Tennessee Vols morning report: Kurrott Garland stays with UT
Tennessee Vols football defensive lineman Kurrott Garland staying with UT and another practice lead our Volunteers news for Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2019.
Happy Hump Day! This is a special hump day because you’re getting over the hump to start the first official weekend of college football. Can that get anymore exciting. Everybody’s thrilled, even if the Tennessee Vols aren’t part of it.
However, our morning update on Rocky Top does lead with plenty of football news. That includes the return of a transfer, which is a huge deal for the depth of the program, and a recap of another practice that was held.
But football isn’t the only preseason news gaining attention. Women’s soccer had two stories of individuals being recognized Tuesday, conference-wide and nation-wide. So let’s get started with all our preseason coverage, beginning again with football.
Kurrott Garland back at practice – Patrick Brown, GoVols247.com
After entering the transfer portal in July, Tennessee Vols football redshirt freshman Kurrott Garland was back at practice on Tuesday. The 6’3″ 304-pound defensive lineman will be key for depth this year given how thin UT is up front, so this is great news for Rocky Top.
"Garland appeared in the ETSU, Georgia, Charlotte and Missouri games last season, and Tennessee held him out of the season finale against Vanderbilt to preserve him a year of eligibility under the NCAA’s new redshirt rules. The Vols were pleased with his progress during the course of the season while he worked on the scout-team defense, and though he’s added more than 25 pounds to his frame in his time with the program, he’ll have some rust to shake off after sitting out spring practice and getting a late start to his preparation for this season."
Jeremy Pruitt recaps Tuesday practice – UTSports.com
The Tennessee Vols held another football practice Tuesday, and afterward Jeremy Pruitt spoke with the media. Some of the highlights were him saying he planes to play eight to 10 guys on the offensive line, the backup quarterback battle still ongoing, the fact that he won’t fully relinquish play-calling duties, and moving Aaron Beasley from safety to linebacker. Here’s a bit of what he said about the day.
"“There was pretty good tempo there on the offensive side today. And, I’m going to say it again, we have more experience on the offense. We have more maturity. When you give them a couple of days off and you go back to work, you would expect them to have little bit of juice about them and the offensive side did.”"
Four soccer Vols on SEC preseason Watch List – SECSports.com
Tennessee Lady Vols soccer had Katie Cousins, Erin Gilroy, Maya Neal and MA Vignola recognized in SEC preseason on the Coaches’ Watch List. While it’s an honor for those four, UT was not properly represented as the highest ranked team in the conference given the fact that six schools had more players on this list.
"The SEC tied a league-record nine teams selected to participate in the 2018 NCAA Tournament. The SEC has had 30 teams earn postseason bids over the last four seasons."
Three soccer Vols on TopDrawerSoccer teams – TopDrawerSoccer.com
In addition to SEC preseason recognition, Tennessee women’s soccer had three players recognized on the TopDrawerSoccer.com Preseason Best XI teams. Katie Cousins and Maya Neal were there again, as First Team and Third Team respectively, and Isabella Cook was named on the Freshman Best XI.
"This ranking includes the highest ranked college soccer players in the nation and will be updated weekly. This ranking includes sophomores, juniors, and seniors."