Big Orange Report April 16, 2026

 

Spring Practice Wrap Up

The Tennessee Volunteers engaged in the final controlled scrimmage of the spring on Saturday and once again, the good news is there were no major injuries to key players on the current roster. The defense held a slight edge against the offense during the workouts and the opinion here and among others in the media is that this year's Big Orange defense is going to have some sharp claws and aggressive attitudes.

As far as the quarterback battle, nothing was resolved or cemented moving forward. Coach Josh Heupel said as much in his post scrimmage interviews. The competition will continue into the summer and will not be finalized until late August when preparations for the season are at full speed.

On Saturday, George MacIntyre completed 15 of 22 passes for 105 yards with most of the throws checkdowns. Freshman Faizon Brandon connected on just 6 of 16 throws but at least two of his tosses were on target but were dropped by the wide receivers. Numbers wise, Colorado transfer Ryan Staub had the best day among the trio of candidates. Staub registered 7 completions on 12 attempts for 132 yards and one touchdown. Our early opinion is that Brandon has the strongest arm while G. Mac has the best working knowledge of the play book and offensive scheme. Reportedly, the quarterbacks benefitted substantially from the fact that new defensive coordinator, Jim Knowles, gave them every "look" and coverage in his arsenal.

"Each of them (the quarterbacks) have to be on their journey and mastering fundamentals, techniques, ownership and the scheme," Heupel noted in post scrimmage interviews. "And that's what we do and then mastering what's happening on the other side of the football too."

Perhaps the biggest offensive highlight of the afternoon was when Tulane transfer running back Javin Gordon took a handoff, broke a tackle just past the line of scrimmage and sprinted 61 yards to paydirt.

Portal Panic

At least that is the appearance of what is going on most days as several hundred men and women's college basketball players hit the transfer portal looking for a new home and, of course, more money. The NIL and rich boosters at some schools are totally out of control and college athletics have been damaged, hopefully, not beyond repair. At best, this situation should be described as controlled chaos.

Rather than lament the combined dozen or so players that have left Tennessee, let's look at the new Volunteers who are headed to Knoxville. At this writing both Kim Caldwell and Rick Barnes are having some success. Coach Caldwell has added three players thus far and the trio all have multiple years of eligibility remaining.

The first addition was Avery Mills, a 5-9 sharpshooter from Liberty University. Mills averaged 15.3 points per game and and shot an impressive 42.7 % from behind the arc. She was a first team Conference USA selection this year.

Combo guard Naomi White, a 5-9 offensive star from Northern Arizona, joined UT last week. White averaged 20.8 points per contest and that made her the No. 1 freshman scorer in the country this season. On Saturday, 6-3 forward Harper Peterson announced she was moving from Stanford to Knoxville. She was injured most of her freshman year with the Cardinal and got into only 10 games towards the conclusion of the schedule. She was a high four star and top 100 rated recruit coming out of high school. Her father played college ball at Gonzaga.

Coach Rick Barnes is reloading in style and early returns have his transfer class ranked No. 1 in the nation. His first addition was 6-5 sharpshooter Tyler Lundblade from Belmont. Lundblade was the Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year this season after averaging 15.6 points per game while draining 115 three-point shots and shooting 93.4% from the charity stripe.

Over the weekend the Vols landed 6-2 combo guard Dai Dai Ames from Cal where he averaged 16.9 points per outing and hit almost 38% of his three-point attempts. On Sunday, 6-10 shot blocker deluxe Miles Rubin announced he was transferring to Tennessee from Loyola Chicago.  His numbers for the year were 11.3 points, 7.1 rebounds and 2.3 blocks per contest.

Both programs are still hunting for more talent and additional announcements should be on tap for this week.

Vol Notes

The Big Orange baseball program is rising. After a sputtering start in conference play, Tennessee is, well, on fire. The Vols just returned home after going into Starkville and sweeping a three-game series from No. 9 ranked Mississippi State.

On Saturday, Karlyn Pickens opened a three game series at Kentucky by tossing the fourth no hitter of her illustrious career. She fanned 12 in the SoftVols 5-0 victory and the offense launched four home runs to support Pickens. 

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