FreakNotes: Pick Contests; Limited practice; Butch vs Fulmer

Tennessee Vols Football News

August 29, Tuesday

• I hope everyone is having a great Tuesday. We’re only SIX days away from kickoff! — Countdown Thread.
• Both of our VolNation Pick Contests are live! Be sure to enter your score prediction for the Georgia Tech game, and also pick this week’s 10 games in the season pick contest. Think about the bragging rights if you win, plus you can win Amazon gift cards. Enter now! Do it!
• There’s no football practice again today, and tomorrow’s practice is closed, but media will have some access on Thursday. That’s the only open practice day remaining before the game on Monday. Butch has a press conference on Wednesday. Will he name a starting quarterback? The team will travel to Atlanta on Sunday.
• John Adams wrote an interesting column yesterday comparing Butch’s recruiting to Fulmer. Coach Thigpen, then a grad assistant at North Carolina, remembers how difficult it was to recruit against Tennessee in the 1990s. “In those days, Tennessee was in the top five in the country,” Thigpen said. “And they had a (recruiting) pipeline from South Carolina to Georgia to North Carolina. There was a fear when Tennessee came (recruiting). I remember when (quarterback) Heath Shuler was being recruited. We had zero chance of getting him. And I watched them come through the state and take other top players.”
• Georgia defensive back Aaron Davis took a jab at Tennessee yesterday when talking about their opener with Appy State: “We definitely want to have a better showing than what Tennessee showed.” — That DobbNail Boot still hurts, huh? Vols’ going for three in a row this year, baby!
• Cincinnati wide receiver Brandon LaFell had some high praise for former Vol Josh Malone. “He’s got a lot of talent. A lot of raw talent. He can run. He’s got size. He just needs to polish up a few things, his route running. Just polish up that and get a little stronger in the weight room he can get out there and block some of these guys. But he’s got what you can’t teach. You can’t teach that size and that speed and the way he’s able to track the ball the way. He’s going to be good.”
• It appears that 4-star athlete and Tennessee commit Alontae Taylor will be in town for the Indiana State game. “Knoxville next weekend,” he tweeted. Taylor was the Vols’ second commit in the 2018 class in June of last year. — Player thread: ’18 TN QB/WR Alontae Taylor (UT commit 6/18/16)
• Myles Garrett Derek Barnett has been one of the NFL’s most productive pass rushers this preseason, according to Pro Football Focus.
• This is a cool picture of Tennessee’s weight room.