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There were 40,000 Vols fans at Saturday night's open practice. Apparently, it came at a good time, as the players were beginning to get fatigued and having fans there gave them that little something extra to push through on dead legs. That's an awesome amount of peer pressure.
As you can see in the video below, Butch Jones took the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, and he passed the challenge on to Donnie Tyndall, Peyton Manning, and Jon Gruden with additional stipulations. Gruden has to do it on national TV dressed entirely in orange. #AlwaysBeRecruiting.
Senior linebacker A.J. Johnson reportedly had tears in his eyes when he recently game an emotional address to the team, and the saline-infused inspirational words hit their mark:
"He was in the meeting Thursday and it was the best thing I saw. A.J. saw a guy not giving his all and here I got a linebacker crying saying, 'I want to win. I want to win, I'm not going to accept this.' He's talking before the whole defense with tears in his eyes. He said, 'You don't understand. It's about winning.' That kind of a leader and if he stays healthy he can do anything he wants to do."
Running back Jalen Hurd must be tiring of the questions about whether he's too tall for the position, but so far, he hasn't shown it.
Five-star defensive tackle Shy Tutle says that he's going to announce his college choice on September 26. Tennessee is the favorite to land him. Who's pumped about Tuttle and Khalil McKenzie on the same defensive line? Who's fondly remembing John Henderson and Albert Haynesworth right now? Yeah, me too.
The men's basketball schedule has been announced, and it features a home game against Kentucky, a trip to Florida, and home-and-homes with LSU and Arkansas. You can see the full schedule here. Jeronne Maymon, by the way, has signed with Hapoel Tel Aviv. Best of luck to him.