Tennessee Vols morning report: Athletic budget, Rick Barnes update
The Tennessee Vols’ athletic budget and notes from Rick Barnes’s Monday press conference lead the Volunteers news for Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2018.
Nothing really happened on Monday for the Tennessee Vols in terms of scheduled meets or games. But that doesn’t mean there wasn’t a ton of news to get to Tuesday morning.
As we get set to bring you today’s updates on Rocky Top, note that it includes football recruiting, a basketball press conference, and news about the athletic department as a whole. Oh, and we have a couple of unique stories.
We cover a lot of bases with today’s morning report. Let’s start with the interesting news about the entire athletic department.
Tennessee Vols 2016-2017 surplus – Blake Toppmeyer, Knoxville News Sentinel
The Tennessee Vols athletic department operated on a $10.8 million budget surplus for the 2016-2017 fiscal year. The football program brought in $100.9 million overall in revenue with $51.3 million in expenses. It also brought in $30.6 million in ticket sales.
"Tennessee allocated $5 million of the $10.8 million surplus to the funding plan for the Neyland Stadium renovation project, athletic department spokesman Tom Satkowiak wrote in an email to USA TODAY Network – Tennessee. The remaining $5.8 million was used to fund ongoing facilities projects, such as the Haslam Field expansion, new stadium scoreboards for soccer, baseball and softball and exterior painting for Neyland Stadium."
Rick Barnes Monday press conference – UTSports
Tennessee Vols basketball coach Rick Barnes spoke at his Monday press conference about a variety of things. One of his biggest notes was that he sees no reason to start Lamonte Turner just because he finishes games strong, noting that it doesn’t matter who starts. Here’s a snippet of what he said.
"“We got to get better as individuals. I think we got to make sure these next couple weeks, month and a half or whatever it is, that we really challenge our guys to get better individually.”"
Tennessee football picks up another commitment – Ryan Callahan, GoVols247
The Tennessee Vols picked up a commitment from Louisiana cornerback Brandon Davis. A two-star on Rivals, Davis announced his commitment on Monday.
"Davis gave Tennessee its 19th known commitment for the 2018 class and its first from a cornerback, addressing one of the most glaring needs for new Vols coach Jeremy Pruitt’s staff.“It caught my eye when I saw all the stuff they had, and they treat you like family there,” said Davis."
Tennessee baseball set for 10 national TV games – SECSports online
Tennessee will play nine baseball games this year on SEC Network and another on ESPNU. That’s a decent bit of national exposure for the Vols under first-year head coach Tony Vitello.
"ESPN will showcase more than 800 NCAA baseball games during the 2018 regular season across ESPN’s networks, including a record 161 games slated for television. During the postseason, on top of carrying five conference championship games and the entire Southeastern Conference tournament, 153 games will be telecast across ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNews, Longhorn Network and the SEC Network and available on the ESPN App."
Brady Hoke joins Carolina Panthers – David Newton, ESPN
After spending a year as Tennessee football’s defensive line coach, Brady Hoke will join the Carolina Panthers in the same position. Hoke spent two games as the Vols’ interim head coach after Butch Jones was fired.
"Hoke will replace Eric Washington, who was promoted to defensive coordinator to replace Steve Wilks, who last week was hired as the head coach of the Arizona Cardinals. This will be Hoke’s first NFL job."