Volunteers in Tennessee

For supporters of the Tennessee Vols, the good news keeps coming.

Not too long after George MacIntyre, a five-star quarterback for 2025, committed to the Vols, offensive tackle Javontez Spraggins declared he would be formally returning for his senior season in 2024.

Spraggins, an East Saint Louis, Illinois, native and former three-star recruit, committed to the Vols during the 2020 recruiting class.

The seasoned offensive lineman was Tennessee’s right guard starter for 11 games in 2023 before sustaining an injury that ended the season and prevented him from playing in the team’s last two games (against Vanderbilt and Iowa).

During the tenure of Josh Heupel at Tennessee, Spraggins has started 36 games overall at right guard. And in 2024, he will occupy the right guard position once more.

With Spraggins back, the Vols should have an offensive line with Cooper Mays at center, Lance Heard, an LSU transfer, at left tackle, and John Campbell at right tackle. That implies that there is only one place up for grabs, which is left guard, where Andrej Karic, Jackson Lampley, and Vysen Lang are anticipated to square off.

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The Tennessee Vols basketball team prepares for their game by poking the bear.

It’s said that Vanderbilt is a school renowned for its intelligence. That was definitely not what their men’s basketball social media crew did on Thursday night.

The men’s basketball team at Vanderbilt shared a video of the game’s conclusion from the previous year between the two teams in Nashville on their Twitter/X account.

In a particularly repulsive way for Vol supporters, Tennessee was able to steal victory with a 66-65 loss, leaving many to erase the event from their memories of Nashville last year.

With less than a minute remaining, former Vol. Olivier Nkamhoua scored a jumper to give Tennessee a 65-63 advantage in a tied game. With less than ten seconds left, Vanderbilt had to foul Tennessee five times on a defensive rebound in order to send the Vols in the bonus. With a chance to win the game, Santiago Vescovi attempted a one-and-one but missed the front end of the shot.

The outcome, which was the video that Vandy’s social media staff shared, was expected. Ezra Manjon of Vandy drove the ball to the baseline following a timeout, and he kicked it out to Tyrin Lawrence, who was, for some reason, wide open. The Vols were defeated when he brought the three down at the buzzer.

Both Rick Barnes and the players would definitely like to forget that particular occasion. Vandy is making every effort to ensure that they don’t, though. It’s clear that they want to get their fans excited for the game, but it also might sour the feelings of the orange-clad players who were there when it happened.

Soon enough, we’ll find out if the Vols are more confident when they play the Commodores in Memorial Gymnasium on Saturday at 5 p.m.