Tennessee
Why Tennessee series is even more crucial for Vanderbilt baseball after sweep by Georgia
Throughout 2024, strike-throwing was one thing Vanderbilt baseball could hang its hat on.
The Commodores generally have had one of the top strike-throwing pitching staffs in the SEC. That wasn’t the case in a weekend sweep at Georgia. They walked 22, hit nine batters and struck out just 12. Every pitcher who entered allowed a run.
Nine of the 11 pitchers who made an appearance this season had thrown more than 60% strikes going into the series, led by JD Thompson at 69%. No pitcher threw more than 60% strikes in any individual outing this weekend.
The offense wasn’t much better. Vanderbilt had just three hits in a 10-0, seven-inning loss on Friday, and lost 14-4 on Saturday. Only on Sunday, in an 11-7 loss, did the offense pack much of a punch.
The Commodores (32-16, 11-13 SEC) face Tennessee this weekend (May 10-12). They have lost their past five SEC games and need two more wins to safely be in a regional.
Here’s what we learned from the weekend.
Quality starts an indicator
A quality start is when a pitcher throws six or more innings in a game and allows three earned runs or fewer. Vanderbilt pitchers have recorded nine quality starts in SEC play, going 8-1. In all other SEC games, the Commodores are 3-12.
They have struggled to win when the starter cannot give both length and quality. No starter lasted longer than three innings against Georgia (35-12, 13-11).
In the second and third games, the Commodores had chances to come back, but the bullpen struggled to stop any of the bleeding. Miller Green was the best bullpen performer, allowing only one run in three innings Sunday. With one strikeout and no walks, he was the only pitcher who struck out more batters than he walked.
Austin, Kozeal lead sluggish offense
Although the offense gave a poor performance overall, two players who had been slumping had breakout weekends.
RJ Austin, who had been hitting .261 in SEC play, put up two hits in each of the three games, though five of those six hits were singles. The performance raised his conference batting average to .290.
Camden Kozeal had been struggling even more, hitting .186 in SEC play. He had largely fallen out of favor in the lineup but was pushed back in due to an injury to Jayden Davis. Kozeal played Saturday and Sunday and recorded two hits in each of the games, including a double and a home run. He raised his conference batting average to .240.
The rest of the lineup didn’t do enough, though. Kozeal and Austin combined for 10 of the team’s 19 hits. Alan Espinal and JD Rogers hit home runs Sunday, but Vanderbilt put up just seven extra-base hits, compared with 12 for Georgia, including nine home runs.
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Vanderbilt’s road woes
Vanderbilt is 3-10 in true road games overall this season and 2-10 in SEC road games. The only two wins came at LSU, while the Commodores have been swept in each of their other three road series.
That won’t cut it, especially for a team that now is likely to be on the road for the postseason.
The Commodores have given up eight or more runs in 10 of 12 SEC road games, but only once in SEC home games. They have been run-ruled three times in road SEC games and got a run-rule win once.
Vanderbilt has failed to score more than six runs in nine of its 12 SEC road games and been shut out three times. At home, the Commodores have not been shut out and have one run-rule win and no run-rule losses.
Aria Gerson covers Vanderbilt athletics for The Tennessean. Contact her at agerson@gannett.com or on Twitter @aria_gerson.
The Tennessee Titans have developed an unfortunate weekly expectation, especially since the early-season firing of second-year head coach Brian Callahan, that a loss is imminent. It’s the sort of thing that plagues only the worst teams in the NFL; franchises that have not only lost direction, but that have no clear pathway in place to find it once more.
At 1-8, Tennessee defines this broken state, and their latest game against the Los Angeles Chargers only further evidenced their conundrum.
In a 27-20 home loss – admittedly, one of the team’s closer games in recent memory – the Titans ultimately failed to keep pace with Justin Herbert and the Chargers offense, despite making remarkable progress in that direction in the game’s earliest trends.
Out mulitiple key players ahead of the trade deadline, the Titans’ “nearly there” performance looks that much more impressive given the team’s current state. Then again, with their aforementioned record being the reality, this isn’t exactly a point in the season in which fans can take solace in moral wins. Even so, if the franchise wants to build something positive in the future, a base is necessary to build such a future from.
The things that Tennessee did well against Los Angeles can be used as that launching point going forward.
On both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball, the Titans saw big play breakthroughs from players waiting in the wings. First, while the aforementioned Herbert found himself backed up in Los Angeles territory, Tennessee linebacker Cody Barton jumped on a mistimed pass and took it back for the Titans’ first pick six of the entire season.
The score brought Tennessee a rare sense of momentum, and it wasn’t the only standout play of the day.
Rookie wideout and special teams sensation Chimere Dike, having already received conference player of the week honors for that latter ability, ran back a kick for a touchdown of his own. That’s two Tennessee scores driven by non-offensive plays.
Considering the team’s final 20-point tally, the discrepancy clearly lies in the inability of the team’s scoring unit to put points on the board.
As frustrating as that is for the franchise, having budding playmakers elsewhere is certainly a positive worth pointing to as just about everything else seems to go south. If nothing else, the team can hold onto moments like these until a new coach kicks down the doors and, hopefully, begins to right the ship for the long-term.
Make sure you bookmark Tennessee Titans on SI for the latest news, exclusive interviews, film breakdowns and so much more!
Knoxville, Tenn. – Tennessee coach Kim Caldwell announced Sunday that she has dismissed senior guard Ruby Whitehorn from the eighth-ranked Lady Vols, saying it was her responsibility to protect the program’s high standards.
Whitehorn played for Detroit Edison and won the Michigan Miss Basketball award in 2022.
“In light of recent events, Ruby has been unable to reflect those standards, and I have made the difficult decision to dismiss her from our team,” Caldwell said in a statement. “I love Ruby and will always be rooting for her, but my priority is to uphold the respected reputation of the Lady Vols.”
Whitehorn had been allowed back on the team following a suspension for an August arrest. She pleaded guilty Sept. 5 to two misdemeanors of aggravated trespassing and aggravated burglary in exchange for judicial diversion after the Aug. 8 altercation. Her record can be expunged after a year.
The 6-foot player was arrested after what police said was an incident at a woman’s residence where Whitehorn kicked in a front door and bedroom door. Whitehorn reportedly told officers she was getting her property back after the woman took her phone and passport and then locked the door.
Whitehorn then reportedly was stopped early on Oct. 30 by campus police who found her in possession of marijuana. She was charged with misdemeanor simple possession/casual exchange.
The Lady Vols open the season Tuesday night at No. 9 N.C. State.
Whitehorn started 28 of 34 games last season for the Lady Vols and ranked fourth on the team in scoring, averaging 11.6 points. She began her career at Clemson, where she started 62 of 66 games.
She helped Tennessee go 24-10 in coach Caldwell’s debut season. The Lady Vols lost to Texas in the Sweet 16 of the women’s NCAA Tournament.
Tennessee football committed a season-high three turnovers to suffer a 33-27 loss to Oklahoma on Nov. 1 and drop out of the College Football Playoff race.
The 14th-ranked Vols (6-3, 3-3 SEC) squandered early scoring chances and gave No. 18 Oklahoma (7-2, 3-2) ample opportunities to steal the game.
UT quarterback Joey Aguilar tossed two interceptions, and his fumble was returned for a touchdown. Meanwhile, Oklahoma kicker Tate Sandell made all four field goal attempts from 40 yards, 51 yards and twice from 55 yards.
The loss especially stung for UT coach Josh Heupel, who led Oklahoma to the 2000 national title as a Heisman Trophy runner-up quarterback. His team’s third loss of the season puts a second straight playoff bid out of reach.
Tennessee heads into an off week before hosting New Mexico State on Nov. 15 (4:15 p.m., SEC Network) at Neyland Stadium. Before turning toward that break, here are five takeaways from this loss to Oklahoma.
Tennessee never recovered from mistake-filled first half
Tennessee outgained Oklahoma 255 yards to 99 yards in the first half. And it had 17 first downs to Oklahoma’s five first downs. Yet, the Vols trailed 16-10 on the scoreboard at halftime.
Several unforced errors by UT led to that discrepancy, including two interceptions, a missed field goal and a fumble returned by Oklahoma for a touchdown.
In a game that felt like UT led by multiple scores, it instead trailed at halftime.
Oklahoma’s record-long fumble return started the mistakes
On a strange play, Oklahoma tied the game 7-7 on defensive end R Mason Thomas’ 71-yard fumble return for a TD. Linebacker Owen Heinecke came on a free rush off the edge. It appeared that freshman right tackle David Sanders was unsure of his assignment, and he whiffed trying to block Heinecke.
Heinecke hit Aguilar and forced the fumble, which Thomas scooped. Tight end Miles Kitselman failed to tackle Thomas, who suffered an injury and limped down the sideline for the TD. It was the longest fumble return in Oklahoma history.
In the second quarter, Aguilar tossed two interceptions. Both were returned 37 yards and set up Oklahoma field goals.
Josh Heupel has losing record vs. Top 25 opponents
Heupel’s record dropped to 11-12 against ranked opponents at Tennessee, including a 4-5 mark at home. Against Top 25 teams, he is 3-0 at neutral site games and 4-7 on the road.
The Vols fell out of playoff contention because they lost to all three ranked opponents they faced this season: Georgia, Alabama and Oklahoma.
Joey Aguilar committed three costly turnovers
Aguilar was 29-of-45 passing for 393 yards, three TDs and two interceptions in an up-and-down performance, and he lost a fumble that was returned for a touchdown.
Nevertheless, Aguilar hit some notable benchmarks in his career and UT history.
Aguilar became the fifth UT quarterback to record at least four 300-yard passing games in a season. He joined Peyton Manning, Tyler Bray, Hendon Hooker and Andy Kelly. Manning holds the school record with 10 300-yard passing games in the 1997 season, when he was the Heisman Trophy runner-up.
Aguilar also moved into 11th place on UT’s single-season list for TD passes with his 21st. Manning holds the school record with 36 TD passes in 1997.
And Aguilar has passed for at least 200 yards in all 33 starts of his Division I career, including nine at UT and 24 at Appalachian State. That’s the longest active streak in FBS.
Neyland Stadium crowd witnessed rare home loss
It was Tennessee’s first home loss to a team other than Georgia in the past four seasons.
In that way, Heupel’s teams seemed almost invincible at Neyland Stadium. But a sellout crowd witnessed this frustrating rare loss.
Heupel fell to 28-6 at Neyland Stadium during his tenure, which began in 2021. He’s had only three losses in the past 28 home games, losing to Georgia in 2023 and 2025 and to Oklahoma in this one.
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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