The Tennessee Titans are facing the New Orleans Saints in their final preseason game tomorrow at Caesars Superdome, and they are expected to play their starters for “a few series.”

However, the same cannot be said for the Saints.

According to NewOrleans.Football reporter Nick Underhill, the Saints are expected to sit a “significant” amount of their starters, including quarterback Derek Carr. In lieu of Carr, the Saints will have Jake Haener and Spencer Rattler each play one half.

This shouldn’t change plans for the Titans, who were already planning on having their starters play, but perhaps there were some within Tennessee’s organization that would have wished for New Orleans to play their first-stringers.

The quality of the reps shouldn’t change too much, but this means that the Titans won’t face a first-string team until they face off against the Chicago Bears on Sunday, Sept. 8 for Week 1’s contest.

The Titans will start quarterback Will Levis on Sunday, and that should give him an opportunity to get as loose as he can to start the season. However, he won’t have DeAndre Hopkins on the field alongside him, as he is still nursing a knee injury that he suffered earlier in training camp.

Even though the Saints aren’t playing their starters, the game should still be extremely competitive. Nearly everyone who plays tomorrow will have a non-guaranteed spot on the 53-man roster and players will be fighting tooth and nail to keep their dreams alive. Those who don’t make it past Tuesday’s cut deadline at 3 p.m. CT will be eligible to be claimed off waivers or be reverted back to their team’s practice squad, and that should make things interesting going into the game.

Kickoff between the Titans and Saints is set for 1 p.m. CT on NFL Network.

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) – Just over year after Tennessee passed a zero tolerance law against schools threats, it’s facing its second known legal challenge.

The parents of a Williamson County student filed a lawsuit after their son was expelled for allegedly making a Hitler reference and mentioning North Korea.

“He was humiliated before his peers, deprived of access to his classes and had his academic standing forever tarnished over the defendants’ misapplication of Tennessee code,” The lawsuit said.

The law classifies threats of mass violence as any act that could lead to serious bodily injury along with direct or indirect communication.

It does not clearly define the words “threat” or “threaten,” according to the lawsuit.

Rep. Scott Cepicky, R-Culleoka, sponsored the legislation.

“I think the intent of the law is to send the message that, among bringing drugs and guns to school, it has zero tolerance,” he said. “If you made a threat of mass violence that will be treated very seriously.

The law grants school districts the right to assess the level of any threat before implementing disciplinary actions.

Its authority is being questioned by the parents since they claim no evidence was given to support the allegations nor was anyone hurt.

As the case soon makes its way through the court system, Cepicky says the law is here to stay.

“I think the way that the law is written is very sound, i think it will hold up in court, we will send the message that do not make these kinds of threats,” he said.

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Tennessee is rewarding head baseball coach Tony Vitello nicely for winning the College World Series.

The university announced on Friday that Vitello has agreed to a five-year contract extension that will pay him $3 million per year — double his previous salary. The deal will make him the highest-paid coach in college baseball, reports The Athletic’s Joe Rexrode.

The Volunteers won their first-ever Division I men’s baseball championship in June, defeating Texas A&M in three games to win the title. Tennessee was the national No. 1 seed going into the NCAA tournament, becoming the first program to win the College World Series with that ranking since 1999.

Vitello was hired as Tennessee’s head coach following the 2017 season after 15 years as an assistant coach at Missouri, TCU and Arkansas. By his second season, the Vols won 40 games and made their first NCAA tournament appearance since 2005. In his fifth season, Tennessee advanced to the College World Series for the first time in 17 years.

Under Vitello, the Vols have made three of the past four College World Series and finally broke through by winning 60 games and a national championship this past season. He’s compiled a 295–112 overall record in Knoxville.

Previously, Vitello was the fifth-highest paid coach in the SEC, according to Front Office Sports. With his new contract, he surpasses Vanderbilt’s Tim Corbin ($2.45 million per year) for the top annual salary in the sport. (Jim Schlossnagle, who left Texas A&M for Texas after the College World Series, will be paid $2.68 million in the third year of his contract with the Longhorns, reports the Austin American-Statesman.)

Vitello and Tennessee agreed to the new contract on May 31, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel. If the school fires him without cause during the next five years, Vitello would be owed the remainder of the contract. The coach would owe Tennessee $4 million if he left for another job before June 2025. The buyout amount drops by $1 million in each of the two seasons after that, goes to $800,000 in July 2027, then $400,000 in the final year of the contract.

Also, Vitello’s buyout for leaving Tennessee would be reduced by half if athletic director Danny White is no longer in that position during the length of the contract.