Monday Musings: Vols kicked off title defense with a bang

Happy Monday, everybody. Hope your week has gotten off to a great start.

Speaking of great starts, that’s what your defending national champion Tennessee Vols got over the weekend in the first series of their title defense. Between that and other stuff, there’s plenty to talk about, so let’s get to it.

1) Tennessee baseball went full woodshed on Hofstra over the weekend.

I had a lot of stuff going on with the family, so I couldn’t see much, but the snippets I did see were encouraging. The Vols outscored Hofstra 46-2 over three games. All were run-rule wins after seven innings. Total massacre from start to finish.

It’s pretty tough to tell a lot about games like this where teams are overmatched so much like Hofstra was, but there were some things you had to love.

For me, it was Friday’s starting pitcher – Ole Miss transfer Liam Doyle. He had 11 strikeouts in 5 innings in 15 batters faced. And he went off the mound like THIS after ringing a guy up.

Yeah….think he might get some bullpens chirping at each other this year? But Tennessee has always played with swagger, and confidence often breeds success. Have to love it, in my opinion.

Offensively, the Vols clubbed seven home runs over the weekend. More than enough to win going away, but not any a wild streak by any stretch of the imagination given the final scores in each game. But when you’re scoring runs, meh, who cares how you get them?

The real work begins at the end of the month, when the Vols face Oklahoma State, Rice, and Arizona in Houston. Until then, time to keep the good times rolling against the cupcakes.

2) The men’s basketball team is not looking like a top seed.

It was a meh week for the Vols last week, and their methodical distancing from the top spot in the SEC and the country that the once held has continued. Great comeback win over Vandy, don’t get me wrong, but for pretty much 60 of the 80 minutes they played basketball last week, they weren’t good.

When you watch this team, often times they don’t look the part of a one seed as much as they are in consideration for it from the experts. They’re particularly not good on the road – at least not nearly as good as they are at home – and, well, since no tournament games will be played at Thompson-Boling Arena, that’s a bit of a problem.

I see a team who is too streaky, particularly on the offensive end, to be reliable as a top seed. Their defense can keep them in any game just about, but if they’re not making shots, it won’t matter.

I feel like this team is at its best offensively when they’re screening low and attacking the basket. They need to do more of that on Saturday against Texas A&M. Fewer shots from three, more plays in the paint.

3) Jason Witten’s son is a top 2027 recruit, and Tennessee is putting their work in to try to land him.

I saw this today, and I didn’t even realize Witten’s son, Cooper, was one of the top players in the nation for his class.

Witten is one of the top players in the 2027 class as the #23 overall player, #1 LB, and #5 player in Texas. Tennessee is reportedly in on his recruitment, per 247 Sports. On3 has him listed with a Tennessee offer.

However, On3 lists Oklahoma as having the early lead for his services. TCU and SMU are also in play.

There’s obviously a lot of time until he makes his decision, but you have to wonder how much a legacy wants to go where his father did when there’s such a big shadow there. That could be the case with Peyton Manning’s son whenever he gets into high school and (likely) becomes a big-time recruit.

Or perhaps I’m wrong, and guys want to follow in their dads’ footsteps. That would certainly be alright with the Big Orange faithful.

Still, Cooper is a player that Vol fans who obsess over recruiting will now want to keep a closer eye on.

Go Vols!