Big Orange Report February 5, 2026

 

Full House

Tennessee's new Director of Strength and Conditioning or Athletic Performance (official title), Derek Owings, completed his staff last week with three additional hires. Danny White and Josh Heupel made Owings the highest paid S & C director in college football and the new man hit the ground running. He has already started winter workouts with the team but still had time to finish filling his staff with men that he knew and had confidence in them and the jobs that they could do to improve the Vols for next season, both physically and athletically.

The trio of new staffers comes from the west, the south and the east. Elijah Blackman moves to Knoxville after two years with Kansas State. He has also worked at Colorado State and Arkansas. Jason Wooding spent the past five seasons at Maryland but has also been on staffs at Texas Tech and Houston. Drew Painter has been with the Baylor Bears since he finished his playing days at James Madison where he was developed by Owings.

This new and energetic crew are younger and more enthusiastic

than the group that they replaced. Program insiders and members of the Knoxville media seem to be quite excited about the fact that the Big Orange now has a man leading the S&C program that just molded a group of one and two star ranked players into a national championship juggernaut.

Late Portal Additions

The Tennessee staff has now recruited what amounts to a brand new two-deep depth chart in the defensive secondary. Cornerback Jadais Richard has moved from Miami to UT and he is the ninth defensive back to land in East Tennessee since the portal opened for business. Richard (6-1, 191, 4.5) has battled injuries during his career but now is reportedly healthy and ready to compete for playing time at UT.

Ian Duarte (5-10, 175, 4.55) will also be joining the Vols this spring. He was a wide receiver/kick returner at Idaho State. In two seasons Duarte caught 53 passes for 582 yards and three touchdowns. He has returned a total of 23 kickoffs and punts for 355 yards. He will challenge for the primary kick return duties and for the backup job at the slot receiver on offense.

Hoops Crunch Time

The college basketball season gets serious this month. Joe Lunardi (men) and Charlie Creme (women) have started to launch their anticipated brackets and the conference races are coming into focus.

The Tennessee men are on a roll right now and exited January with a victory over ex-Vol Steven Pearl and his Auburn team. Five-star freshman Nate Ament seems to be improving almost game by game now. He had 22 points and eight rebounds against Auburn to lead UT to victory. At one point he was on the floor with three other freshmen because of foul trouble and an injury to senior post man Felix Opara. Freshman power forward Dwayne Brown had 10 points, eight rebounds, four assists, two blocks and a steal filling in for Opara. In the 77-69 win, the first year Vols accounted for 31 of the team's rebounds and two of the freshmen guards raked down eight boards apiece.

Coach Rick Barnes' team should re-enter the top 25 rankings this week with a 15-6 record and a 5-3 mark in the SEC. Ole Miss will visit Knoxville on Tuesday night and then Tennessee will seek some revenge when they travel to Kentucky on Saturday. ESPN will televise the showdown in Lexington at 7:30 p.m.

The Lady Vols were on a roll until the past two games but the team still sits at the top of the conference standings. On Sunday, they stormed back in the second quarter against No. 1 UConn and actually had the lead right before halftime. The second half was a disaster however and Tennessee returned to Knoxville to regroup and refocus.

Coach Kim Caldwell takes her team to Georgia on Thursday evening looking to right the ship. On Sunday, it will be another faceoff against a national powerhouse when UT visits South Carolina. This contest will be televised by ABC at 2 p.m.

Lofty Expectations

The Diamond Vols are preparing to take the field and both the baseball and softball teams have dreams of making the College World Series on their collective minds. New baseball coach Josh Elander has assembled a talented roster that is ready to compete for the SEC crown this spring. The BaseVols are slotted as high as No. 11 in a pre-season poll and sit at 13 in two others. Tennessee will kick off the season when the Vols entertain Nicholls State on Feb. 13th.

The softball team is set to play this weekend in Clearwater, Florida, with the opener set for Thursday against BYU. The 4th ranked Lady Vols will then face Liberty, Rutgers, Boston College and a marquee match-up with Oregon.

Pre-season All American Karlyn Pickens leads UT into battle after being named on multiple pre-season All American checklists. Pickens returned home to Weaverville, North Carolina, recently where her high school, North Buncombe, hosted a ceremony to name the softball field in honor of Pickens.

It must be noted here that both pre-season polls are loaded with Southeastern Conference teams this year. The league battles will be intense and entertaining to watch. 

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