Tennessee

Where Tennessee stands in D1 Baseball Preseason Top 25

Published

11 months ago

January 13, 2025

Where Tennessee stands in D1 Baseball Preseason Top 25

After a season that ended unlike any other in program history, Tennessee will begin its 2025 season in an unfamiliar spot, too: defending national champions.

On the heels of their first-ever College World Series title, the Vols begin another campaign of high expectations in a little more than a month. They’ll also start ranked highly in the polls.

TALK ABOUT IT IN THE ROCKY TOP FORUM

Tennessee debuted at No. 4 in the D1 Baseball Preseason Top 25 on Monday–32 days before it opens the season with a three-game series against Hofstra on Feb. 14 at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.

The Vols’ home field is currently under-going its next phase of construction. New stands were added down the third base line prior to last season and stadium will have a couple of other noticeable changes by first pitch. It will also have a new national championship banner.

Tennessee and eighth-year head coach Tony Vitello will have their work cut out for it in its defense of that crown, though and it will have to do it without some of the key pieces that helped earn it, including sluggers Christian Moore and Blake Burke. Third baseman Billy Amick and outfielders Kavares Tears and Dylan Dreiling are gone, as well as some big arms, including Drew Beam and A.J. Causey.

The Vols have some notable returners that were also paramount in their CWS run last June. Hunter Ensley, one of the heroes of Tennessee’s championship final triumph of Texas A&M, headlines the outfield and Dean Curley is back after a standout freshman campaign at shortstop.

Right-handed pitcher Nate Snead is the leader among the pitching staff.

MORE FROM VOLREPORT: Tennessee 2025 baseball schedule released

Several of the Vols’ opponents were included in the poll, too. In fact, the SEC was heavily represented, to little surprise.

The league is poised to continue its long-standing dominance of college baseball with nine teams ranked, including six teams in the top 10.

Texas A&M leads the way at No. 1, followed by LSU (3), Arkansas (5), Georgia (8) and Florida (10).

Vanderbilt (16), Mississippi State (18) and Texas (19) made up for the rest of the league’s representation in the poll.

All of those teams reached the postseason a year ago, with Texas A&M and Florida joining Tennessee in the CWS field in Omaha and the Vols will have to play a three-game series against five of the teams ranked in the top 25.

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Tennessee

Tennessee football QB Jake Merklinger plans to enter transfer portal

Published

5 hours ago

December 17, 2025

Press Room

Tennessee football QB Jake Merklinger plans to enter transfer portal

Tennessee quarterback Jake Merklinger plans to enter the transfer portal, Knox News has confirmed.

On3.com and Rivals.com were the first to report Merklinger’s decision. The transfer portal opens on Jan. 2.

Merklinger has also opted out of the Music City Bowl. No. 23 Tennessee (8-4) plays Illinois (8-4) on Dec. 30 (5:30 p.m. ET, ESPN) in Nashville. Starter Joey Aguilar will play in the bowl game, so Merklinger was not expected to be a factor. Freshman George MacIntyre will serve as the backup.

Merklinger spent two seasons at Tennessee but barely played and failed to win the starting job. He played six games and went 19-of-33 passing for 221 yards and two touchdowns.

In 2024, Merklinger was a third-string freshman when Nico Iamaleava started. In 2025, he competed for the starting job but lost to transfer Joey Aguilar.

By the end of the 2025 season, Merklinger was neck and neck with freshman George MacIntyre for the backup job. And it didn’t appear that Merklinger would factor in the starting job in 2026.

Merklinger, a native of Savannah, Georgia, was a four-star recruit in the 2024 class. He has three seasons of eligibility remaining.

Adam Sparks is the Tennessee football beat reporter. Email adam.sparks@knoxnews.com. X, formerly known as Twitter@AdamSparks. Support strong local journalism by subscribing at knoxnews.com/subscribe.

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Tennessee

Seedy K’s GameCap: Tennessee

Published

17 hours ago

December 16, 2025

Press Room

When you have two legitimate Top 20 teams testing each other, it’s never inevitable.

But this U of L task in Knoxville against tall favorite Tennessee sure seemed close to that heading in.

Well coached top level foe at its sold out home.

One whose strength — inside scoring and rebounding — made it a bad matchup for the Cards, whose lack of inside depth and strength has been an Achilles heel from the get go.

That the Vols were hungry and angry coming off three straight Ls made a U of L victory seem an almost impossible task.

Then we learned that back issue of Mikel Brown’s is a problem.

Cards were toast before tip.

It was all evident by halftime — actually well before then.

It just takes a peek at a couple statistics.

Tennessee led by only 7, thanks to some tough Cardinal D. And UT’s woeful FT shooting.

That inside game issue: Volunteers 28 points in the paint. Cardinals 10.

That’s right, Tennessee had more points in the paint at the break than Louisville had points total.

That lack of point guard issue: U of L had 9 FGs at intermission. Tennessee had that many assists on 15 buckets.

Louisville’s strength is depth. At least usually.

During the first 20 Tuesday, the Cards had zero points off the pine. Vols 22. (For the game, the disparity was 34-3. Khani Rooths hit a FT. Wild Man Zougris a garbage time slam.)

Another opening stanza reality that might have you feeling the need to clean your glasses.

Only three guys scored. Adrian Wooley with 12, Ryan Conwell with 11, and Sananda Fru with 4.

Louisville’s second half performance is not worth the bandwidth, my time to write about, nor your time to read.

The final, in a lopsided disappointing loss: 83-62.

There is no sugar frosting this. Against teams with major size and inside presence, Louisville has and will continue to struggle.

When your most talented player doesn’t suit up, it makes it more impossible to overcome.

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Tennessee

A look at new laws proposed in Tennessee

Published

1 day ago

December 16, 2025

Press Room

A look at new laws proposed in Tennessee

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