Tennessee Volunteers Football Team Introducing New Tradition

Credit: Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports

Butch Jones and staff are ushering in another new tradition at Tennessee this year.

Volympics.

The Volympics is going to be a competition that carries on throughout spring practices. There will be ten teams, each with two captains.

Team Power T: Brian Randolph, Jason Croom

Team Checkerboard: Tiny Richardson, A.J. Johnson

Team The Hill: Justin Worley, Eric Gordon

Team Rocky Top: Marlon Walls, Rajion Neal

Team Smokey: Jawuan James, Channing Fugate

Team Neyland: Corey Miller, Nathan Peterman

Team Orange and White: Curt Maggitt, Marlin Lane Jr.

Team The Rock: Zach Fulton, Raiques Crump

Team Vol Navy: Brent Brewer, James Stone

Team Vol Walk: Byron Moore, Maurice Couch

On Wednesday the football team will hold a “draft” to fill out each of the ten teams.  The draft will be hosted by former Vol and recently appointed defensive quality control assistant Terry Fair.  All players will be drafted onto a team.

The teams will be awarded points throughout spring practice.  The points will be given out based on performance in the classroom, performance on the field, community service and team building events.   At end of the event there will be a Night of Champions where the winning team will be crowned.

Team Vol Walk has already took to Twitter about the competition

The Volympics will be just another example of the new attitude and culture Butch Jones and his staff are bringing to the Tennessee football program.  Jones has been very judicial in not only embracing all of Tennessee’s storied traditions, but also installing some new traditions. Volunteer fans can expect to see everyone in Neyland stadium raising a fist in the air after a third down stop this fall.  Jones is calling this the “fist up defense”.  Butch Jones is also known for his teams sprinting to the other side of the field after each quarter, this is another tradition that will continue.

The Volympics competition will undoubtedly bring the team closer, but it will also help the team to focus on academics.  Jones has always placed a priority on academics.  His football teams at Cincinnati performed well in the classroom, in the 2010-11 academic year they were awarded with the Big East Team Excellence Award.

Tradition runs rich on Rocky Top, but there’s always room for a few new ones to add to the list.