Volquest.com was first to report the story. They report that it’s a “medical issue” and Smith is expected to be ready for the start of the 2018 season.

Tennessee already had issues up front as they are set to try and replace three starters from last season. Losing Smith for the spring certain isn’t ideal, but it’s not the end of the world either — assuming he’s ready for the start of the season.

Smith stepped onto campus last year and immediately became Tennessee’s most talented offensive lineman. He played guard mostly, but he has the ability to kick outside to tackle as well. The spring would have been the ideal time to try all of those possibilities out as Will Friend tries to come up with the right combination up front.

So Tennessee’s biggest question mark on the roster just got a little bit murkier. Spring practice is set to begin on March 20th. It’s going to be interesting to see the first few combinations they try up front.

Signing day has come and passed and Tennessee currently has just three scholarship passers on the roster heading into the spring. Jarrett Guarantano, Will McBride and true freshman JT Shrout will make up the depth chart if no other moves are made.

But it appears that Tennessee is trying to make one final move. They’ve thrown their hat into the mix for graduate-transfer quarterback Gardner Mishew, who is set to leave ECU for a new team.

Sports Illustrated has the full story. Here’s the quote.

For now, Alabama is his only offer, but two other SEC schools are also in the mix. Tennessee reached out to him last week, and earlier this week he heard from Auburn offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey, who recruited him in high school when Lindsey was the offensive coordinator at Southern Miss.

Alabama has been the one team that we’ve heard connected to Minshew from the get-go. Nick Saban wants one more quarterback on his roster, even with Jalen Hurts and Tua Tagovailoa in the fold. Maybe he’s preparing for a potential Hurts transfer, but I’m just speculating there.

Minshew told Sports Illustrated’s Bruce Feldman that he’s been talking to Tennessee “a lot.”

Minshew says Tennessee is very intriguing, especially because the Vols’ QB picture is pretty murky as Jeremy Pruitt and his new staff continue to get settled: “We’ve been talking a lot. They want me to compete for the job in the spring.”

Because Tennessee has mini-terms within its semesters, Minshew would be able to enroll this spring, compete in spring ball and get around his new teammates and coaches, which would be a big plus in his eyes.

Feldman notes the connection to Chryst, but points out that he wouldn’t graduate from Stanford until June. Feldman also reports the Chryst will visit Knoxville this weekend. Minshew said he could be enrolled at Tennessee by next week, if he were to choose the Vols.

Minshew is a 6-2, 216 pounder out of Mississippi. He threw for 2,140 yards and 16 touchdowns in 2017, splitting time with Thomas Sirk. Minshew completed 57 percent of his passes, averaging an even seven yards per attempt on the year.

It sounds like Minshew’s final decision will come down to Tennessee, Alabama or Auburn. We’ll monitor this one closely, along with the Keller Chryst situation.

Now he holds an offer from Tennessee, which he announced yesterday on Twitter.

Tennessee is currently the only SEC school to offer Roberson. The 6-3, 255 pound defensive end is flying under the radar as a three star prospect currently. He holds just three power five offers currently, but the word seems to be getting out.

Roberson registered 5.5 sacks last season for Manvel High School in Texas. He would fit somewhere on the edge for Tennessee as they look to keep adding pass rushers to the equation.

Roberson will be an interesting follow over the summer. With Oklahoma, Tennessee and Arizona now after him, you would have to think other power five schools will come calling soon.

The match up will mark the 32nd overall meeting between the Vols and the Tigers, with Tennessee holding a 20-9-3 advantage in a series that dates back to 1926. The last time the two teams played each other in the regular season was 2011, a 38-7 LSU win at Neyland Stadium.

Tennessee will travel to Columbia, MO this week, seeking their first conference win of the season when they take on Missouri. LSU will play host to Arkansas in Baton Rouge on Saturday. The game will be the second night game at Neyland Stadium this season.
Notable Tennessee-LSU Games:

2007: In rematch of the 2001 SEC Championship Game, #14 Tennessee again met #7 LSU in Atlanta. Leading 14-13 in the fourth quarter, Erik Ainge threw an interception returned for a touchdown to put LSU ahead, 21-14. The Tigers went on to win the national championship.

2006: Tennessee led 24-21 late in the fourth quarter before LSU’s JaMarcus Russell hit Early Doucet in the endzone to give the Tigers a 28-24 lead with 9 seconds left. The loss knocked Tennessee out of contention for the SEC East.

2005: On Labor Day night, Tennessee overcame a 21-0 deficit to defeat LSU, 30-27 in overtime at Tiger Stadium.

2001: In their first game since the events of 9/11, Tennessee topped LSU, 26-18 at Neyland Stadium. The teams met again in the SEC title game later that season with LSU winning 31-20.

1989: In a shoot out on a hot Saturday afternoon in Baton Rouge, 11th ranked Tennessee scored late to win 45-39 and avoid the upset.

The Tennessee athletic director has remained silent on Butch Jones through a four game losing streak. Many called for a simple statement from Currie, just to acknowledge that there was a problem and that he intends to fix it.

To a certain extent, Currie did that.

Appearing on the Big Orange Hotline show with Bob Kesling, Currie finally broke his silence. Currie first spoke of his father, who was a surgeon. “The surgeon’s creed is there’s no problem that you can’t make worse by operating.”

If we’ve learned anything through this, it’s that Currie is a very thorough guy. He isn’t reactionary. He’s going to see things through — for better or for worse.

“You’ve got to make decisions that you believe are best for your program. I believe that supporting our staff and supporting our players, getting ready for the Southern Miss game, is the best I can do for our football program right now,” Currie said.

Currie went on to mention that he sees Butch Jones every Sunday. “That’s been one of my practices the whole time. The nine years I’ve been an athletics director, I always try to go into the building on Sunday — win or lose.”

Currie called the loss to Kentucky disappointing. “Our players played so hard through the whole game. They never let up.”

He finished with this. “The bottom line is, one of the reasons I came back here to the University of Tennessee is that this is a national program with a national following and incredibly passionate and fevered fans. That knife cuts both ways. You’re excited when you win, and you’re disappointed and angry when you lose. It’s the same for the staff and the AD and the players too.”

Butch Jones said that he has Currie’s support yesterday in his weekly press conference, saying that nothing has changed. There was a reported meeting on Sunday between Currie and Jones to discuss the “immediate future,” but nothing has come of that — at least to us outsiders.

The only thing we know for sure is that Jones is getting another week, as Jimmy Hyams reported on Sunday morning. Tennessee has a tricky game on their hands too, with Southern Miss coming to town. Vegas initially placed Tennessee as seven point favorites, but that number has quickly fallen to five.

Honestly, Currie didn’t give us much to chew on last night. So at least until we see how Jones and Tennessee perform against Southern Miss, we’re all in a holding pattern for another handful of days.

Here’s a look at the full chart.

Brett Kendrick stays at left guard for now. Kyle Phillips is listed as the starter with Darrell Taylor suspended indefinitely. DeAndre Johnson and Matthew Butler are listed as the reserves at defensive end.

Cheyenne Labruzza has moved from cornerback to free safety with Eric Berry and Todd Kelly Jr. dealing with injuries. Shaq Wiggins is still listed as a second teamer despite his recent uptick in playing time.

Everything else looks about the same. Butch Jones mentioned that all starting positions were open following the 41-0 loss to Georgia, but it doesn’t appear much has changed — yet. We’ll see what happens on Saturday against South Carolina.

It’s somewhat of a surprise, considering the product that the Vols have put on the field the past couple of weeks. But they are coming off a bye week and playing at home. That matters in the eyes of Vegas.

South Carolina blew out the Arkansas Razorbacks yesterday, 48-22. They’ve been up and down with wins over N.C. State and Arkansas, coupled with losses to Texas A&M and Kentucky. They probably should have lost to Louisiana Tech, however.

What are we going to see out of Tennessee? I don’t have high hopes. Butch Jones lost to this very team in a (somewhat) similar spot last year off of a bye. I don’t buy that Tennessee’s offensive issues will be solved by Saturday.

This line feels odd, right?

“Right now we’re a little bit ahead of the game defensively,” Jones said. “First of all is just continuity on offense. We have zero continuity on offense. We have to step it up there and I trust that we will.”

Obviously anytime you usher in a new quarterback, there’s going to be an adjustment period. To add to that point, anytime you’re working with two quarterbacks without one emerging, it just complicates things. This is why I and so many others are big proponents of naming a starter instead of a two quarterback system.

Speaking of those quarterbacks, Jarrett Guarantano was not at practice today. Butch said that the redshirt freshman was dealing with a death in the family, but will be back in Knoxville Friday night.

Jones said that the team got Marcus Tatum, Trey Smith and Brett Kendrick. He singled out Drew Richmond, Venzell Boulware, Jack Jones and Coleman Thomas for “taking every rep with the ones and the twos.” Those added reps will undoubtedly benefit those guys, but present a challenge to find the right combination when everyone is healthy.

Freshmen tight end LaTrell Bumphus and freshman safety Theo Jackson had their black stripes removed, Butch Jones told the media. Both Bumphus and Jackson have drawn some hype in camp, so seeing them take the next step and get their stripes removed is hardly a surprise. These were the first two helmet stripes removed in camp to this point.

Watch it below.

The pass was caught by Cobi Hamilton, who reeled in a 44 yard pass from Dobbs just a couple of series before. Dobbs was able to cash in on a muffed punt to give the Pittsburgh Steelers the lead heading into halftime.

Dobbs is expected to continue playing well into the second half.

Everyone immediately pointed towards Georgia when he left LSU, but Tennessee has the added benefit of Chatman here. Anderson told SEC Country that “the plan has always been to play together,” when speaking about Chatman. The 247 Sports crystal ball projections still point heavily to Georgia, however.

Anderson is 6-4, 214 pounds. He’s listed as an outside linebacker, but he’s really a pass rusher. 214 pounds is a little light for Tennessee’s base 4-3 scheme, however. It would be interesting to see how Bob Shoop and Brady Hoke would use Anderson.

With Greg Emerson and Jamarcus Chatman already in the fold, a move off the line of scrimmage may be where Anderson would land in Knoxville. But first things first, Tennessee has to gain Anderson’s commitment.

Will a crowed defensive end group scare off Anderson? Will the scheme? I’m sure all of this was covered today in Anderson’s visit. This was Anderson’s second visit to Knoxville — we’ll see if it’s enough to sway him to commit.

The man is a fount of wisdom.

Butch Jones has given us many great lines over the years. Let us take a moment to reflect back on some of his sage words.

Butch on what really matters:

“They’ve won the biggest championship, and that’s the championship of life.”

No other football team in the NCAA understands that there’s life outside of football. Fortunately, Butch is a guy who gets it, and we should all be thankful to have him in our conference. Sure football is hard work, but why play for a coach that’s not interested in winning at LIFE? I’m ready to run through a wall for this guy right now. And by “run through a wall” I mean find pieces of “Life” cereal in my car a week after the VU-UT game.

Butch on recruiting

“We've spoken about the competitive nature, and I think that's really, really big in today's world. Everyone gets into the whole two-star, three-star, four-star, five-star thing. The only five-star that we even concern ourselves with is a five-star heart. We want five-star hearts and five-star competitors.”

What chance have you at being LIFE CHAMPIONS(TM) if you don’t have the guys who can win you the title? Butch only goes after the guys who can win that life championship year after year. Talent, coachability, program fit are all meaningless. Go out there and recruit that two star LB who cant’ cover the TE. His five star heart will bring you home the only title that matters.

Butch on building a program

“I was on the phone one day and I was watching them lay the foundation, the brick of the steps outside my office, and I was watching the diligence that goes into laying the brick and I thought it’s the foundation and we are going to build a foundation that can stand the test of time, that can weather adversity. And if one brick is out of place and if one brick is missing, you are not going to have a strong foundation and it doesn’t look right,"

He’s right! You need strong players to build your squad. Unfortunately, Butch didn’t mention who is the mortar, without which your foundation of bricks is useless. I guess that would be him and his staff? I’m also unsure how needing overtime to beat a 1-AA team or losing to us fits into this metaphor, but I’m sure Butch could explain it if he were here!

Today Butch has come forward with yet another quote for us to bask in the glory of and it’s possibly his best yet.

Let me just put that into text just in case the tweet and the words are lost to the sands of time.

“The first element that goes into winning championships is contending to win championships and our program has done that.”

That’s right. You have to contend for that championship before you can win said championship. What’s that? Do I hear some Bammer pointing out that Tennessee has not been to a championship under Butch? Champions of life, friend. Champions. Of. Life.

Tonight’s College Football Playoff rankings broke the right way for Tennessee to make it to the Sugar Bowl:

• 8-3 Tennessee moved up two spots to #17 in the rankings
• 8-3 Auburn is the highest non-playoff SEC team at #13. They’ve got Alabama next.
• 9-2 Florida is #15. They’ve got Florida State, then Bama.
• 8-3 Texas A&M and 7-4 LSU are both unranked. Some speculated the Aggies, owners of a head-to-head win over the Vols, might pass the Vols if they beat LSU on Thursday. But with both A&M and LSU unranked, it seems highly unlikely the committee would jump the Aggies from outside the poll to above Tennessee after a Vol victory.

Removing A&M and LSU from the equation leaves the following path:

• Tennessee (-7.5) beats Vanderbilt
• Alabama (-17) beats Auburn
• Florida State (-7.5) beats Florida
• Alabama beats Florida (projected -21) in the SEC Championship Game

The Vols were burned by LSU as a -14.5 favorite last week, so anything can happen. But it wouldn’t take any upsets for Tennessee to earn a trip to the New Year’s Six.

Also of note: Oklahoma staying behind Wisconsin and Penn State even after throttling West Virginia suggests the Sooners will need significant upsets in front of them to make the playoffs even if they beat Oklahoma State, making it more likely the winner of that game would be Tennessee’s opponent in the Sugar Bowl.

The numbers prove what our eyes already know: Bob Shoop and Josh Dobbs are significantly stronger as the game goes on.

A look at Tennessee’s advanced statistical profile shows a couple of clear things the Vols have excelled at. One, to no surprise, is field position: Tennessee’s average starting field position is its own 37 yard line, second best in the nation. And the opponent’s average starting field position is its own 26, 19th best in the nation.

Just behind field position advantage has been Tennessee’s defense in preventing explosive plays. The Vols are sixth nationally in IsoPPP allowed, which is essentially a measure of how explosive an offense’s successful plays are. Tennessee has allowed only 16 plays of 20+ yards, 10th nationally among teams who have played five games and tied with Alabama and South Carolina for the best in the SEC.

Here are the 16 20+ yard plays the Vol defense has allowed:

• 1Q Appalachian State: Marcus Cox 20 yard run (two plays after Cam Sutton fumbled the punt, led to first AppState touchdown)
• 2Q Appalachian State: Marcus Cox 33 yard TD on the wheel route
• 1Q Virginia Tech: Jerod Evans to Sam Rogers for 30 yards (led to first VT touchdown)
• 1Q Virginia Tech: Travon McMillian 69 yard TD run
• 2Q Ohio: Greg Windham to Sebastian Smith for 42 yards (led to field goal)
• 2Q Ohio: Greg Windham to Sebastian Smith for 29 yards (led to field goal)
• 3Q Ohio: Greg Windham to Sebastian Smith for 37 yards (led to touchdown)
• 1Q Florida: Austin Appleby to Antonio Callaway for 51 yards (led to touchdown)
• 1Q Florida: Austin Appleby to Antonio Callaway for 43 yards (led to touchdown)
• 2Q Florida: Austin Appleby to Antonio Callaway for 20 yards (led to touchdown)
• 2Q Florida: Austin Appleby to Tyrie Cleveland for 36 yards (same drive, led to TD)
• 2Q Florida: Austin Appleby to Antonio Callaway for 20 yards (led to punt, final drive of half)
• 4Q Florida: Austin Appleby to C.J. Worton for 22 yards (led to final TD)
• 2Q Georgia: Sony Michel run 22 yards (second play after Hurd fumble, led to TD)
• 3Q Georgia: Jacob Eason to Isaac Nauta for 50 yard TD
• 4Q Georgia: Jacob Eason to Riley Ridley for 47 yard TD

Twelve of the 16 20+ yard plays the Vols have allowed have come in the first half. One of the four that didn’t came on Florida’s final drive with the Vols playing softer coverage and the gain only good for 22 yards. Ohio and Florida clearly had fun with Cam Sutton’s absence.

Whatever Bob Shoop is doing at halftime, it’s working. Appalachian State got zero in the second half. Virginia Tech got three on the starters. Ohio got seven. Florida got five straight three-and-outs and an interception before needing 16 plays to get their only score of the second half.

In the second half last week, Georgia basically got only big plays. Their drives went punt, 50-yard touchdown, three-and-out, failed fourth down conversion, three-and-out, end zone fumble, interception, 47-yard touchdown.

First half Bob Shoop is on the hot seat. Second half Bob Shoop is a head coach waiting to happen.

And he’s not the only one transforming in the second half:

First half Josh Dobbs is an average quarterback. Second half Josh Dobbs is a Heisman candidate.

How do the Vols fix it? Fewer drops would help. With a five game trend now it’s easy to say play-calling should be called into question, but simple execution is just as likely a suspect. The Vols did get their offensive act together before halftime against Virginia Tech and Georgia (and the opening drive against Ohio).

Whatever the Vols are doing early, once they get rolling they don’t get stopped. Florida (2nd) and Virginia Tech (9th) are Top 10 defenses in yards allowed, and both ate a 30+ point run from this team. With Texas A&M and Alabama next, the need for the Vols to get going sooner has never been greater.

Written By: CBG Founder