unknown 4:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 4:09

You didn't. You certainly, uh, you know.

SPEAKER_03 4:11

I mean, the 73-69 with Missouri, you know, you get them in that kind of game. You you get, I mean, after you've gotten Vanderbilt in that kind of game, too, and then you get Alabama, a team averaging 93 points per game. A team that had scored an average of 98 points per game in their seven-game win streak. And Alabama doesn't crack 70 until 25 seconds remain.

SPEAKER_04 4:37

Yeah. I mean, you played it the way, I mean, the game went the way you wanted it to go until you just you couldn't stop, you just couldn't stop them in the paint.

SPEAKER_03 4:46

Here's what I wanted as I was driving home last night trying to kind of come up with how this happened. I mean, it was just one when it ended, you're like, what just happened? Because you'd led the whole game and you didn't have the abundance of turnovers that you had at Missouri. Yeah, they drove to the rim some on you. They did it late, but they didn't, they certainly didn't do it like Missouri did. You weren't terrible at the free throw line. I mean, you didn't get, what'd you get, eight free throw attempts? You didn't get there enough. But they didn't really either. I mean, they didn't shoot a lot of free throws. I mean, it was a game where very few fouls were called. So, you know, Rick Barnes played 11 guys in the first half. It's the first time in six weeks that he had played 11 players in the first half of a game. It was the Kentucky game at home. And Alabama runs people at you in ways. They only have one guy who averages over 30 minutes per game, and that's Phylon. He didn't play when they play Tuesday or Wednesday. Wednesday. He didn't play Wednesday because he was nursing a left leg. Because they blew Mississippi State out, they didn't have to stress themselves and play everybody the rest of the way. So you're trying to keep up. You're trying to run people through. And you just wonder was the mental and the physical fatigue evident at the end of the game? Not that you're not at, not that you're out of shape, just that they were able to process through enough to what they do to where they had the physical advantage down the stretch.

SPEAKER_04 6:26

Well, I yes, I mean, I think there's probably something to that. I don't disagree with you. I think the other thing with this team, and Rick Barnes talked about it post-game, and it's it's you can tell it, you can hear it in his voice, and the frustration with with things is this team's had a hard time playing 40 minutes all season long. Whether they're playing 11 guys, shorten bench, deep bench, whatever your rotations have been, they just have not played a consistent 40 minutes mentally as much as physically. And that's what's driving Rick Barnes bananas to a bit. You know, you play the ball screen the way you're supposed to play it the entire first half, and you don't play it that way in the second half. Yeah, Alabama. I mean, Alabama made a few adjustments there, but you didn't do the scout in the second half the way you did the scout in the first half. And I think that's bothering Barnes more than you know offense, the offensive faucet getting shut off or whatever. I mean, I mean you look at you look at at Fylon. I mean, he he had um 13 of Alabama's final 18 points. He had 13 points in the final six minutes. I mean, he just put his head down and went, I mean, he just went to the basket and scored on Tennessee's guards.

SPEAKER_03 7:38

Um and Alabama did not beat Tennessee with the three-point shot. Now, they hit some outstanding three-point shots that were defended. Right. I mean, they But they're gonna do that.

SPEAKER_04 7:49

That's who they are.

SPEAKER_03 7:49

Yeah, they're good. Right. I mean, they can win the whole thing. I I mean, I think they are the type of team, if they get the right draw, and if they don't end up with a team like Tennessee, somebody who likes to play that style because it clearly bothers me. And listen, they feel like they stole one last night. No, and and they did. Yeah. I'm not taking anything away from it, but they did. I'm saying, I'm saying they are a potential final four or even above team, and yet Tennessee, when Tennessee plays to their style, they are really, really special because it's hard to play to that. Taking advantage of your posts. I mean, the Tennessee Post last night, 15 of 34 from the field. 15 of 34. I mean, you can't, and and I'm listening I know some of them are contested, but I mean Felix Akpara coming into the game had made his last 12 shots. 12 in a row. Yeah. And just they're dunks. Yeah, they're they're bunnies. Yeah, I mean, there were a couple of shots that were just point blank that I mean, if you have if you have two of them, you win the ball game. But I mean, you could say, I mean, if Tennessee is 21 of 34 from the field, which is just over 60 percent. Not crazy. I'm not saying 30 of 34. I'm saying, okay, 20 of 24, which is 59%. They win the basketball game. And I think that was eating Rick Barnes as much as anything else post-game because they got those offensive rebounds, they got those looks, and they they didn't finish it.

SPEAKER_04 9:39

Well, to your point, let's look at the month of February. Tennessee's five and went five and three in the month of February. And the five wins, the combination of Estrella, Akpara, Brown, and Kerry, and remember, Estrella missed a couple of games. Right. Um, they had 45 offensive rebounds and 49 field goals in the five wins. In the three losses, they had 38 offensive rebounds, but only 29 field goals. You got to finish. I mean, if you talk about one of your best offensive weapons, some of your best offense, is just get the ball on the rim so guys can go get it. And that's what JP Estrella was talking about post-game with you guys. Hey, one of the best parts of our offense in the half court set is our ability to offensive rebound. If that's part of what you do, you got you got to finish or you got to get to the free throw line and you got to finish there. They, I mean, I mean, Jalen Carey was 0 for 2. Nobody else in the post went to the free throw line the entire game on Sun on Saturday. That was very early in the game. Yeah. I mean, they have, and again, I'm not putting it all on them because we're going to talk about Jacoby Gillespie. We know what he can do. We know how important he is. Tennessee's got to get Nate Ament healthy if they're going to make any kind of run. But when you talk about sort of an X factor with this team offensively, it's converting offensive rebounds into second chance points at the post position. In the Missouri game, Jalen Carey had six offensive rebounds and didn't take a shot off any of them. Right.

SPEAKER_03 11:11

Threw them all back out. Threw them all back out. Now, his rebounding in the last two games and his defense has been exceptional. Yeah, he has decided that, and and he scored in double digits in this game. He still didn't shoot it very well, but to his credit, he's decided if if the ball's not falling, so what? I'm gonna go get a rebound, I'm gonna play defense. Tennessee can live with that. They can live with that the rest of the way. If they're getting defense and rebounding, and then they can get some points out of him, that's a great thing. They just need quality minutes from carry, and he did do that in the last two games, to his credit. The the question for or the other positive for me, toward the point about offensive rebounds, I am so glad to see Bishop Boswell take the mid-range shot. Put it up. It's a good shot. You know, that elbow shot or free throw line just outside the 12 to 16 foot shot. Take the shot. Because your offensive rebounding is so good that if you don't make it, guess what? Somebody's liable to get it. You know, don't. And and Jacoby Gillespie is taking that shot more too. Tennessee wants him to take that shot. When A-Mint's in there, they want him to take the 15-foot shot. Because again, put it up on the rim.

SPEAKER_04 12:38

Well, here's the other thing, too. A fifth the the the offensive carum on a 15-foot jump shot's different than the carum on a on a three-point shot, unbelievably. So now your offensive rebound prowess, your ability to be successful offensive rebounding for your post players is easier if it's a 15-foot jumper as opposed to a 24-foot jumper because of how the ball is going to come off the rim. The post players, I don't know that they have to score tons more points. They just have to be more efficient in what they do. And they're just Vanderbilt. Well, and that's and that's the frustrating part. You know, when you look at it, if you're a Tennessee fan, you came out of the Vanderbilt game last Saturday, and you sit there and you think, okay, they've turned a corner. They figured out how to close. They got stops they needed down the stretch. They made the plays they needed down the stretch. Boswell had two big plays. A mint makes a big shot. They made every winning play they needed down the stretch, offensively and defensively. They did not give up an offensive rebound in the last four minutes at Vanderbilt. Saturday night in the Food City Center, they gave up two offensive rebounds back to back in the most critical, one of the most critical times, and it cost them two points.

SPEAKER_03 13:54

And dropped the ball out of bounds, they had. They had a rebound and dropped it out of bounds.

SPEAKER_04 13:59

Yeah. I mean, just and again, this is basketball. And again, if you don't have, if you're not emotionally invested in a team, it's why you love March. If you're emotionally invested in a team, you still like March, but it's the Alka Selser month. I mean, it's the Rolades month because it's just so stressful because basketball's weird, man. Strange things happen in basketball. You can be hot one day, and 48 hours later you can't you can't make a shot or you can't make a play.

SPEAKER_03 14:28

Well, and this the sixth line is a big story for Tennessee right now, as we'll wrap up this segment, the Rackley Roofing recap. The sixth line is a big is a big story right now for two reasons. Right now, Tennessee would be the sixth seed in the SEC tournament, which would have them playing Thursday night at 9:30. Not great. Not great. But anyway. So but if they win their final two games, there is a very reasonable chance that they could overtake Kentucky and Missouri and end up being a four-seed and get a double by. Because both of those teams have difficult games this coming week.

SPEAKER_04 15:15

Kentucky's got Florida, Missouri's got Arkansas. They do. So two two two big games, two important games. And again, that's why this past week hurt so bad. Or you can do if you're Tennessee.

SPEAKER_03 15:27

Missouri has Texas AM, too, don't they?

SPEAKER_04 15:29

They've got two tough games. Yeah, maybe they do. Or maybe Arkansas's got a somebody's got AM in that group there for for sure. But it's it's why this past week hurt so bad.

SPEAKER_02 15:39

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 15:40

You know, you only trailed for a little over 11 minutes the entire week. Right. But you but you're 0 for two. And if you win a both, you're number two right now. Yeah. Yeah, you're you're you're setting right where you want to be. And both of them were were very winnable.

SPEAKER_03 15:54

So there's been a lot of talk about Tennessee being a five C. Some projections now drop them back to a six. The importance of being a six C at the very least, is you get an 11 in the NCAA tournament. Then if you win, you get a three. You don't get a two. If you're a seven, you get a two.

SPEAKER_04 16:22

And you and look, if you're Tennessee, you're trying to get to the five. You're, you know, is where you want to be. You got to go win. But but here's the thing that you got to do if you're Tennessee. Everybody else can talk about it. You you just got to go figure out how to play 40 minutes. Because if this team will play 40 minutes, Mike, they're ceiling, they can go, they can make all kinds of noise. They can make a deep run if they'll play 40 consistent minutes of basketball. Because they're a hard team to play. They're a hard team to play. They're a challenge with the physicality they play with. If a Mint's healthy, you got different options you can run your offense through. But they they can't have, they can't have this fade down the stretch. They can't have these four-minute lulls on defense coming out of the second half. I mean, whether it's taking your foot off the gas if you're a player, whatever it is, I don't know. You have to understand hammer down for 40 minutes and to close it out.

SPEAKER_03 17:14

And I think that's right. And uh to the point, though, is they've done that. They did it at Vanderbilt, one of the hardest places to play in America. They they did it. And you thought Paige turned, moving on, here we go. And then they they have a setback at Missouri, but they don't play well. Turnovers, turnovers, free throw shooting, letting them drive to the rim. So you can sort of say, okay, I I I get it. They had a bad game. But the Alabama game is the one that really sticks in your crawl because not only did you lead the whole time, but you didn't have turnovers. You did. I mean, the free throw thing is immaterial because you didn't shoot very many of them. And for the most part, your defense was excellent. Just didn't finish. They didn't finish. Didn't finish.

SPEAKER_04 18:06

Yeah. You didn't finish at the rim. You didn't finish defensive possessions. You didn't finish the half. You didn't finish the and that's the theme for this team is finish. If you don't finish, you're gonna be finished. Right. So you got to go finish down. I mean, look, listen, the the the the time of, hey, we'll figure it out. We got some time to figure it out is over. Yeah. It's time you're past that now. You gotta go, you gotta go play 40 minutes of basketball or you go home.

SPEAKER_03 18:30

All right. So if you want to talk basketball, send us a text on the Vault Network text line at 865-657-1278. I'm certain we'll touch on baseball, on softball, on the NFL Combine. I'm sure that we will touch on spring football, which is now two weeks away. Two weeks. We'll touch on anything anybody wants to talk about. Bring it. Love to hear from you. Bring it. This is Big Orange Rewind, presented by our friends at Calhous.

SPEAKER_01 19:08

Big Orange Rewind.

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Natural Gas. Pilot, the official travel stop of the Vols. See you out here, RJV Kaboda, with two convenient locations in Knoxville and Nashville. And by Ford. Visit your local Ford dealer, proud sponsor of the Tennessee Volunteers.

SPEAKER_01 19:43

The Fall Network's Big Orange Rewind continues. Presented by Calhoun.

SPEAKER_03 19:50

All right, Brett Hubs. Yes, sir. I'm getting ready to read the great clip spot. And I've got to ask you a question at the end of it that is very important to the context of this commercial. Are you ready? It's very important.

SPEAKER_04 20:08

I don't know if I need to buckle up my seatbelt or if I need to slide that down.

SPEAKER_03 20:13

But you've been with the Vall Network for 30 years. Here we go. 30 plus years. All right, here we go. It's now time for you to come up with something. All right. This baseball season, every time the balls clench a weekend series, you win a 9.99 haircut from Great Clips. Visit GreatClips.com/slash UT baseball to redeem the offer. Valid only at participating Knoxville, Chattanooga, Tri-Cities, and Middle Tennessee Salines. Offer available for a limited time at participating locations. Great clips. It's going to be great. Tennessee played this weekend in Arlington, Texas, at the Amagee Bank Classic. They lost on Friday to UCLA.

SPEAKER_04 21:00

The number one team in the country.

SPEAKER_03 21:01

Yeah, they're pretty good. And had a nice little comeback, and then the bullpen kind of eh. Wasn't great.

SPEAKER_04 21:08

The bullpen came through the last two days. Went back out with a starter on Friday night. Probably shouldn't have after the long rally there. And then it just fell apart.

SPEAKER_03 21:15

Well, anyway. But go ahead. So the bullpen did a great job on Saturday and Sunday. The Bulls won over Arizona State. Arizona State, five to three. One over Virginia Tech three to one. All right, so they win two of three in the classic. Brent Hubbs, did they win a series? Well, sure you did.

SPEAKER_04 21:36

You played a weekend set, right?

SPEAKER_03 21:39

But a series is just it's three games. They played three games, but they didn't play the same team three times.

SPEAKER_04 21:47

But it was three games who were on your schedule, and that it didn't change. You knew who you're playing Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

SPEAKER_03 21:53

So you're giving away the 992.

SPEAKER_04 21:56

I'm not in charge of that, but sure, why not, right? I'm a manager. Of the people, Mike Keith. What would you say?

SPEAKER_03 22:03

I've asked you. That's why I asked you. Wow.

SPEAKER_04 22:06

What a great answer, baby.

SPEAKER_03 22:07

All right. So we're going to go to the ball network text line and uh 865-657-1278. Let's do this one first. This is Jim and Dunlap, Tennessee. All right. Do we think about resting Nate Amet until the SECs? I think, meaning the SEC tournament.

SPEAKER_04 22:29

It's a great question. I mean, I would be sub wouldn't you be surprised if he played Tuesday night, regardless?

SPEAKER_03 22:36

I mean, I think so.

SPEAKER_04 22:37

Now, there was a couple of times I didn't think he was going to come back in in a game and he comes back in. I thought he might have been done at Missouri with the ankle. And then look up and he's back in the game. Right. You know? Um the interesting part of it is what you still have to play for, which is the double buy, which gives you more rest.

SPEAKER_03 22:59

Um but I mean let's take it this way South Carolina is not a good basketball team this year. They have been in the past, correct? They're certainly not having a good year. Correct. On paper, they're not as good as you. Do you think you could win? I mean, you almost beat Alabama without him. He played 10 minutes, and he was really not a factor at any point during the course of the time he was in there, unfortunately. Uh it just didn't work out that way. So Alabama's better than South Carolina. So do you see if you can go beat South Carolina without him? And then if you need him for Vanderbilt, do you play him? Or do you just say we're gonna sit him the whole week? Or if the kid comes to you tomorrow and says, I'm going, does he go with South Carolina?

SPEAKER_04 23:54

Well, I think it's up, I think it's up to what the trainers and Nate Amen says. Right. And I don't think it's I don't think Rick Barnes.

SPEAKER_03 24:01

I think it's of what Rick Barnes thinks because I mean I think he'll be, I think he's gonna go with whatever the trainer says from a health standpoint. But don't you think it's about the decision of we're really not going anywhere unless we have Nate Ament? Certainly not where we want to go, right? I think the question you have to ask is, is there any chance of further aggravation of the injury, honestly? I think I take it, listen, if Chad Newman and the doctor say he can't play, sure, that's a different story. If they say he can play, right?

SPEAKER_04 24:35

I'm not sure if the I'm not sure if the old veteran head coach says, well, we're gonna we're gonna set him, you know. I I mean, if he's clear to play, I think he'll dress and he may not play 30-something minutes, but I I don't think that they will make a coach's decision basically saying, we think we can beat South Carolina without him, even though he's healthy enough to play, we're not gonna play.

SPEAKER_03 24:56

Well, but the question is, do you have to think, do we try that? You know, based on the fact that if he were to re-aggravate it and then he's not available against Vanderbilt, when he could be available against Vanderbilt, who is a better team? Right. And I again, I'm not knocking South Carolina. I mean, you just said in our last segment, it's March. Correct. So now you gotta know what you have.

SPEAKER_04 25:25

If I were if I were the guy making eight million dollars a year, nine million dollars or six, whatever he makes. Don't you know? Well, it's like six and then all these bonus incentives. But he's got all those bonus incentives in there. He I mean, you know. Uh, but anyway, if it were my decision, he wouldn't play. I I wouldn't play him Tuesday night. It's too quick of a turnaround. Okay. The ner the the ankle was already a little bit tender coming out of Missouri, clearly.

SPEAKER_03 25:50

Yeah, and they and that they said as much about that.

SPEAKER_04 25:53

You know, and it it looked like a it just looked ugly uh on the injury on Saturday night. If I were the head coach, I was looking at where my team was and what I was doing, I would not play.

SPEAKER_03 26:06

Uh how about James from Cleveland? We're staying in East Tennessee. When the SEC was wanting to go to nine conference football games, okay, they wanted teams to play everybody within four years. Home in a way. Yes. We haven't played Ole Miss since 2013, he says.

SPEAKER_04 26:28

That's not true.

SPEAKER_03 26:29

At Ole Miss? He says, we haven't played Ole Miss since 2013.

SPEAKER_04 26:36

No, because they played Ole Miss in Knoxville in the in the golf ball game. Um when Tyler Barron had the fumble return that was called back, which shouldn't have been called back. That was Josh Eiffel's first year. Ole Miss played in Knoxville in 21.

SPEAKER_02 26:55

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 26:56

Now, the last time you went to Oxville. Yeah. Uh I I really liked it to go the other direction with my memories of that game, but thanks. I appreciate that. Uh it's what happened. The last time they went to Oxford, that might be right. Um, so 2021, that's right. Yeah, they played, they played, they played Ole Miss here in 2021. Tennessee has not been to Ole Miss in any kind of return game since then. I don't remember playing in Oxford in 2020. I don't think that was necessarily a home at home there. I'll have to double check that.

SPEAKER_03 27:32

Okay. Sorry. Shelby from Chattanooga. Again, staying in East Tennessee. By the way, if you're in another part of the state, we'd love to hear from you. But we like the East Tennessee folks. If you're in another part of the state, if you're in another state, if you're in another country, you're welcome to join in. But again, love the East Tennessee folks. 865-657-1278. Send your text questions. You're gonna love this one. Subscribe to the Tennessee Athletics YouTube channel, Shelby from Chattanooga says. And it is truly a wealth of fun Tennessee knowledge to keep you up to date. Love Big Orange Rewind specifically. Well, thank you, Shelby. That's very kind of you, Shelby. No question, just thought I'd read. Here, here's a question in the mail, Shelby. Here is a question from Chattanooga, but this is from Jacob. Okay. And you are taking this one. Why can't you take one? But go ahead. I just took it.

SPEAKER_02 28:27

I said thank you to Shelby. That's because you're the show host, right?

SPEAKER_04 28:31

I got you.

SPEAKER_02 28:32

Oh, it's nice. Let's go.

SPEAKER_03 28:33

I'm all for it. Let's go. If you're not subscribed to the Tennessee Athletics YouTube channel, you're missing out.

SPEAKER_04 28:38

You really should. Because there's there's more than Big Orns Rewind on there. There's all kinds of press conferences. I mean the the the Mike Key show on Thursday. Oh you got Kiss Corner, you got the Everything Orange podcast on Friday with Sarah. Um you you got the Monday All Networks Monday media. Well, no, excuse me. You got a lot of things going on.

SPEAKER_03 29:00

We have shows with really long names. That's if we're trying to we lead the nation in long names on our shows. Number one in the country. Ball softball and shows with long names. Okay. What's Jacob got? Why do softball pitchers throw underhand and baseball pitchers overhand?

SPEAKER_02 29:20

I don't have any idea.

SPEAKER_04 29:24

I don't, I don't, I mean, that's it's always been fast pitched softball. I mean, the the game, that's what the game turned into. I mean, when 20 years ago, 25 years ago, rec league ball for young kids, for young girls, was a slow-pitched softball game. And then it transitioned into rec league ball being a fast pitch game, like the college game, and that's what has developed and what it's morphed into. I don't I don't know why someone decided that they were going to fast pitch and do what Carlin Pickens does underhanded. By the way, anybody that's ever tried to see one of those, hit one of those, be in the box to figure out where that thing's coming from. Good luck with that.

SPEAKER_03 30:04

She gave up a two-run bomb in the first inning to Appy and then just absolutely Thanks for playing. Thanks for being here. 15 strikeouts to go to six and oh.

SPEAKER_04 30:14

Yeah, we appreciate you.

SPEAKER_03 30:15

Yeah, we appreciate it.

SPEAKER_04 30:17

Thanks for your thanks for your trip down to to hang out with us for the weekend.

SPEAKER_03 30:20

Thanks for coming out. Time to head back to Boone.

SPEAKER_04 30:23

Because she absolutely hammered them down there. I mean, it it's you know, I I don't know, and all joke aside, I don't know where it originated from. I'm sure you're probably getting ready to tell me, um, which is why you threw it to me first, so you could come back and tell me what I don't know. But um I I don't have any idea. I just know it's fun to watch. It's a fun sport to watch. Fast pace, it moves quick. Um, it's it's a lot of fun. It's a great game.

SPEAKER_03 30:48

We need to get a break, and then we're back with more. Brent Hubbs will tell you the origin of every sport. I will not. Including Texas questions. He'll tell you how crew got started. We want to hear. Put an ore in the water. Well, these text questions are coming in fast. They have a lot of they have a lot of questions, but somebody wants to know how you fix his mower. He's getting Brent, he's asking. Ball Network text line is 865-657-1278. More of your questions when we return. Big Orange Rewind is presented by Calhoun's. This is Big Orange Rewind, presented by Calhoun's. Just been informed the Lady Balls are the number six seed in the SEC tournament. They will play Thursday at 8:30 Eastern against the winner of Missouri and Alabama.

SPEAKER_04 31:44

So Alabama, unless there's a big upset there, because Missouri's obviously struggled. That's an Alabama team, Tennessee played earlier in the year, and really that was one of their better defensive performances. They had that week there where they played really well defensively against Alabama and Kentucky. Since then, the last 11 games, opponents are shooting about 50%, 49.5% against the Lady Balls the last 11 games. They're going to have to defend well against Alabama or Missouri, whoever, but it should be Alabama that they draw.

SPEAKER_03 32:15

Lady Balls fall to Vanderbilt 87-77. Again, another very tough third quarter for the Lady Balls. They give up 30 points to Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt now 27-3 on the season.

SPEAKER_04 32:28

Yeah, I didn't have an answer for Blake's. You know, um, she just was terrific today and was terrific in the third quarter. And um again, I think when you look at Tennessee, they're they're averaging, giving up about 83 points a game the last 11 games. Offensively, they've gotten better. Now, it's not as crisp as you would like. There's still some things that are head scratchers offensively, but they're scoring enough points offensively at about 74 points a game, 75 points a game, that they should have a better chance of winning more games than what they're winning than they've won over the last 11. But but the problem, Mike, is they've just been given up a ton of points. I mean, they're they're gonna have to find something defensively here uh out of the blue, kind of in the next couple of weeks for them. They've got to be better on the defensive end.

SPEAKER_03 33:15

All right, this is Kevin in Columbia, a middle Tennessee Tex question.

SPEAKER_04 33:19

Our buddy Kevin. Kevin's around. Kevin's around every week. We appreciate Kevin.

SPEAKER_03 33:22

865-657-1278. Could you see Coach Barnes being really aggressive in the portal next year looking for shooters? Seems like we are short on shooters. Will defense always be his priority over shooters, or does he change his philosophy?

SPEAKER_04 33:41

I mean, I I think I don't think he's gonna go out and and get a guy who's putting up points who won't play any defense because that doesn't fit the culture and it doesn't fit what they do. You've got to play defense in this game. Now, you you you need to be efficient offensively, you need to score, uh, but they've been at their best in terms of making runs in March and making a run through the SEC, high seeds and all that because of their defense as much as they are, uh as much as anything. So, yeah, I mean they're they're gonna go look for offensive players in the portal, but that guy's gonna have to be able to play defense. He's not gonna be a guy who scores 20 on one end and gives up 24 on the other end because that's not the net that that Rick Barnes is looking for. He's not gonna compromise his defensive principles to play zone or this, that, the other to hide a score. I mean, he's gonna look for a complete player. And again, here's what we know about Tennessee and the portals. One, Tennessee uh will be aggressive, you know, when going after people that they like. They are attracted, attractive to players in the portal because of the success portal players have had at Tennessee, particularly scores. When you look at Dalton Connect and you look at uh Chaz Lanier, and then you look at Jacoby Gillespie this year, three transfer guys who have scored well. There were scores coming in. Their games have gotten better on both ends of the floor that way. So that they'll be attractive from that standpoint, but he's not gonna make some giant philosophical shift where he wants to get in a bunch of games where he's got to win, you know, 94 to 89. He doesn't want to play in that guy. We just talked about it the other segment, Mike, about how they kind of drug Alabama into that mud and played in that style that they want to play. And I don't think after 550-some plus wins, I don't think Rick Barnes is going to do a dramatic change.

SPEAKER_03 35:32

Well, he loses Gillespie, so you're losing a score. Absolutely. So you have the score, yeah. You gotta go get a score. Right. Two of them, probably. Probably. Um, here's who can return. Nate A Mitt can return theoretical. JP Estrella is a redshirt sophomore, he can return. Jalen Carey is a junior, he can return. Bishop Boswell is a sophomore, he can return. Dwayne Brown, freshman, can return. Cade Phillips taking a redshirt this year, he can return. Amari Evans can return as a freshman. Ethan Berg can return, he would be a junior. Troy Henderson can return, he would be a sophomore. And then Clarence Musumba can also return. So that's who can come back. So theoretically, Tennessee could have a lot more depth coming back than they've had in recent years.

SPEAKER_04 36:34

Yeah, and you've just got to go supplement it with the right players. And what you need is you've got to go get perimeter scoring. You've got to find a couple of perimeter scores to go with that. Uh, I think Bishop Boswell's offensive game will continue to grow, but I don't know that anybody's ever going to see him as this major prolific scorer. But if you lose Jacoby Gillespie and you lose Nate Ayman off of this team, that's 36 points. You got to go get scoring. And you got to go get more than one place. You're not going to go get a, you're not going to replace those two with a 30-point, 36-point scorer a night. You're going to have to go get, because, you know, depending on what you do at the point guard position, if Troy Henderson's your point next year, I don't know what you do, but if he does, he's going to be more of the facilitator and can score, but probably not going to be a score first kind of guy. The way Jacoby Gillespie is more natural scoring the basketball. He's growing as a point guard, but look at how much they played him off the ball Saturday because he was playing really well offensively. They tried to get him off the ball and get him going. They've got to go get a couple of scores in the portal, no doubt.

SPEAKER_03 37:37

Before our break, JP and Knoxville have attended 95% of the home game since 2010. Last night was one of the worst officiated games over that time. Akpara block, Evans mysterious push. Berg got called for a block when the Alabama player grabbed his arm. Meanwhile, they swallowed the whistle when they had the ball in the paint. Brent, why won't you or your staff write an article highlighting these game-altering calls? Media addressing problems influences decision makers.

SPEAKER_04 38:11

Yeah, I mean, I understand what he's saying, and I and I get the point. I think officiating is inconsistent. I've said that. But he he made his point. I don't think the league office is going to make officiating adjudgments based on a column I write or a story that I write or something to that effect. I mean, my issue with officiating in this league, regardless of the sport, is a lack of transparency. It's just a lack of transparency. You never know if somebody's being graded down or somebody's being graded up. You never know if somebody's been punished for uh, you know, blowing a call that was a game-changing call, particularly in another sport like football. You just don't know. And I think because of that lack of transparency, it creates a lot of continual narratives about how poor how poor things are officiated. Listen, Rick Barnes got more influence on the head of officials in this league than I do. I'll promise you, Rick Barnes has had a conversation with the head of officials. Probably had it on his way home Saturday night, knowing Rick Barnes. Um, those are regular conversations he has, things that are bothering him about the game because the game's very, very important for him. He's struggling with freedom of movement right now or lack thereof. Um so he has those continual conversations, and and those conversations carry a lot more weight than anything I write.

SPEAKER_03 39:36

Did you get a break? And then we're back with Vor. More of your text questions at 865-657-1278. Big Orange Rewind is presented by Calhous.

SPEAKER_01 39:49

The week ahead, the final analysis on this week. Big Orange Rewind, presented by Calhous.

SPEAKER_03 39:57

Calhoun's has nine convenient locations in Knoxville and surrounding areas. Also available inside Food City Center. Calhoun's a proud supporter of the balls. All right, Brent, another text question. Sounds like this one has your name on it. Talk to us about our ceiling and floor without Nate Amet versus our ceiling and floor with a healthy Nate Amet. Steve from Cookville.

SPEAKER_04 40:29

How did Rick Barnes say it to you when you ask him about the impact of not having Nate Ament on the floor Saturday?

SPEAKER_03 40:36

What I was saying was, and I I tried to phrase the question one way, didn't like how I phrased it, so I rephrased it to basically say, how much did you have to change not having him? And his answer was you can phrase the question any way you want, but the answer is a lot.

SPEAKER_04 40:55

And there's your answer in terms of the ceiling. I mean, that there's a reason this guy's been in double figures every SEC game except for the Texas game prior to yesterday. I think he's played 30 plus minutes in like 12 straight games prior to um Saturday night. Um he is he's invaluable. We we said it on this show a month ago, start of February. The key for Tennessee's growth and development, fair or not fair, was going to be the growth and the development of Nate Aymant.

SPEAKER_01 41:25

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 41:26

And Nate Aymant has grown and has gotten better and he's made Tennessee better. When Tennessee's been at their best, he's maybe not scored the most points, but the last 10 minutes of the game, he's been the closure. They didn't have a closer yesterday. They needed Jacoby Gillespie, they needed Robin or Batman or whoever you want to call it to help him close that game out last night or on Saturday night. So I think to answer his question, the ceiling is significantly different with Nate Aymant compared to without Nate Ament.

SPEAKER_03 42:00

I mean, if they get him back and he's healthy and they get in a groove and they get the right draw, they can go far in the NCAA term. It's a good enough basketball team.

SPEAKER_04 42:13

It's all about the matchup. If you're 100% healthy. Right. If you're not 100% healthy, the matchup takes on an even greater importance. The matchups are going to be tough for Tennessee without Nate Ayman on the floor.

SPEAKER_03 42:27

Right.

SPEAKER_04 42:28

He's their best basketball player. No offense to Jacoby and Gillespie, who's playing really well. He's their best basketball player.

SPEAKER_03 42:35

Roger and Lewisburg. I love Lady Ball softball. I've enjoyed it for many years. I believe this is the best pitching staff with Carlin Pickens, Sage Marjetko, and Aaron Newar that we've ever had. I believe if we get some consistency with the younger hitters, this may be our year for a national championship. Do you agree with Roger?

SPEAKER_04 42:56

I think they have the tools there in place. You've got to stay healthy. I love the fact I think Karen Weekly said this on the Mike Key show last Thursday about Carlin Pickers. You asked about Carlin Pickers being more fresh. And she said it's not just about being fresh. People won't have as much of a book on her. That was a great I thought it I thought it was fascinating. Yeah. Because I'm like, don't ever doesn't everybody have a book on her now? Like now? But I think when you throw as many innings as a typical ace throws, there probably are there's probably more tendencies that come about on what you can set on, what you're going to look for in different situations. So the depth of the pitching rotation should help them if they all stay healthy. Uh and you expect that the younger players are going to continue to grow as hitters. They're going to continue to grow in their roles. They have all the tools that they need. It's a long grind. You've got to be careful about how far you're going, you know, the opening month of or the opening day of March. But there's a lot, I mean, there's a lot to put out there. Everybody nationally will start to take more notice of softball as they get into conference play. But those who are taking notice now, it's like, okay, Tennessee's different because they are not a one-trick pitcher. They're not just one person in the circle that has to carry them in every big game or every big moment. They have multiple pitchers to do that.

SPEAKER_03 44:19

Well, this weekend when LSU comes to town, they're going to see Pickens, they're going to see Marjetko, and they're going to see Newer, which a year ago you wouldn't have been sure of. Absolutely. And that's a difference. Got a lot more coming up. More of your text questions at 865-657-1278. Big Orange Rewind. Presented by Cal Hoods. Miss any of today's Rewind?

SPEAKER_01 44:43

Catch the full podcast with Mike Keith and Bret Hub.com. We are the Vall Network. Find out why and how. And what happens next? This is Big Orange Rewi.

SPEAKER_00 45:17

Presented by Calhoun, a taste of Tennessee. Grab a taste after the next Tennessee game. Calhoun's.

SPEAKER_03 45:54

Tennessee men's basketball team at South Carolina Tuesday night, 5.30 Eastern Time Airtime on the Ball Radio Network for the Balls in the Game Cox. And then Saturday, Tennessee and Vanderbilt from Food City Center to wrap up the regular season, 1.30 Eastern Time Airtime on the Ball Radio Network. So got some basketball, baseball, big weekend series coming up with Wright State. If you're a Tennessee baseball fan, you're not going right state. No. I remember those guys. You remember those guys? I remember those guys. They're coming in here. Softball begins the SEC season. LSU is the opponent. And so getting ready to get that all cranked up. And then there's spring football two weeks away. And coming off of the NFL combine, where some now former vols did some good stuff in Indianapolis, Brent.

SPEAKER_04 46:50

Yeah, I thought Chris Brasil obviously opened a lot of people's eyes when he went sub-4-4 in his 40, ran a 4-3-7. He did not do a lot of other workout stuff, but he he certainly put that on display. And in talking to the media, I know he interviewed with a bunch of teams as well, but in talking to them, he made it very clear. You know, he's a he's a receiver who's versatile. He's not just pigeonholed into one thing. Uh he can run different routes. He did run different routes. He lined up in different places. He played different ways. You know, I we've talked about him during the fall. I think he's a really unique story as a route runner because he was a slot for so long. He learned a lot of route running tendencies as a slot, and then he grew. You know, he grew and hiked quite a bit. And so he's got a lot of those. He's not always been a long strider, deep ball receiver, is what I'm getting at.

SPEAKER_03 47:40

So um as not a two route receiver, either a go or a comeback.

SPEAKER_04 47:45

Yeah, I mean, I think he can he can run a slant, he can run a cross, or he can go out, he can put his foot in the ground and get somewhere. Uh different type of receiver for a guy who's that tall. The other thing, too, and everybody who watched him this fall saw is an unbelievable catch radius, can really contort his body in a different way. In that league, that's a big deal because you get so much man coverage, you get the back shoulder throw, so much anticipation stuff there. Different ways you can kind of contort your body to get open and have a big catch radius is important. So I think there's a lot of things that are attractive about Chris Brazzle. I think there will be a ton of NFL people in Knoxville for Tennessee's pro day that that'll come up in the end of the month because I think they want to see him. There'll be more intrigue in Colton Hood, who had a really good day in Indianapolis. And then if you have a first-round pick and you're looking for a defensive back, you have to find out if Jabon McCoy's healthy. And to do that, you need to see him run. You need to see him go through drills, you need to see him do things. He did not go through anything in Indianapolis, said he wasn't, wasn't comfortable where he was, wasn't quite ready yet. There's a lot of people going, okay, it's been 13 months. Need to see it. That pro day will be, I think, very, very large for Jamad McCoy. I think that's a big day, and I think that's going to draw a lot of people here to this pro day.

SPEAKER_03 49:09

The biggest Tennessee on campus pro day since.

SPEAKER_04 49:13

Oh, I don't know. That's a great question. Um it would have been a minute. I was gonna say certainly it would have been a minute for sure. I don't, I don't think.

SPEAKER_03 49:25

We wanted to come see Hyatt, but I think everybody knew what I was here for Hyatt's. We knew what, you know, we knew what his skill set was, so it wasn't like you know, it had to be anything utterly spectacular.

SPEAKER_04 49:40

Well, here's here's what I would say about this pro day. The the intrigue in this pro day comes from the standpoint they're gonna be three guys work working out who could potentially be first-round picks. Yeah. I don't know that Brazil gets there, but but the 4-3-7 opens everybody's eyes at his size. McCoy's been projected as a first-round pick for over a year now. Colton Hood is a guy who wasn't on anybody's draft board until about the third week of September, and then he showed up, and everybody knew by October 1st he ain't coming back.

SPEAKER_03 50:10

Well, and those guys go around in many cases over where they're supposed to. Because I mean, you gotta have corners. Right. And you gotta have a bunch of corners. And if you find one who is elite, that's crazy. I mean, that that's like having a pass rusher who's elite, that the other team has to totally set their blocking scheme to defend. If you've got a corner who can basically make the game 10 on 10, oh gosh. I mean, that's I mean, look at Jalen Ramsey. Jalen Ramsey's been all over the place in the league. But everywhere he goes, he gets paid big money, and people always are very interested when he comes on the market or says, I want to be traded, or does whatever he does. You know, you you look at all of that. The fact of the matter is it is hard to find those people. He has those skills, and so he's a player that's gonna continually get paid. And I mean, Deion Sanders was the same way, Brent. Sure. No matter where he wanted, I mean, he came back and went to Washington after he had already given it up at one point, or at you know, Dallas wanted him, San Francisco wanted him. Oh, those guys are worth their weight in gold.

SPEAKER_04 51:30

Yep. And there's two of them at the same school who are gonna have very important, uh, very important pro day. Um that you're if you're an NFL scout executive, you want to see them run because you're trying to decide if you want to use one of your visits on those guys. Well, you gotta know, you gotta know where Jamad McCoy is from a health standpoint. Sure. And you want to see, I mean, you know, if I'm an NFL guy, I'm like, let's let's put Brazzle up against one of these guys out here. Let's see what this thing looks like. I mean, it could be really intriguing. One of the bigger pro days we've seen in the while here.

SPEAKER_03 52:06

Are you surprised that the national media was so surprised when Chris Brazzle talked about Tennessee's much greater route tree than what they suspected Tennessee's route tree was?

SPEAKER_04 52:24

I I'm not surprised the the national media did not pick up on it this past season any more than they did. And the reason I say that is Tennessee wasn't Tennessee didn't wasn't in the elite. They weren't in the playoffs. They were in a playoff. Yeah, they were in it still in the early November, but they were not a media darling. They were not a team that everybody, you know, was really diving in and picking everything apart and looking at all of it. So I think the narrative for Tennessee was, okay, Tennessee got back to explosive plays. Okay, that means they're just running somebody by somebody. You know, they're just they're just running a takeoff by them, they're getting a safety matchup and you know, tempo when they're doing this. So you look at the stat sheet and you see Joey Aguilar throws for 300 yards and four touchdowns. Okay, they threw it over their head a couple of times. When reality, when you start to deep dive into it, if you're an NFL scout, um, if you're an NFL uh draft expert covering it for the media, and you started doing your deep dive here December, January moving forward, you you are curious as to what the Tennessee offense has sort of morphed and evolved into. Uh, but I think most average media people go, oh, okay, that's that Brials tree, you know, that's that tempo, spread everybody out wide, very limited, half field reads, you know, all this, all this other kind of stuff that a lot of people scrutinize and say it doesn't translate to the NFL. And that's why I think Chris Brazzle made it very clear, and so did Joey Aguilar, um, when they met with the media in Indianapolis that this offense was different a year ago than that what it's been the previous years. And for Brazzle, there's there's tangible tape of that because he has his 24 tape and he has his 25 tape. And it wasn't just that he was more productive in terms of yards, Mike. It was he was more adaptive to what defenses were trying to do to it. You know, they still had ways to get him open. He still ran multiple routes and did different things. And I think he was trying to politely say to everybody, hey, check the tape, because tape's different.

SPEAKER_03 54:28

Because there are guys who come out of programs who have no idea how to run a route. Correct. Because they're asked to run to a spot or just go behind this guy or whatever. They literally don't know what a route tree is. And if you have that perception of the hypo offense, particularly the passing game, it's just not right.

SPEAKER_04 54:53

Well, and here's the problem.

SPEAKER_03 54:54

And it's even further along than what it was in 2024.

SPEAKER_04 54:58

Yeah, and but here's the reason why that perception remains out there. Jalen Hyde's not done anything for the Giants, he's not been productive. Um, Bayless Jones is a guy who was on special teams, but he's not been an offense. He's never found a home on offense in the NFL. He's been a receiver, a running back, special teams guy at about seven different teams. You know, remember, I mean, Dante Thornton Jr. created some draft buzz, and then he went early to camp to the Raiders, and there was a bunch of buzz about him early with the Raiders, and he didn't produce during season. I mean, the most productive receiver is Cedric Tillman. He just can't stay healthy. So everybody's going, okay, there's another Tennessee receiver, and they start looking at previous Tennessee receivers, and they go, well, they haven't been very productive. Well, it's got to be the offensive system. Josh Heipel needs somebody to break the mold of that, but Josh Heipel is helping break that mold because he has adapted his offense. He has changed some of the route tree, some of the options that they're doing, some of the different things conceptually that they're doing with their offense, where maybe it's not about throwing it 35, 40 yards in the air. Maybe it's throwing it 10 and it runs for 35 or 40 yards for a big play. Instead of it being a big play where the ball's in the air for a long period of time, maybe it's an underneath something that turns into a 20-yard play. Look at the first play from scrimmage this season against Syracuse. You run some motion to see the defense move.

SPEAKER_03 56:25

Which they didn't do much of before.

SPEAKER_04 56:28

Right. And then you run basically a little shallow cross with Mike Matthews, and you hit him on the move, and suddenly the five-yard, seven-yard catch turns into 18 yards on play number one. Those are the things that are different than what we've seen previously. And I think that's what Dante thought. Um, excuse me, that's what Chris Brazzle is trying to show or was trying to tell everybody at the combine.

SPEAKER_03 56:51

I had a chance to sit down with Josh Heippel and do a film study with him of some of the past stuff involving Brazzle and Staley and Matthews and some of the different concepts they have. And I was really taken aback about the route running and the specificity of a lot of what's going on. And what jumped out to me, Kelsey Pope's doing a good job with these guys. I mean, a really good job with making sure you're getting into the brakes properly, the heads around fast, all of these sorts of things that you certainly need at the next level because coverage is so tight. But if you do these things well at this level, you get yourself more open. Oh, you you lost me. I've just run an outcut because I've got great feet. Uh that was the thing I came away from. I don't want to say the most, but it certainly made it obvious to me that they are being coached well positionally.

SPEAKER_04 57:57

Yeah, I mean, I think that that this offensive staff made a clear decision after the 24 season, even though it was a good season, that said, hey, guys, defenses are playing us differently. And what defenses decided to do, in my opinion, after 2022 was we're not playing this deal now. You're just not gonna run past us. We're just we're not gonna give that up. So you're not gonna get the matchup you want against the safety all the time, or the nickel guy where you just run past us, or we're not gonna play, you know, single high safety and give you room. We're gonna create more confusion. We're gonna see if you're patient, and you're gonna have to attack us in different ways. And I think what you're seeing is Tennessee's ability to attack in different ways comes from some schematic changes in the route tree. It comes from a quarterback delivering the ball on time with some accuracy, working the middle of the football field, and it comes from a group of receivers who are talented that have grown in this system and the changes in this system as route runners to create separation. Maybe they're in a different space on the grass, but because of their ability technique-wise to run, they're getting to some of the similar places on the grass, but they're getting there open because they're running a different route and they're running it with really good technique. I think the more you watch Braylon Staley play football, and if you look at Braylon Staley from September 1st to where he was in November, as his confidence grew, as he fundamentally got better with his feet and kept his feet under him, he wasn't slipping and falling, he was creating such great angles against corners that were covering him or linebackers or nickel safeties or whatever, that he was creating space and angles to get open for big plays. Some of them were touchdowns, some were just first down catches. I I think if you want to look at somebody in that group, it's his when you're talking about Kelsey Pope, it's how far Braylon Staley came from the start of the year to the end of the year as a receiver in this offense.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:09

Well, all three of those guys, they have traits. They have height, weight, speed traits, but you've got to know how to use them. And I think all three guys showed they do know how to use them. Now, Staley and I mean they could all get better. Brazzle will have to do it, you know, against the best competition in the world, but they could they all have the ability to utilize what they have because they're good fundamentals in that. And the other thing, too, the mental side of it. College receivers, you know, when people hold up the flashcards and do all this, a lot of college receivers aren't asked to adapt and to or read. Read. They're not asked to read at all. They just they know I'm gonna run 10 yards and turnaround. That's it. And that's the design of and and part of the design of it that started years ago was that you can get your better athletes on the field more quickly. Now that junk don't work in the NFL, it just doesn't. But Staley, Matthews, and Brazzle, you could see all three of them, they knew what they were doing. There was a there was a mental process in it. And as we watch this tape, it's like they knew to just you're talking about the angles, but just to vary a little bit, to give an outside sort of shimmy, to open yourself to the inside, understanding the ball's gonna come. And again, I can't say it enough. Getting the head around out of a cut, you know, that's such a big deal.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:48

Well, and I think too, and I don't think they changed necessarily their approach, but you're talking about guys in a system of second year and those types of things. It's the holistic approach that the notion prior to, uh, in some cases, was he's an outside guy. He's a slot guy. He's an outside guy, he's only an outside guy, or he's only a slot guy. When you look at this core guys, and listen, I'm gonna throw Radarius Jackson in there. I I think I think Tristan Keyes, as he arrives and grows and develops, is gonna fall into that category. I think King's gonna fall in that category. They are recruiting at a high level from a talent standpoint, but those guys can play multiple positions. Well, I mean so Staley can go outside.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:32

And you didn't even say Dotson or Smith. Correct. And I mean, that's a I mean, you're talking about guys who were high-level recruits, but guys who, when you look at them, have traits. It's not like you're just recruiting, and and I, and I don't mean to demean anybody that, you know, that's been here before, but if you if you're too small, you know, you're not gonna be able to run after the catch. And maybe you're a good athlete and you're fun to watch play. These guys look like Sunday players. Now, it doesn't mean every one of them is going to make it, but I'm telling you, the things that you're seeing, that's why Brazzle has elevated. And and I mean, he was in day three conversation at the start of last year.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:17

Well, and I think the thing that Brazzle can further help himself at his pro day here is not what he does physically, but it's it's when you get him on a board. It's it's how holistically does he understand? And can he explain route tree concepts to you? Can he explain playing inside versus playing outside? Because if you're in the NFL, you want to be real careful that you don't grasp somebody that you say, we can never beat man coverage. You can only play off. Okay, so you got to make him, he's got to be in motion, or he's got no shot to get out of here.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:47

Or he can only play one spot.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:48

Yeah, or he can only play one spot, or he can't play every down because he's just a vertical guy, or he's you're wanting a guy who can play in a variety of positions, who can do a variety of things. And I think that's what Chris Brasil has an opportunity to potentially sell to the NFL here. And I think part of that reason is because of some of the changes that Josh Heipel and his staff made offensively in the offseason. They didn't make it so that people will stop asking the question at the combine. They made these changes to give better answers to their offense with the defense that's they're playing. The byproduct of it is I think it's gonna make receivers be more round, well-rounded. And I think the NFL is gonna have less questions about their adjustment from the collegiate level to the NFL level and understanding how to play the game.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:37

And it's also going to help them help George McIntyre phase on Brandon. Because they can because they can think along with them and can take some of that pressure off of a younger quarterback.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:52

Well, and here's where here's what defensive coordinators are trying to do, okay, is how can we do things and take the cheat coat away from the coach? Right. And put it on the quarterback. You got to make a read, you know, after the ball snapped. We're not gonna tip our hands so that you know you're playing a seven-on-seven type game, and the coach tells you where to go with the ball in the earpiece before the ball is snapped. That's all great and cool. As fans, you like that when it happens. Coordinators are trying to find ways to avoid that happening. They're trying to show multiple looks, create confusion there. So the more balanced you can be, the more in-depth you can be with multiple things you can do. Helps receivers, and actually help the offensive line. It certainly helps the quarterback manage the game.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:43

Big Orange Rewind presented by Calhoos. Big Orange Rewind on the Vall Network.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:51

Sponsored by Food City, the official supermarket and tailgating headquarters of the Vols. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee. Cover it for every phase of life. Alumni Hall, the ultimate volunteer shopping experience. By Farm Bureau Insurance of Tennessee, the official insurance of the Valls. Tennessee Insurance for Tennessee Life Co-op. Proudly supplying your rural lifestyle in Big Orange Country. And by UT Medical Center, the official healthcare provider of the Vols and all of Vol Nation.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:51

Presented by Calhoun.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:54

If you love the Tennessee Balls, look for the new Balls Collector Cup at participating Hardy's locations. Rep the big orange, sip your favorite drinks, and receive 99 cent refills for the year. Class up your combo with the Balls Collector Cup today, only at Hardy's proud sponsor of the Balls. Fall Network text line is 865-657-1278. 865-657-1278. Text question for you, Brent Hupps. Alrighty. David and Marival says, wait, Amet or Bards get incentives for March? I thought this wasn't pay-for-play. Maybe Amet gets extra commercials.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:37

Um Rick Barnes does get incentives for March, and he has he has maybe the best bonus structure in a contract of anybody in college basketball. So uh, but no, I mean Nate Ament's salary is known or pay or NIL, whatever we're calling it these days, is known. It doesn't change. He's doing okay. Yeah, it doesn't change based on what he what he does in March or playing in March or anything like that.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:04

So I had a picture made before the game last night with Chris Lofton and Ramon Foster, our Vault Network analysts. Uh Ramon was in town because he was part of the University of Tennessee's top 40 under the age of 40, which he really shouldn't have been because he turned 40 on January 7th.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:27

So we're saying Ramon manipulated his way into something.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:31

Is that what you're suggesting?

SPEAKER_04 1:08:33

I can get going on Ramon here, but I'm not going to do that on this show.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:37

Well, so anyway, we have this picture made. I said, hey, let's get a picture. And uh Kellen Heiser was kind enough to take the picture, and I posted it on my Instagram and everything. In the background of the picture, plain as day, it's Nate Amith's dad. I should have identified him in the photo of or maybe include him in the photo. I definitely, he is a great guy. He is um, he is really one of the more interesting people you will ever want to meet. He is not a basketball dad. He is not now, he was a great basketball player in his own right, but he's not like the overbearing quarterback dad or baseball dad or hockey dad or whatever, you know, that you see different places that you're like, oh no. Um he's great. But I mean, he is in the middle, I mean, he's right on he's in the picture. So if you see the picture of Ramot Foster, Chris Lofton, and me on Instagram, and you see the man behind us, that's Nate Amant's dead. Yes, we should have invited him to be in the picture. You're saying he was a happen sense. He didn't photo belly on the street. He's facing I think it was really quite awesome. Uh more of your text questions at eight six five, six five, seven, one, two seven, eight, as we'll continue with Big Orange Rewind presented by Calhoun.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:27

Presented by Calhouns, continues.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:31

I just looked at my Instagram, and like like five hundred people have gone to look at this picture of Ramon Foster, Chris Lofton, Nate A. Mint's dad, and me.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:43

So now I gotta hear from Ramon about how about how he's driving the needle for all his popularity. He really is.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:49

Oh, yeah, that's it. But let's put one thing in this picture, he's standing a level above me. He's not two feet taller than I am. And Chris Lofton is is like he moved up a level two. He's not one foot taller than I am.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:09

So they both did you wrong.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:11

They both did me way wrong. And then there's Nate Abent's dad right there. Right there. Just hanging out. There he is. Right there in the corner. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:21

Ramon did you wrong on the posing and positioning there.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:24

Oh, totally. Not a shock, though. Yeah. I'm just glad he didn't ask me to sit on the ledge. That would have been bad. And he would have done that. Uh gladly. This season, enjoy and celebrate with great refreshing beverages that support University of Tennessee athletics. Light and crisp, truly hard seltzer, twisted tea, real brewed iced tea with the twist of lemon, Modello, brewed for full-time ball fans, Coors Light, Choose Chill, and Vol Lager from EHop Brewing Company, distributed across the volunteer state by Cherokee Distributing. Remember, celebrate responsibly, and 21 means 21. By the way, quite a bunch of uh stars in attendance. Oh, yeah. Peyton Manning was there.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:08

Peyton Manning was there with his son. Marshall Manning. Marshall Manning was in the house. We had Darnell Wright in the house. Well, those all those old linemen hung out together. Yeah, they were hanging out. Cooper Mays was there. I think Cade was there for a period of time. Uh Trey Smith was in the house as well. I get to speak to him. Um Alan Houston was in the house. It's always wild to see Alan Houston.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:30

It's just it's just so great to see him back.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:33

It still looks like he could he could have scored 40 yesterday on Saturday.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:37

It makes me so happy that he feels like this is his place. Because that just didn't go like everybody wanted it to go. No, everybody wanted that. Him playing for his dad, if you were around at that time, I think you'll probably agree with me. And and you were certainly there, so you know. But everybody wanted that to be a big success and for them to have all these great moments together, and it it didn't work out, and nobody's fault, it just didn't. And to see him back now, and uh when when he got inducted into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame, he recognized his dad, and the crowd went crazy, and it was just it's just nice.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:22

Yeah, it is. It's it's great. I I give Rick Barnes a lot of credit. Yes. Um, I give Dundee Ploughman a lot of credit. The Chancellor, she has really worked hard with uh a lot of those alumni relationships as well. That it's not just about athletics, you know, with Allen and and those guys. And it is great to see him back. And and because he is a great player who did not have the opportunity to play on a great team or a highly regarded team.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:50

Or you don't have many great moments.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:52

But he was for fans, he was a thrill to watch play. I mean, you were gonna come watch him play, even though you probably didn't have a chance to win the game, but you wanted to see what Alex Houston was gonna do every night in the SEC.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:03

That's crazy. I mean, it really, and then he goes on to a really nice pro career, and he's done well uh post-playing career, and I'm sure he was looking at a player or two as far as uh on both sides. Sure. You know, doing his job. But yeah, that was having all those stars in the house was rather cool.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:23

It was a terrific atmosphere. It was I mean, it was a it was a great atmosphere uh Saturday evening. I mean, it's again, for for those who don't understand Tennessee basketball, that tells you that I mean that's all you need to know about what Tennessee basketball is about, what fans wanted it to be about for a long time. And uh, but because of what Coach Barnes has gotten done the last 11 years, it's it's just become a cool thing.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:48

When they showed Alan Houston and then they cut to the shot of his banner hanging in the the rafters, I turned to Lofton, I go, You're right next to him. Because he was talking about, oh, it's so cool, Alan Houston's here. And I'm like, It's like Chris, you know, you were pretty good, right? I'm gonna tell you, tell you a quick Chris Lofton story. We were at Missouri and got there early. So he likes to go out and throw up a few shots.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:12

Of course he does.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:14

So I went out to rebound for it and just stood under the goal. Brent. Just caught him as they come through the net. At one point, at one point, he made 16 out of 23 pointers.

unknown 1:15:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:28

And I mean, they're just ripping through the net. And I'm saying, and it's still the same shot. And it was like, man, I can't believe I'm rebounding out here for Chris Lofton. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:41

One of uh for fans everywhere, I mean, it's a great story. Chris Lofton's a great story. It's the story everybody wants in college athlete. The the under-recruited guy goes on to be a star. He beats his home state school, he has a great career. Um, he obviously overcomes adversity. I mean, you know where he thought he was going. Um, oh, if you hadn't asked me, I could have told you. Um, but go ahead. He thought he was going to Georgetown College. Yes. Not Georgetown University. No, no, not the Hoyas. Yeah, Georgetown College. Yeah. Chris Ferguson. Chris Ferguson game to Tennessee. Buzz Peterson. Yep. Chris Ferguson pushed it and Buzz Peterson signed off on it. That's how he ended up at Tennessee.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:23

Chris Ferguson, good assistant coach.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:26

Yep. Great get. Was a great player.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:29

Oh gosh.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:30

Fun.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:30

All right. Talk to me about Lady Balls for a minute. What's going on?

SPEAKER_04 1:16:35

Struggling to play defense. I mean, you're talking about Lady Ball basketball, just struggling to. I mean, look, they have some struggles on the offensive end, but they're really struggling on the defensive end. I think I got the stats in front of me here because I looked them up earlier today. But the opponents are scoring about 84 points a game on them the last 11 games, averaging about 50% from the field. Um, they're having a hard time putting four quarters together. They've been in some games at the half, third quarter's gotten away from them. Um they got beat on the glass in the second half in this game, and their defense just let them down. Now their offense struggled. They had some lulls offensively, but just not getting enough defensive stops at this point right now. They have improved offensively. Um, they've gotten better individually. I think they're shooting the ball better than they were earlier in the year. But man, from where they were in late January in their half-court defense with the way they played against Kentucky and Alabama to where they are now, it's just they haven't grown defensively the way that you thought they would grow.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:36

It's like they have one or two lulls. They have like I'm watching the LSU game, and they're a hit. And play it, play it really well. And then it just like it gets turned off for a minute, and they give up a 12-0 run or a 14-0 run, and then they're in catch-up mode the rest of the way.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:58

Yeah, I mean, I think, and you heard Coach Barnes talk about this a little bit after the game on Saturday, where some guys' offensive mistakes showed up on the defensive end. Yes. And I think um some of the youth with with Coach Caldwell's team, even though it's late in the year, but some of the youth, I think trying to figure out some combinations and sort of experimenting with that throughout the season has bothered them. But I think the biggest thing with them is whenever that lull on offense comes, it gets exasperated by lulls on defense. The offensive success or lack thereof has too much of a factor on the defense. They don't have enough of the next play mentality. Okay, you've turned it over. Make up for it. Go make a play, you know, hustle play on defense, do something there. They've got, you know, too many live ball turnovers. But when the offense kind of goes amiss, then the defense, it gets compounded by bad defensive plays. So if you miss five shots in a row and then you give up four on the other end, you look up, it's a it's an eight, eleven point run and uh in the blink of an eye. And what's happened is you were playing well defensively because you were scoring on offense. And when you're and it's not just about getting the press set up. That's not what I mean. I mean, mentally, it's affecting them. When the offense goes awry, the defense seems to be going awry.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:25

Now they're the number six seed in the tournament. Through all of this, I I mean, they still get a first-round bye in the SEC women's tournament. They'll play either Alabama or Missouri Thursday night at 8:30. Um, they still figure to be an NCAA tournament team because the, I mean, all of their numbers are good outside of their overall record. And, you know, could they still turn it around if they get the right draw? Of course they could. I mean, anybody can get it turned around. What's the is it is it just defense that they have to fix the most if they were to make a turnaround at this point?

SPEAKER_04 1:20:05

No, I I mean I think it's I think it's again in a different way. It's got some similarities and some parallels to what Coach Barnes was at. They've got to play 40 minutes of basketball. It starts defensively, right? Because I mean, you're you're you're not gonna go in the tournament giving up 83 points a game and probably make a run because that means you've got to score 85. Right. Okay, you're probably not gonna do that. But they're scoring 75 a game over the last 11 games. So they haven't been terrible offensively. Now, has it been clean offensively? Have they done everything they needed to do offensively? Have they played with great movement, great ball reversal, all those things? I'm not gonna say that, but when you score 75 points, you you think you've got a chance. Sure. But right now, 75 points doesn't feel like it's giving you a real chance against some quality to opponents because you're having a hard time stopping everybody. So it it requires both of them, but to give yourself a chance to make a run, you're gonna have to get better defensively. You're gonna have to stop giving up easy buckets at the rim, uh, transition buckets and things like that.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:07

They want to mention enter the Pigeon Forge big orange vacation sweepstakes for your chance to win a two-night vacation for a family of four. VIP passes to top attractions and passes to Dollywood. You'll also win four tickets to the Tennessee Vanderbilt basketball game next Saturday, tickets to a Tennessee baseball and softball game this spring, and an autographed item from Big Orange head coaches Rick Barnge, Josh Elander, and Karen Weekly. Terms and conditions apply. Register at tinyur.com slash big orange vacation twenty six. Tinyur.com slash big orange vacation twenty six. This contest ends today, so you can register before midnight tonight the Pigeon Forge Big Orange Vacation Sweepsdays. More coming up and more of your text questions on the Vall Network text line at 865-657-1278 as you listen to Big Orange Rewind, presented by Calhoun.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:21

Today's Big Orange Rewind, sponsored by First Horizon Bank, Big Bank Solutions, Small Bank Spirit, the official bank of the Vols. Swaggert's Farm Sausage, quite possibly the best tasting sausage in America. By the Tennessee Fund, join the My All campaign today at IWillGivemyall.com. Rackley Roofing, the official Ruper of the Vols. And by Ford, visit your local Ford dealer, proud sponsor of the Tennessee Volunteers.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:14

Presented by Calhoun. This is Big Orange Rewind.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:21

Glad to have you with us as always, and glad to take those text questions at 865-657-1278. Had some some good ones during the course of this program. Quite a lot of different ones.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:35

All over the place. Lots going on, though. But right now there's a it's a good time to ask a variety of questions because everybody's playing. Everybody's playing. Everybody's playing. Josh E. Leonard had a nice weekend. Um softball continues to run along. They're only 19 and then they're just humming right along. But again, I like the fact they got tested, got pushed a little bit, a little bit of, I guess, adversity, you know, had to rally and come from behind in a couple of moments. I think that was good for them at home.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:01

Charlie Pickens giving up a home run, and then nothing more.

SPEAKER_04 1:24:05

Nothing more. And then they were, I guess, down one-nothing on Friday to Penn State, and they just blew that one open and won, went or ran that one or won that one going away.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:14

The baseball team goes two and one at the Amogee Bank College Baseball Series in Arlington, Texas. Uh, lost to UCLA and then wins over Arizona State and Virginia Tech. Didn't hit it real well. The Vols didn't. Uh Chris Newstrom in the first two games, four of eight with three extra base hits. And so you like that. Henry Ford continues to show up. Blaine Brown continues to show up, but Tennessee just not swinging the bats as well as they want to be.

SPEAKER_04 1:24:46

No, not right now. Weather's going to turn, gonna start getting warmer. Sometimes that gets the ball jumping a little bit more. I do like what Tennessee's done with their starting group of pitchers. And I think the big, the big takeaway from Saturday and Sunday in Arlington was the close of the pin. You know, because those weren't they they were not handed a nine-run lead. I mean, they they had to go save the game and put it away. And and the bullpen did a really nice job on Saturday and Sunday.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:11

Well, Frederick did a good job coming in first on Saturday, and then Appenzeller came in to close it out. And then in the win on Sunday over Virginia Tech, Krenzel comes in and gets a three-inning save, which is a big deal. Um, so I think, you know, overall Duvall's got some good pitching. Uh, they got some good starting pitching. Even Tegan Kuhn's Friday night, uh, he takes the loss and he gave up some runs. He gave up a couple of bombs, and okay, but he still struck out 10. He threw strikes on 60 of 85 pitches. I think he's gonna be just fine. And and then obviously what Landon Mack is is able to do uh with a really strong five innings on Saturday, and the Vols get good work again on Sunday as well with Blockhouse.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:02

Yeah, and and then give Hindi credit who came in and got out of a jam got out of the jam. Got out of a jam there that was important. So they played some situational baseball better, I think. And they they you know, they kind of righty lefty did and and did some things um that way in terms of managing the game that worked out well, guys delivered for them. I think there's positives to take. And and listen, I mean, it's a it is a marathon, not a sprint. And they have played a really competitive non-conference schedule, and I know everybody's caught up on Kent State, who's a good baseball team. Wright state's coming to town. It's only gonna make this team better as you get ready to go into conference play because this league is is not for the week. I mean, it is strong.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:42

How soon are we gonna start talking about the quarterback competition in spring practice?

SPEAKER_04 1:26:46

Well, I will I'm I'm always talking about it.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:49

It never ends. When is it gonna you know starting?

SPEAKER_04 1:26:53

I think bubble up. I think when you get to the practice field, you know, because right now it's you know, what can what what is what does Faison Brandon look like? We know what he's physically looked like, but how well has he learned things? Where's George at physically? I I mean I think for both of those guys, and I think for Joey Aguilar too, getting closure. Joey needed closure to move forward in whatever next phase is for him. Obviously, he's gonna try to make it to the NFL. But you think about those two young quarterbacks, man. They went from, you know, okay, they're they're going after somebody big in the portal, you know, big this big name guy is gonna visit. Okay, so they don't think I'm ready to play. Then they don't get the big name guy. Okay, it's gonna be me. And then, okay, wait a minute. Joey Aguilar has put himself in a different lawsuit in Knox County Court. Most people say it's a laydown for him to win, so it's not gonna be me. Now you know it's you. Here's your chance, man. George McIntyre, uh Faison Brandon. Here's your chance. Go out and prove what you can do in 15 practices. What does Ryan Staub have to do to get in the middle of it? Just learn this offense quickly and go make some plays, you know. Be you know, make some plays with his legs, be a little more. Dynamic. I think he comes in. To me, he comes in with the most unique spot because there's no reason why he's not cutting it loose. Just let it rip. Joey Halsey always talks about letting it rip with the expectation on him not being necessarily the guy, or most people don't think he has a chance to win it. Man, just go let it rip and play and see what happens.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:23

Don't be Charlie Chick.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:24

Nah, don't be Charlie. Go let it rip. I mean, just turn it loose and see what happens. Because the thing for George is going to have to fight with himself a little bit of pressure, right? Because the expectation most people are going to have is that it's going to be George McIntyre's job. Well, it's not. He's got to go win it. So you got to cut it loose and play if you're George, but you're also got to be careful not to get caught up in, oh, I better not make a mistake. And then you become checked down Charlie. Like this offense is not checked down Charlie. You gotta you gotta throw the football and you gotta you gotta throw it in vertical spots and you gotta throw it in in tight windows. So they just gotta go play.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:59

I always thought it was Charlie checked down.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:01

Yeah, checked down Charlie, Charlie checked down.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:03

Have I been saying that? I think I said it wrong. You did?

SPEAKER_04 1:29:06

Yeah, I think transposing words. Sometimes I do.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:08

All right, so to more serious topics.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:10

Forget apostrophes, what is the most interesting position battle for Tennessee outside of quarterback?

SPEAKER_04 1:29:18

For me, my biggest curiosity, I don't know if it's a position battle, but my biggest curiosity is who's gonna rush the quarterback and what does that position look like now? Because that's not gonna be a 220-pound speed edge guy necessarily. They'll play some of that, but I think how they play their defensive ends under Jim Knowles to get after the quarterback, to me, is one of the more fascinating things that we're gonna watch. But you know, A.J.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:42

Jackson said they're trying at the Leo, they're willing to give different guys of different sizes situationally some looks. He even talked about Mike Bethay.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:55

Yeah, so what does it look like?

SPEAKER_03 1:29:56

What is that right? I mean, Mike Bethay, love Mike Bethay, uh, special teams demon, exciting player. Where's number 89? Uh 6'2, maybe 220, 225.

SPEAKER_04 1:30:09

Would be a speed rusher by what most people describe.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:12

Yeah, would you bring him, I mean, in certain games, would he fit the role when you put two or three of those guys on the field at the same time? Do some of those guys also play defensive end? How do you, you know, how do you utilize it?

SPEAKER_04 1:30:27

Yeah, I think another that that position and how they play that is maybe not a position battle, but just intrigue as to what bodies fit into that rotation. And then I think a position battle that most people aren't talking about is who's gonna be the corner opposite of Redmond. I think most people assume it's gonna be a transfer because they went out and were so active in the portal. But what does a guy like Tim Merritt have to say about that? What is a second-year guy who's been here? Well, what do they how do they go about that? That that's gonna be that position, because Redmond's got one side locked down. What's the other side look like and how competitive has that become?

SPEAKER_03 1:31:06

I want to know what the nickel looks like.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:09

You think it's the kid for that that's gonna, Moss that's gonna transfer in from Kansas State would make the most sense. You do. But how do they play the nickel? That's what I'm saying. Is it gonna be a third safety or is he gonna be a nickel or a corner?

SPEAKER_03 1:31:20

Well, I mean, so if you if you look at it, I mean, Boo Carter was a nickel.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:26

It's a corner nickel. Well, but not a safety nickel.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:28

No, but he was really a nickel. He was a nickel. He wasn't really a corner, he wasn't really a safety, he was a nickel. Some nickels are corners who are moved in there, and sometimes it's a safety. What does Jim Knowles' nickel player look like?

SPEAKER_04 1:31:47

Yeah, and I think he's trying to figure that out in spring practice and adjust his defense to whatever his best 11 are. Does that mean it's a corner playing nickel or a safety plan nickel? Or does he have a true nickel?

SPEAKER_03 1:32:00

Does he have a true one? Yeah, that's what we don't know yet, especially with all these new colors. Spring practice, two weeks away. Two, two weeks away. Basketball, softball, baseball, track, golf, tennis, golfs and combo. Oh, it's all good. Tough life. Tough life. Big orange rewind. Good night, everybody.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:24

Big Orange Rewind.

SPEAKER_00 1:32:26

Presented by Calhoun's A Taste of Tennessee. Calhoun's is the perfect place to rewind after every Tennessee game.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:34

Rewind one more time to this weekend's action. Catch the podcast at utsports.com. Big Orange Rewind. We are the Vall Network.