- Morning gang. Per a University email on Tuesday, all classes will be canceled for the Thursday season opener against Appalachian State. I imagine there'll be some hand-wringing about the creeping erosion of the educational mission in the face of big-money sports: as a counterpoint, WOOO SNOW DAAAAAY
- On Sunday, Butch Jones and minions received their highest-ranked commitment so far this cycle as 4* S Maleik Gray of La Vergne announced for Tennessee via Twitter. Gray is 247's #57 overall player and the #4 safety in the class.
- Redshirt freshman punter Tommy Townsend will transfer, according to 247. Meanwhile, former Vols TE Neiko Creamer, who left the program earlier this year, has committed to Eastern Kentucky.
- Tennessee's coaching staff (sans Butch) spent Monday at a satellite camp in Buford, GA, where they were also hanging out with Dave Clawson, which is alarming. We're not saying mere proximity to the Clawfense is dangerous, but when you thi [CENTER PULLS TO BLOCK FOR WIDE RECEIVER][5TH STRING RB MISSES BLOCK] [THROWS BUBBLE SCREEN TO FULLBACK] [IS INTERCEPTED BY DEFENSIVE TACKLE]
- As we've noted before, Athlon's preseason ranking are pretty favorable to the Vols (#7), and that confidence has carried over to their All-SEC teams: Tennessee has 6 players named to the first team, tied with Alabama for the most in the conference.
- CBS made a Tennessee Mount Rushmore, because the offseason is long and it's clever to come up with multi-team story pitches that you can research over the hotel bar wifi. Peyton, Neyland, Reggie White, and Johnny Majors made the cut, which is fine, I guess? ESPN had a whole roundtable (a roundtable!) on "Best College Fightsong," and Rocky Top won, which- cool, sure, whatever. We look forward to the upcoming High Convocational Synod on College Football's Greatest Parking Access [note to ed: can we do this?].
- Here's a video of Justin Hunter jumping really high:
- It's STEALCONTENTFROMREDDITTHURSDAY!
Yesterday Bill C. and Jason Kirk from the Mothership wrote about that evergreen offseason chestnut (honest question, is that a mixed metaphor?) Hey Guys There's Nothing To Talk About, Let's Redo Everybody's Schedules! Their plan involved dropping divisions and going to 3 permanent rivals per school, which brings up a question: in a pinch, which matchup would you say is absolutely essential for Tennessee to play every year?
Happy Thursday!