Volume 149, Issue 02
Letters from sports editors
Dakota Brown steps up Page 6
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Wednesday, September 2, 2026
‘26
@utkdailybeacon
Fall Sports Preview
FAIZON BRANDON
Quarterback Fazion Brandon prepares to throw the ball during the Orange and White football game in Neyland Stadium on Apr. 11.
IN THE ISSUE
TREVOR MCGEE Sports Editor For the first time since 2004, Tennessee football will start a true freshman at quarterback. As Faizon Brandon takes the reins of Josh Heupel’s offense, his supporting cast could make all the difference. A pair of 800-plus-yard receivers return in Braylon Staley and Mike Matthews, while 1,000-yard rusher DeSean Bishop adds an-
other weapon out of the backfield. Four returning starters on the offensive line give Brandon experience up front as he takes over under center. Heupel made a major change on the defensive side of the ball when he parted ways with former coordinator Tim Banks and hired defensive mastermind Jim Knowles. Knowles brings a new scheme and several familiar faces to Knoxville as Tennessee looks to take another
step forward. At Food City Center, Tennessee volleyball looks to blend a wave of newcomers into another NCAA tournament push. On the pitch, Joe Kirt’s soccer team enters the season with early momentum and a deep group of goal scorers. The Daily Beacon’s fall sports preview takes an inside look at the teams, players and questions shaping Tennessee athletics this season.
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The Daily Beacon
Letters from the sports editors TREVOR MCGEE Sports Editor Sources: Trevor McGee and The Daily Beacon have agreed on a one-semester, terms-undisclosed deal to return as sports editor of the editorially independent student newspaper of the University of Tennessee. McGee, who’s entering his sixth semester as sports editor, had doubts about a return — but he’s decided to make one final run with the publication before crossing the stage in December. In all seriousness, I doubted whether I had it in me to do this one last time. After somewhere around 1,000 bylines (I think?), I had to reconsider whether I had enough in the tank to do it one more time. After all, this newsroom is the only thing I’ve known in college. With those thoughts, I came to one realization: the intimacy. I’ve met lifelong friends and made countless memories inside an office where I shouldn’t admit the number of hours spent between the renovated walls. I’ve seen the editorial team change year over year, I’ve seen mentors move on and have put myself in a position to be on the unofficial leaderboard as the longest-tenured sports editor in Beacon history. And somewhere along the way, I realized that same intimacy is disappearing from college sports. For every temporary restraining order and NIL deal, there is a story lost — the athlete who grinded their way to the top, the stories that made college sports feel special. But Sarkis’ letter has you covered on that topic (see right). There is the story of the athlete who stuck it out at one school through adversity at a time when five schools in five years is a reality. There is the story of teammates from different backgrounds converging to chase a championship together. Sports give us a rare opportunity to feel close to people we don’t actually know. And that’s what I love most about what I do. I’m reminded of two phrases
Trevor McGee (left) and Alex Sarkis (right) stand on the field at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Ga. on Aug. 30, 2025. when I write this. 1. If you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life. 2. Time flies when you’re having fun. They’re two cliches instilled at birth. The two phrases intersect every day in my final semester at The Daily Beacon. I’ve always been someone who enjoys working. It’s in my nature to prefer working because I love what I do — therefore, I feel I’ve never actually worked. And in a journey that feels like the longest-tenured sports editor in Beacon history, I’ve had enough fun to make the road feel like I just arrived yesterday. I spent the summer experiencing sports from a different perch while interning with the Knoxville News Sentinel. I’d be willing to bet I was in a very selective national boat as a Double-A baseball and USL soccer beat reporter. But in that role, I rediscovered the intimacy of sports. I sought the stories that would connect Chicago Cubs fans with their prospects. I sought the stories that would connect the local professional soccer team with its Knoxville community. There, I told the story of a
rigged moonshine still goal celebration machine — fitting for the East Tennessee culture. There, I told the story of a former firstround draft pick who could’ve walked away because of injury but never did because he wanted to reach his dream. I thought I was spending the summer covering sports. Instead, I was spending it getting closer to the people who make them matter. Everybody has a story to tell. And there is something special about being invited into someone’s world for a few minutes to tell those stories. That’s what keeps bringing me back. In an ever-changing collegiate landscape, the people won’t change. There will always be a story told. Sports are at their best when they bring us closer — and that’s our responsibility as journalists at The Daily Beacon. One final time, I hope you join me and Sarkis on our quest around SEC country. Let’s have some fun,
ALEX SARKIS Assistant Sports Editor
It feels like we’re nearing a boiling point in a sport some used to consider among the purest. For the majority of college football’s existence, it’s simply been about the game on the field. It’s been about the traditions, the tailgates, the band. While these things still certainly exist, many would agree we are living in the darkest period of college football — and college sports — for that matter. Money has taken over the headlines as the name, image, and likeness era runs wild across the country. Players who played in preseason NFL games are attempting to make a return to the “amateur” ranks – if Dae’Quan Wright didn’t want to play in the AFC North, he could’ve just come right out and said it. Always-active free agency periods allow players to do whatever they please if they don’t get their way. Now, college football is a sport more broken than any other on the planet. It is the Wild West. I believe we are at a crossroads. College sports are not dead, but are definitely diminished at the core. This football season and school year will be my final with The Daily Beacon, the place that got
me started and has given me everything and more I could’ve imagined to do as a freshman in this business. I’ve had the privilege to travel to some of the SEC’s top venues, from The Swamp to Saban Field at Bryant-Denny Stadium. However, I’ve also gotten to witness firsthand a rapid change in what I used to believe was America’s best sport. If the right people are put in charge, I believe college football can be saved. There are clear ways to fix the monetary and regulatory issues that are currently in place. For now, I’ll end my frustrations there. I view this 2026 edition of our fall sports preview as a celebration of what good is still left in college sports. Thankfully, we didn’t have to write about any of the issues I discussed above. In this paper, you’ll find previews for what will be a storyfilled season of Tennessee football. How will lauded freshman quarterback Faizon Brandon fare over the course of the Vols’ gauntlet of a schedule? Does Jim Knowles have what it takes to resurrect the Tennessee defense? You’ll also get exclusive looks into Tennessee soccer and volleyball with feature stories that dive into the fabric of both rosters. We’ve got good stuff for you on every page. We will just have to sit back and see what events and what drama shape college football in these next couple of years. I’ve got my hopes up that the right people will make the right decisions. But I am certain of one thing: This is going to be a fun year. Our section is going to do our best to bring you the best coverage we can of every single sport on campus. There’s nothing better than when everyone on a team loves what they do. You can feel that in our newsroom. As Sports Editor Trevor McGee and I take to our perch inside the Neyland Stadium press box, and others around the country, I know we’ll be soaking up our final reps as student journalists. It’s been one heck of a ride — let’s do it one last time.
WHO IS FAIZON BRANDON? Freshman signal-caller to command Tennessee football CONNOR WHITNEY Contributor
Running backs? Check. Receivers? Plenty. Offensive linemen? Many. Quarterback? Well, Tennessee had certainty everywhere on offense except at the most important position through much of the offseason. Then, Tennessee football head coach Josh Heupel made his decision on Aug. 24: true freshman Faizon Brandon would be the Vols’ starting quarterback week 1 versus Furman at Neyland Stadium. “We named him the starter because we believe in the work that he has put in and how he’s continued to grow and play throughout training camp and the second week through the second scrimmage,” Heupel said. Brandon was an exciting talent coming out of high school as a five-star recruit and the secondbest high school quarterback in his class, according to 247Sports. He was the first high school commit for Tennessee’s 2026 recruiting class, committing to the Vols back on Aug. 3, 2024, before he started his junior year of high school. The native of Greensboro, North Carolina, went 35-1 as a starting quarterback, completing 72% of his passes and throwing for 6,374 yards, tacking on 79 career touchdown passes. He also showed prowess with his rushing ability as well, amassing 1,261 yards and adding another 21 rushing scores.
The signal-caller was terrific in his last two seasons, leading his school to consecutive state championships and being named the MVP of both championship games. Across both games, he combined for six total touchdowns, showing his ability to elevate his game and team when the stakes were the highest. How Brandon earned the starting gig
In the offseason, it was clear that the Tennessee quarterback battle would be a duel between Brandon, the true freshman, and George MacIntyre, one of the returning backups from 2025. When the former was told he had earned the job for the season opener, he said he was excited. “I just feel like everything paid off, even though it’s not done yet,” Brandon said. “We’ve still got a whole season ahead of us, but that was just one of my big goals, and I accomplished that. So, I just felt very excited, but I’m still ready to keep working and prepare for the season.” While the physicality of the 6-foot-4, 225-pound youngster stands out, his maturity is also evident. The true freshman enrolled early to participate in spring practices, and he chose to stay on campus through the summer to work. “The entire group has worked and competed extremely hard, but I think something that sticks out is we break in May for a few weeks of vacation, and he’s in the building,” Heupel said. “Whether that’s in the weight room, whether that’s in the video room, walking through things on the turf in our indoor, working on fundamentals — that type of mentality, attitude is a tribute to him and his growth.” That time in the building allowed the freshman gunslinger to not only grow physically, but also to develop rapport with some of his receivers. “There would be some guys here, so I would be able to throw with some of them guys,” Brandon said.
“TK Keys would be here on some of those breaks, and some of the weight training staff would be here, so I would be able to still lift and things like that.” The work paid off, as Brandon stacked together practices and performed well throughout the scrimmages. While the freshman put his traits to good use throughout the fall camp, he also demonstrated his ability to control the offense while piecing together the fine details that elevate the quarterback position. “I think in all his control, command of what we’re doing offensively — that’s in the run game, it’s the (run-pass option) game, it’s the drop-back play action,” Heupel said. “Combine that with the fundamentals, technique, pocket awareness, you put all those things together. Decision-making, taking care of the football, while still allowing his playmakers to make plays down the field. You look at the total volume of work, and he’s earned the right to start.” Despite never taking a collegiate snap, Brandon beat out the returning sophomore MacIntyre for the week 1 starting job. When the Vols take the field against Furman on September 5, the true freshman will be tasked with leading the charge on offense, and he understands he will have to earn his job every single week. “You never know what could happen, so it’s not over now,” Brandon said. Don’t stop pushing. Just keep on working.”
Faizon Brandon (11) throws the ball during during practice at Neyland-Thompson Sports Complex on Aug. 5.
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‘IT’S MY TURN NOW’ Matthews, Staley to lead 2026 Tennessee football TREVOR MCGEE Sports Editor Mike Matthews and Braylon Staley played sparingly as freshmen. The talented top-100 recruits sat and learned what it took for their numbers to get called by wide receivers coach Kelsey Pope. Now, they’re the experienced leaders in Pope’s group, which could be Tennessee football’s most productive position in 2026. “I’m more proud of those two than probably anybody that I’ve coached in terms of leadership,” Pope said. The 2025 season showed how far they’d come. Staley went from three catches as a freshman to 68 for 837 yards and an SEC Freshman of the Year award. Matthews followed his seven-catch freshman season with 53 catches for 813 yards. Both return to a wide receiver corps littered with young talent, including fellow five-star freshman TK Keys. It’s now up to the veteran duo to become the mentors they had in the likes of NFL receivers Dont’e Thornton Jr. and Chris Brazzell Jr. “I’ve seen it before,” Staley said, “so it’s my turn now.”
On the practice field, Matthews and Staley increasingly act as coaches. Pope doesn’t always have to be the one doing the coaching. During one practice, Matthews made a mistake with his eyes and wasn’t in the right position when the ball was thrown. Before Pope could correct him, Matthews had already acknowledged the mistake. “He’s like, ‘Coach, I know, I should have been there,’” Pope said. “And it’s like no hesitation.” The clearest example came on an off day during fall camp. Matthews and Staley gathered the rest of the receiver room and led an entire walkthrough and offensive install of their own. It came without any direction from coaches — just upholding what they’ve learned during their time with Pope. “Those guys are coaching each other up,” Pope said. “They’re coaching others up and they’re holding a standard.” Matthews and Staley aren’t simply vocal, second-year receiver Joakim Dodson said. They make an effort to bring
Setting the standard That turn has come with more responsibility.
everyone into the room, whether that’s at practice or when the receivers are spending time together away from football. “They try to pick you up when you need it, because they’ve been there before,” Dodson said. That experience also gives Matthews and Staley credibility when Pope gets on younger players. Dodson said the veterans can remind younger receivers that Pope’s criticism comes from the right place while offering their own advice from having gone through it themselves. Learning that from veterans has been key for Keys’ adjustment at Tennessee. The touted freshman — battling for the No. 3 spot alongside Staley and Matthews — is “overly” motivated to make an immediate impact. “Having that humble mindset to learn after them,” Keys said, “it made me better within these few months that I’ve been here.” Growing into it
Matthews’ evolution into a leader has been particularly significant. When he arrived at Tennessee, Pope said Matthews had to work through what he called entitlement — a five-star recruit from a talentheavy Atlanta suburb. Pope built trust through three to four talks per week, with some garnering “more time talking to
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Mike Matthews celebrates a touchdown with Braylon Staley during a game against UAB at Neyland Stadium on, Sept. 20, 2025. him on the week than I did my wife.” The trust became important after Matthews’ first year, when he mulled potentially entering the transfer portal. He ultimately stayed and broke out in 2025. Matthews’ challenge changed from earning snaps to becoming one of the longest-tenured players in a room that had undergone significant turnover. “I’m usually not the talkative type,” Matthews said. “I’m not the most vocal, but now that it’s a big opportunity for me, and just going into it, I just want to be the best person I can be.” Their leadership comes with significant expectations on the field, too. Staley was one of the most productive slot wide receivers in the country by reeling in the third-most receptions in the SEC a year ago, earning him a spot on the 2026 Biletnikoff Award preseason watch list. Matthews established himself as another of Tennessee’s most dangerous threats on the outside. They still don’t want to get comfortable. “Man, I feel like that’s always got to be your mentality,”
Staley said. “I feel like you can’t get too comfortable. That’s my message to myself — never get too comfortable. You might succeed, but you can go further than what you do.” Matthews has heard the same message from Pope. “Coach Pope always tells us, ‘Don’t get relaxed,’” Matthews said. “Any opportunity can be taken any moment. And also, along with that, I want to be the best player that I can possibly be. So just keeping my head down and work hard every day and focusing on what’s next instead of what already happened.”
“I’ve seen it before, so it’s my turn now.” BRAYLON STALEY Wide receiver
Heupel adds to history of 1st-year starting QBs MADY RICHARD Contributor By naming true freshman Faizon Brandon the starter for Sept. 5, Josh Heupel is set to coach his eighth first-year primary starter in his 20 seasons coaching quarterbacks. The distinction here: These are quarterbacks entering their first full season as their team’s primary starter under Heupel, not necessarily making their first career start. This brings curiosity about Heupel’s process to help Brandon inaugurate. Here’s a look at how the ones before Brandon fared. Paul Thompson: 2006 Thompson was the first signal-caller Heupel got the chance to work with when he was promoted to quarterbacks coach in 2006 at his alma mater of Oklahoma. Thompson, a senior in 2006, only started the 2005 season opener before his benching. He followed as Oklahoma’s primary starter the next season. In the year Thompson worked directly with Heupel, he tossed for 2,667 yards and 22 touchdowns with 11 interceptions. Thompson led Oklahoma to an 11-3 record and a Big 12 Championship.
tional championship game. Bradford struggled with injuries his junior year, playing in just three games. Still, he declared for the 2010 NFL draft, where he became the No. 1 overall pick to the thenSt. Louis Rams. Landry Jones: 2009
As Bradford battled injuries his junior season, the door opened for redshirt freshman Jones to become a starter. Jones entered the 2009 season-opener against BYU and started 10 games in a season where Oklahoma went 7-5 — its worst record since 1999. Jones never relinquished the job from there. He went on to be a four-year starter for the Sooners, serving as the lead signal-caller during Heupel’s transition to offensive coordinator in 2011. Jones owned a career 39-13 record, earn-
ing him the most wins of any Oklahoma quarterback to this day. During his time there, he also executed a Big 12 Championship win, along with Fiesta and Cotton Bowl victories. Upon graduating, he was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2013, before ultimately retiring after the 2017 season. Jones now serves as an offensive analyst on Heupel’s 2026 Tennessee staff. Trevor Knight: 2013
One of the last first-year quarterbacks Heupel coached at Oklahoma was Knight, who started as a redshirt freshman in 2013. Knight started five games, tossing for 819 yards, nine touchdowns and five interceptions. He was named 2014 Sugar Bowl MVP after throwing for
348 yards and four touchdowns to defeat Alabama, giving Oklahoma an 11-2 record despite splitting time at quarterback throughout the season. When Heupel departed after the end of the 2014 season, Knight’s opportunities dwindled. Knight played 16 games over the next two seasons before transferring to Texas A&M after Baker Mayfield’s rise to the top at Oklahoma. He then finished his career with 19 touchdowns and 2,432 yards in his only season as an Aggie. Blake Bell: 2013
Bell still technically counts as a first-year starter for Heupel as well, during the same time as Knight. Bell started eight games for the 2013 Sooners, taking over for an injured Knight. Bell threw
Dillon Gabriel: 2019 The first freshman quarterback that Heupel acquired as a head coach was Gabriel at UCF. In their first year together, the team went 10-3 in the 2019 season. Gabriel passed for 3,653 yards with 29 touchdowns, setting a school record for passing yards in a season by a freshman. After the 2020 season, Heupel packed up for Tennessee, with Gabriel left to play at UCF for another year. He then transferred to Oklahoma in 2022 to continue his progress, then finished his sixth and final season at Oregon. It was with the Ducks that Gabriel ended with 155 career touchdowns and a third-place finish in Heisman voting. He became a third-round pick and was drafted by the Cleveland Browns in 2025. Nico Iamaleava: 2024
Sam Bradford: 2007 Bradford marked an early highlight for Heupel in his second year coaching quarterbacks, with 36 touchdowns and 3,121 yards. Bradford guided the Sooners to another Big 12 Championship with an 11-3 record. The talent continued to grow in his second year as the starter, becoming AP Player of the Year and Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year. His play earned him the Heisman Trophy in 2008, leading Oklahoma to the na-
for 1,648 yards, 12 touchdowns and five picks. But when Knight was healthy, Bell fell back to the backup spot. He eventually transitioned to tight end his senior season, where he became a fourth-round draft pick in 2015.
Nico Iamaleava after a win over Florida at Neyland Stadium on Oct. 12, 2024. File / The Daily Beacon
Though Iamaleava’s first-career start came as a true freshman in the 2024 Citrus Bowl, he didn’t become the primary starter until the following season. Iamaleava helped rally the Vols to their first-ever College Football Playoff appearance during a 10-3 season where he threw for 2,616 yards, 19 touchdowns and five interceptions. Now, Brandon will step in as the second-ever true freshman that Heupel has coached and just the second first-year starter to play at Tennessee under him.
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CRUNCHING THE NUMBERS
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Key stats to define 2026 Tennessee football ALEX SARKIS Assistant Sports Editor
The numbers rarely lie. In Tennessee football’s case, the 2025 season featured an offense and defense on opposite ends of the statistical spectrum. The Vols boasted the top-scoring attack in the SEC while lugging one of the league’s worst defensive units. Tennessee’s shortcomings in keeping its opponents off the scoreboard killed any chance of making another trip to the College Football Playoff – a season-defining struggle. The storylines are different heading into 2026. New defensive coordinator Jim Knowles will be tasked with leading a revamped group hoping to define things in a positive light. Faizon Brandon is set to become the second true freshman in Vols history to begin the season as starting quarterback. A loaded schedule with home bouts against Texas, Alabama and LSU provides opportunities for signature moments and potential season-altering wins. Here are the stats that will define Tennessee’s season.
Carter, Qua Moss and TJ Metcalf have an opportunity to lead a new-look group back into the spotlight, especially if good health is on the Vols’ side. Rushing offense By recent Tennessee standards, 2025 resembled a down year in toting the rock. After pacing the SEC in team rushing offense for back-toback seasons, the Vols finished eighth in the conference, tallying 173.5 yards per game. Running back DeSean Bishop still eclipsed 1,000 total yards, but it was the Vols’ passing attack that stole the show most weeks. Unless Brandon paces the conference in passing yards as Joey Aguilar did, Tennessee will have to rely on its ground game much more in 2026. Just like the defense can take some of the burden off a young quarterback, so can the running game. The Vols have been one of the most consistent running teams in the country for a large part of this decade. With reigning national champion
strength coach Derek Owings on staff, a bulked-up Bishop is set to return and chase another big year. Sophomore transfer Javin Gordon gives Tennessee some strong depth. He rushed for 516 yards and five scores during his first college season at Tulane. If the Vols can get back to being among the nation’s elite on the ground, Heupel’s fast-paced system can wear down opposing defenses. Tennessee’s biggest strength could reside in the running back room. Third-down defense The Vols’ 2025 defense spent a lot of time on the field. Opponents converted third downs at a 40.5% rate last season, often squashing any positive momentum Tennessee managed to generate. Although the Vols proved to be a good pass-rushing team overall, their sack numbers in the closing part of the season tailed off from an impressive start. Knowles’ guys need to get home when it matters to
get off the field in 2026. Losing transfer edge rusher Chaz Coleman to a medical disqualification will no doubt hurt Tennessee’s pressure potential, but it still has the tools to improve on the weighty downs. Tulane import Jordan Norman figures to factor in, bringing his six sacks from a year ago to the Power Four level. The Vols’ secondary needs to hold up if they want to have a shot at racking up sacks, though. Injuries torched Tennessee’s defensive back room a season ago, and the Vols have already lost projected starter Edrees Farooq for the year for this go-around. Secondary coach Anthony Poindexter has some veteran tools he can use to fill the void, as consistency in third-down passing situations will be vital. Penalties per game It will be difficult for Tennessee fans to forget Max Gilbert’s missed go-ahead field goal in the final minutes against Georgia, but some may fail to recall the false
Scoring defense The Vols must improve their worst trait from last year if they want to make any noise on the national stage. Tennessee allowed its foes to average 28.8 points per game in 2025, a number that played a crucial role in head coach Josh Heupel’s decision to relieve former defensive coordinator Tim Banks of his post. In 2024, the Vols’ defense helped carry them to the program’s first College Football Playoff berth, taking some weight off redshirt freshman quarterback Nico Iamaleava’s shoulders. If Knowles’ first Tennessee unit can provide a similar cushion for an inexperienced Brandon, success is in the cards. Veteran figures like Arion
DeSean Bishop (18) and Lance Heard (53) celebrate a touchdown during a game against Florida at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on Nov. 22, 2025.
start penalty prior to that backed things up five yards. Self-inflicted wounds, especially on the penalty front, became a common theme of the Vols’ 2025 squad. Tennessee committed 6.3 infractions per game last year, a mark that ranked it 79th in the nation. For any team, procedural penalties are can’t-haves, especially offensive ones that will kill drives and hurt a firstyear starter in 2026. The Vols hope that returning a majority of their offensive line will help in this area. On defense, Knowles hopes a veteran secondary and a more mature Ty Redmond can cut down on pass interference penalties. When yards are already at a premium, Tennessee can’t afford to give away free ones. Explosive plays allowed The Vols found themselves among the SEC’s worst in allowing the big play last campaign. Foes converted plays of 20 yards or more 60 times against Tennessee’s defense in 2025, a total that ranked second-worst in the conference. Of the total, 44 of those plays came via the passing game. Explosive plays usually are the ones that decide games, so the Vols will need to improve on preventing them in a huge way. Tennessee had issues with the fundamentals in Banks’ final season. Missed tackles and assignments led to coverage busts that allowed opposing skill players to gash the Vols in chunks. While the Vols’ defense will have to adjust to playing under Knowles, the fundamentals remain the same. In order to prevent the big splash, defenders will need to make the plays they’re expected to make.
How Jim Knowles’ 1st-year defenses have performed NATHAN MILES Contributor Tennessee football made a big splash in the offseason with the hire of defensive coordinator Jim Knowles. The leader of the national champion Ohio State defense that stifled the Vols back in 2024, Knowles now looks to rebuild a unit that ranked 92nd last season in total defense and 91st in opponent points per game. But what can Vols fans expect in Knowles’ first year at the helm? Here are the stats behind every first-year Knowles defense throughout his coaching career. Western Michigan: 2001 After a stellar defensive season in 2000, Western Michigan defensive coordinator Chuck Driesbach took the defensive coordinator job at TCU. Knowles, who had spent four seasons as the defensive line coach under Driesbach, was promoted to defensive coordinator for the Broncos. • Opponent points/game: 24.2 (49th in FBS) • Total defense: 366.3 yards/game (56th in FBS) • Passing defense: 179.8 yards/game (17th in FBS) • Rushing defense: 186.5 yards/game (87th in FBS) Notable fact: Western Michigan had the best passing defense in the Mid-American Conference in 2001, just barely beating out the University of Buffalo by 0.2 yards per game. Duke: 2010 Tennessee football defensive coordinator Jim Knowles during practice at Neyland-Thompson Sports Complex on, Aug. 5.
After spending six seasons as the head coach at Cornell, Knowles returned to the FBS
ranks as a defensive coordinator at Duke, reuniting with head coach David Cutcliffe, whom Knowles had previously coached with at Ole Miss. Knowles was one of two defensive coordinators on the Duke staff in 2010, sharing duties with Marion Hobby, before becoming the sole coordinator the following season. • Opponent points/game: 35.4 (109th in FBS) • Total defense: 450.1 yards/game (108th in FBS) • Passing defense: 241.8 yards/game (96th in FBS) • Rushing defense: 208.3 yards/game (113th in FBS) Notable fact: This was one of Knowles’ worst defenses. The Blue Devils unit allowed opponents to score 40-plus points in four different games, and never held an opponent to under 20 all season. Oklahoma State: 2018 After steadily improving Duke’s defensive unit over the span of eight years, Knowles left Durham to coach at Oklahoma State under Mike Gundy. • Opponent points/game: 32.5 (97th in FBS) • Total defense: 452.5 yards/game (112th in FBS) • Passing defense: 267.1 yards/game (118th in FBS) • Rushing defense: 185.4 yards/games (86th in FBS) Notable fact: The 2018 Cowboys lost a 48-47 thriller to Kyler Murray and Oklahoma, a game in which the Sooners totaled 702 yards. Ohio State: 2022 By the end of the 2021
season, Knowles had turned Oklahoma State from one of the worst defenses in college football to a top-10 unit. He was off to bigger things at Ohio State. • Opponent points/game: 21.0 (24th in FBS) • Total defense: 321.5 yards/game (14th in FBS) • Passing defense: 200.5 yards/game (26th in FBS) • Rushing defense: 121.1 yards/game (25th in FBS) Notable fact: The 2022 Buckeyes held six different teams to under 15 points throughout the season, but in their final two games, they gave up over 40 to Michigan and the eventual national champion Georgia. Penn State: 2025 After his top-ranked defense led Ohio State to a national championship in the 2024 season, Knowles departed for conference rival Penn State, becoming the highest-paid assistant coach in college football history in the process. • Opponent points/game: 20.5 (33rd in FBS) • Total defense: 326.8 yards/game (25th in FBS) • Passing defense: 184.2 yards/game (21st in FBS) • Rushing defense: 142.5 yards/game (56th in FBS) Notable fact: Two of Knowles’ position coaches at Penn State, Anthony Poindexter and Andrew Jackson, joined him in Knoxville. Derek Jones, who worked with Knowles at Duke, was also hired by Tennessee this offseason. It’s the most continuity Knowles has ever had in a first-year staff.
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UT FOOTBALL GETS NEW COACHES
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Tennessee football defensive coordinator Jim Knowles during practice at Neyland-Thompson Sports Complex on Aug. 5.
ANNA REIFFER Contributor Tennessee football is entering a new season with a new look on the sidelines. Josh Heupel’s sixth season with the Vols comes with his most significant coaching overhaul yet. Following the 2025 regular season, the Vols parted ways with defensive coordinator Tim Banks and secondary coach Willie Martinez. The response, a defensive rebuild centered around experience, brought a fresh dynamic to the Vols’ coaching staff. Jim Knowles’ championship blueprint Everything begins with Jim Knowles, who was named the Vols’ new defensive coordinator in early December 2025 before Tennessee even participated in the Music City Bowl. With this hire, Heupel didn’t just replace Banks. He brought in one of the most experienced defensive coordinators in the nation. With 38 years of coaching experience, 18 seasons as a defensive coordinator and a national championship on his resume, Knowles’ skill set makes him the perfect fit for Heupel’s reconstructed roster. Before spending the 2025 season at Penn State under then-head coach James Franklin, Knowles served as defensive coordinator for the Ohio State Buckeyes for three seasons, helping lead the 2024 Buckeyes to the national championship title. The Buckeyes finished first in the nation in red zone, scoring and total defense in 2024 under
Knowles’ leadership, allowing their opponents just over 254 yards per game. Their dominant season led to eight defensive Buckeyes being drafted in the 2025 NFL Draft. Extending beyond his season at Penn State and national championship run at Ohio State, Knowles completed defensive coaching stints at Oklahoma State, Duke, Cornell, Ole Miss and Western Michigan. His work at Oklahoma State culminated in 2021, when the Cowboys’ defense transformed into a top-five national program. The Knowles connection: Poindexter and Jackson Knowles isn’t rebranding Tennessee’s defense alone, bringing two of his assistant coaches, Anthony Poindexter and Andrew Jackson, with him from Penn State. Poindexter joins the Tennessee sideline as Knowles’ co-defensive coordinator and secondary coach, bringing over two decades of coaching experience to Knoxville. But Poindexter’s resume extends beyond coaching. During his senior season at the University of Virginia, Poindexter was named ACC Player of the Year before transitioning into a three-year NFL career with the Cleveland Browns. Beginning his coaching career at Virginia, Poindexter spent a decade at his alma mater between 2003 and 2013. He also made multi-season stops at UConn and Purdue before his five-year tenure at Penn State, where he developed five safeties into NFL draft picks. Poindexter’s familiarity with
Knowles’ coaching philosophy gives the Vols a seamless transition into a reconfigured coaching staff. This relationship also extends to Jackson, who follows Knowles to Tennessee after working with him for a single season at Penn State. While Poindexter focuses on the secondary, Jackson will oversee the LEOs, Tennessee’s hybrid defensive ends and outside linebackers who act as primary pass-rushing weapons. Jackson brings 13 years of coaching experience to the Vols, with stops at Mississippi State, West Virginia and other programs before connecting with Knowles at Penn State last season. At West Virginia, Jackson helped produce a defensive front that ranked among the Big 12’s best in sacks. During this time, he also coached Dante Stills, a two-time first-team All-Big 12 selection who currently plays for the Arizona Cardinals. Earlier, at Mississippi State, Jackson worked with a defense that led the nation in total defense and featured future first-round draft picks Jeffery Simmons and Montez Sweat. Poindexter and Jackson give Knowles two experienced assistants and coaches who already have a working knowledge of the philosophy he is working to establish with the Vols. Derek Jones: Another piece of the puzzle
While Poindexter and Jackson bring familiarity, Derek Jones brings it from much farther back. Jones and Knowles spent eight seasons together at Duke, where their tenure coincided with the Blue Devils’ rebranding into an ACC contender. This unique history made Jones a natural fit when Tennessee called for a new cornerbacks coach. He brings 27 years of coaching experience to the Vols, 18 of which were at the Power Four level. At Duke, Jones coached Ross Cockrell, a first-team All-ACC selection, who was later drafted by the Buffalo Bills in the 2013 NFL Draft. In total, Jones has coached eight college players who have later become NFL draftees. Jones’ track record of specifically developing defensive backs gives Tennessee another piece to the puzzle in the secondary, while his familiarity with Knowles adds an even greater level of chemistry to the coaching staff. Derek Owings: changing the physical profile
Why Knowles’ Tennessee defense is different ALEX SARKIS Assistant Sports Editor
It’d be easy to think Jim Knowles had done it all by now. He graduated from an Ivy League school, won a national championship and has made coaching stops in each of the Power Four conferences over his 38-year career. Firsts should be tough to come by. In his first season with Tennessee football, though, there is something new. Knowles’ defensive scheme is one known for its intricacy and difficulty to execute, a system made up of nontraditional moving parts designed to keep opposing offenses on their toes. Teaching it to his own players and coaches is usually a huge hurdle. Usually. “I thought that we made more strides this spring and summer than any of my first-year assignments,” Knowles said on Aug. 5. “I was able to bring in staff who understand the system, really at all levels of the football. I thought we got a lot done.” Even in his most successful seasons, Knowles needed to
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coach his assistant coaches before moving on to his own players. The Vols have done their best to break that trend this season, bringing three coaches aboard with ties to Knowles and his defensive philosophy. Anthony Poindexter and Andrew Jackson made the move from Penn State alongside their old comrade. Poindexter serves as Tennessee’s co-defensive coordinator and secondary coach, a role similar to his with the Nittany Lions a season ago. Jackson acts as the Vols’ LEOs coach after coaching defensive line in State College. Derek Jones, former colleague of Knowles’ at Duke, is over from Virginia Tech to coach cornerbacks with the Vols. Head coach Josh Heupel’s familiarity-focused hiring started paying dividends even before fall camp opened. “I really understand what coach Knowles is looking for,” Poindexter said on Aug. 18. “A year ago, first time working with him, I was kind of learning on the run with the kids. This year, I know what he wants out of the defense, know how he wants
the technique played. I’m a better teacher than I was a year ago.” The notion that Knowles’ defense is challenging to learn corresponds with a history of below-par seasons in his first year with a new program. After a dismal last year on that side of the ball for Tennessee, the Vols are looking to be an outlier in 2026. On the field, Penn State imports Dejuan Lane, Amare Campbell and Xavier Gilliam each have a season’s worth of reps in Knowles’ scheme. While new to Tennessee, each member of the trio emerged in a leadership role at their level of the defense. Getting teammates up to speed more quickly than usual could bode well for some of the Vols’ tougher challenges early in the season. Lane knows what it’s like to learn the same sophisticated defense somewhere else. He’s liked what he’s seen in his new home. “I would say we’re picking it up pretty well,” Lane said on Aug. 18. “Coach Knowles
does a good job of tracking our alignment, tracking our assignments and everything that we do, and we’re looking pretty good. I say we’re picking it up a little faster than we did last year.”
The overhaul extends beyond the defensive side of the ball and into the weight room with the addition of Derek Owings as the director of football sports performance. Owings brings a fresh perspective on what it takes to win a championship, having overseen the remarkable turnaround of the Indiana Hoosiers during the last two seasons. The Hoosiers went from 3-9 in 2023 to 11-2 in 2024, and completed an undefeated season in 2025, when they went on to win the program’s first national championship. For helping build the physical foundation that fostered that transformation, Owings earned FootballScoop’s Strength and Conditioning Coach of the Year award in 2025. Now he brings that championship-caliber experience to the Vols. Owings’ role is about more than adding size and strength to the program, as he prepares them for a nine-game SEC slate — the most grueling conference schedule in the modern era. Since arriving in the spring, Owings has hit the ground running. From January to May 2026, Tennessee added 867.3 pounds of muscle and posted a cumulative fat loss total of 218.1 pounds. With this, Owings saw 33 players gain 11 or more pounds of muscle, as measured by DexaScan. In coming to Tennessee, Owings reunites with Josh Heupel, whom he worked with during Heupel’s first season as head coach at UCF in 2018. During that season, their team posted an 11-0 regular-season record, claiming the American Conference Championship and a Fiesta Bowl berth. Nearly a decade later, Heupel and Owings reunite in Knoxville with the same goal of building an elite program that is capable of excelling with the newer, harsher conference schedule. This coaching overhaul proves that Josh Heupel isn’t simply trying to survive the new-look SEC, but rather building a welloiled machine to conquer it. By combining championship expertise in Knowles and Owings, Heupel has built a culture based around winning. The eye-popping body transformations and rapid playbook installation are proof that the players are already buying into the schematics. Only time will tell what they do with it.
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DAKOTA BROWN STEPS UP
Soccer star stays constant through every change TYLER EDMANDS Staff Writer On senior day at Regal Soccer Stadium, four players emerged from the locker room in front of 4,793 fans erupting in applause. Three had arrived in Knoxville over the past two seasons, but one had been there for the whole ride: Dakota Brown. From missing nearly her entire sophomore year to injury to defeating then-No. 1-ranked North Carolina and reaching the top spot in the coaches poll in 2025, she’s had a rocky battle to the top during her tenure with the Lady Vols. “It was crazy to think about how I got to this point,” Brown told The Daily Beacon. “Sometimes I feel like I’m 22, and other times I feel like I’m a freshman that just got here. Everything was going through my head of everything I’ve done here for this program.” A career that began in the training room From her first season, a normal career for the Culpeper, Virginia-native seemed far-fetched. Brown officially arrived on campus in the spring of 2022, the same year athletic director Danny White promoted Joe Kirt as the fourth head coach in Tennessee soccer history. She came in with Mac Midgley, Ally Brown, Leah Klurman and Kennedy Price, who graduated last year. Associate head coach Jonathan Morgan played a crucial role in her recruiting process, calling the No. 46 overall recruit an excellent possession player and “one of the best possession sixes coming out of the country.” Despite the high praise from Morgan, Brown’s on-field abilities and consistency wouldn’t shine on the pitch until her junior year. It began with a string of quad strains, the first in the fall of her freshman year. She endured tightness and shooting pains down her leg while striking the ball, playing 128 minutes across four games that fall. An MRI of her hip and spine revealed a torn labrum. Though steroid shots, pills and working with a trainer quelled the pain, only going under the knife would be a long-term solution. Surgeons repaired the tear and shaved down her iliopsoas tendon, and cost Brown nearly her entire sophomore campaign. She returned that spring, then had knee surgery — her second operation in a year. “People don’t see everything behind the scenes of what they go through,” Kirt told The Daily Beacon. “Especially when you deal with injuries. Fans see the product on the field, but they don’t see the hours of work on the practice field, and certainly in the training room. What these athletes do beyond just sports and being on the field is special, and it’s not normal the level of commitment they have.” Through rehab with trainer Greg Mytyk, she worked her way back into soccer activities. He kept her pushing through as the two started with what she could do before easing her into jogging, then playing again. “It hasn’t been an easy, smooth ride for Dak,” Morgan told The Daily Beacon. “She’s relatable with a lot of players that might be going through struggles. Whether it’s injury struggles, playing-time struggles or starting struggles, she’s had to deal with all of it.” The lone constant Five seasons later, the midfielder remains the lone constant for Tennessee. She’s shared a locker room with 81
Dakota Brown passes the ball during a game against Western Carolina at Regal Soccer Stadium on Aug. 23.
the opening round. Soon after, the Lady Vols lost 18 total players and 11 of their 12 goal-scorers from 2025.
It finally clicked in my head that us old girls have to step An evolving team up. I started to not be afraid to With nearly an entire new speak my mind because I am a very hon- squad in Knoxville, some call Tennessee an underdog est person. Even if it is kind of harsher to despite recent success. Brown that notion is far from say, the team needs to hear it, because at says the truth. “This year is a very young the end of the day we want to win.” team, but we have shown that DAKOTA BROWN Senior, midfielder teammates while remaining a leader on and off the pitch. “The consistency is huge, especially in her role,” Kirt said. “In that role — the center-back role and goalkeeper — knowing what you’re going to get is important. She’s the epitome of that. She’s incredibly consistent.” Brown did not argue with the scouting report. “When it comes to my gameplay, I don’t let anything get to me,” she said. “Even if the team’s not playing well, if I’m not playing well, I just keep pushing through. When games do get tough, and I’m struggling, I just do a good job of internalizing everything.” During his 21-year career and 11-year tenure in Knoxville, Morgan has seen hundreds of players, and he echoed Kirt’s message. “You always know what effort you’re going to get out of her,” Morgan said. “She may have off days where technically something’s not
on, or decision-making may not be as sharp, but in terms of her effort and commitment, that is the most solid kid as it gets.” Her effort and consistency every day are a major part of the success the Lady Vols have enjoyed over the past five seasons. Since her arrival, Tennessee soccer has continued on its upward trajectory. “When it comes to expectations, standards, none of that has changed,” Brown said. “We’ve always set the high standard for ourselves. The biggest thing that changed is personnel.” The Lady Vols have qualified for the NCAA Tournament every year Brown’s been on the roster. In 2025, they peaked at No. 1 in the rankings after defeating No. 1 North Carolina, No. 6 UCLA and drawing with No. 14 Memphis to start the year. Despite the historic season, Tennessee’s NCAA Tournament run never left
since the spring into now, that we can do it,” Brown said. “Some people might see us a little bit as an underdog, but that’s just not the case at all.” Kirt’s favorite word plays a large part in the ability to acclimate new faces: connected. On the pitch, it means the relationships between players, the ability to guide each other and the ability to recognize space. Off the pitch, that can be as small as getting coffee together. “Connected is now one of our team core values,” Brown said. “We really make sure each game, each practice, we just heavily keep working on that. So, at the end of the day, no one can really get through us.” While she’s been the most consistent player on the team during her tenure, there’s a difference between consistency and complacency. She strayed far from complacency this past offseason, adding to her offensive skillset in order to help the team. Kirt said the last eight months have been about her playing more forward and occupying central pockets
instead of only switching the point. The fifth-year head coach pointed to her senior day against Western Carolina as an example of this. Kirt said the last eight months have been about her playing more forward and occupying central pockets instead of only switching the point. The fifth-year head coach pointed to her senior day against Western Carolina, where she didn’t get content in one spot on the field and found different pockets. “That part of it has been a huge boost to her game,” Kirt said. Brown’s reason for the evolution wasn’t for her own sake. Rather, she understood the team around her needed help fulfilling Kirt’s preseason goal: to score more goals. “In the past I was more of the facilitator that would get us from one side of the field to the other,” she said. “Changing my game and being able to play forward, I think has helped the team so much.” The Lady Vols have nearly doubled last year’s goal rate through four games, jumping from 1.79 to 3.5 per match. They’ve already scored four goals in a game three times – a mark they hit just twice all last season. Morgan said this change goes further than a tactical tweak. “She wants to hold things down,” he said. “She wants to be stable. She wants to be consistent. She wants to be good. What’s been really cool is how she’s opened herself up and gotten out of her comfort zone.” The year off the field is also when Brown started becoming a locker room voice. Her leadership grew the most while sidelined, allowing her to see the bigger picture and help other players. “It finally clicked in my head that us old girls have to step up,” Brown said. “I started to not be afraid to speak my mind because I am a very honest person. Even if it is kind of harsher to say, the team needs to hear it, because at the end of the day we want to win.” Kirt mentioned that the fifth-year midfielder is a pragmatic individual. Morgan took that a step further, calling her a “straight shooter.” He said she is a direct person — no fluff or sugarcoating. That directness has allowed unwavering trust between Brown and Morgan. She said she can look to him for the full truth, and that had started in the recruiting process. “I’ve always been fair with Dak,” he said. “That balance has allowed me to be firm with her when I need to be firm.” ‘Lady Vol for life’ Although 11 players transferred out of Knoxville following the 2025 season, it wasn’t within Brown’s realm of possibilities to play elsewhere. She had told the staff that same sentiment since she turned 18. “Once I start something, I want to finish it,” Brown said. “The relationships I made with the players on the team, the staff, it’s just something I really didn’t want to give up on. I love Knoxville so much, and I didn’t want to start over just for one semester. Lady Vol for life.” Brown will cherish the win over North Carolina the most from her time at Tennessee. But past that result, she’s learned what’s kept her coming back, even as the faces in the locker room changed. “Never take anything for granted,” she said. “And don’t be afraid to make mistakes in any aspect of life, because it’s honestly you versus you and anything is possible.”
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Summer retreat bonds Tennessee volleyball
Tennessee celebrates after a point during a game against Morehead State at Food City Center, August 29. (Luke Goins/The Daily Beacon)
THEO COLLI Senior Staff Writer Just eight months ago, Utah State and Tennessee battled for a spot in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Tied at two sets apiece, Lady Vols outside hitter Maggie Dostic was unable to recover a strike from Tierny Barlow. Tennessee volleyball’s season promptly ended in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Entering the new season, the Lady Vols had just seven returning players after a hectic transfer portal window that saw seven players depart in the offseason. With such roster turnover, the Lady Vols needed to build chemistry in one offseason — a not-so-abnormal reality in the current age of college sports. The solution was a two-day getaway trip in the summer. “We did a whole bunch of things together in the spring, and we had a couple newcomers coming after the spring, so in the summer we did a two-day cabin trip,” senior Sydney Jaynes told The Daily Beacon. Jaynes, entering her fourth year with the team, is one of three remaining players from the 2023 team that made the Lady Vols’ deepest postseason run since 2005. The 2023 team lasted until the Sweet Sixteen before losing to Texas in a heartbreaking five-set match. It was the Lady Vols’ best postseason run in nearly 20 years and the only time in the last two decades that Tennessee has reached the Sweet Sixteen or further. “We all went, and we all talked about our mission for this season, and we were able to use the opportunity
to bond as a team too,” Jaynes said. “So I think after that, being able to go into the preseason after that, I feel like we’ve all been closer together as a team.” What made the trip so memorable and impactful? “We were put into groups, and it was able to show the personality of each different group and person,” transfer Jalyn Stout told The Daily Beacon. “I think that was really cool, and I think it was a fun way to bond because there were a lot of people who normally hadn’t hung out, hanging out together, which was really cool.” Eleven new players are joining the Lady Vols team this season. Seven true freshmen, along with four transfers from previous schools. Seven different states, along with one country, are where the new faces hail from. Freshman Anni Tang enters the team from Sydney, Australia, while the others were born and played in the United States. Stout, a standout senior transfer out of Coastal Carolina who currently holds the NCAA record for tripledoubles in a career, is the only player in Sun Belt Conference history to reach over 1,000 kills, digs and assists. Despite her experience and success at Coastal Carolina, Stout was one of several newcomers learning the expectations and personalities of a new team. “Being one of the new people, I will say it was a bit of a longer journey for me,” Stout said. “I’m very to myself, I’m very quiet and I like to have my alone time. But I think it’s really nice because there’s a lot of different personalities on
This is who we got. We don’t know who else is coming in. The freshmen are coming, and then whoever comes out of the portal. We want to make sure that we can set the standards and expectations high because that’s what we’ve received.” SYDNEY JAYNES Senior, libero /defensive specialist
this team, so it forced me to come out of my shell a little bit.” With the wild roster turnover, the remaining players took action to keep the team as together as they could. In January the remaining core of Jaynes, Caroline Kerr, Chelsea Sutton, Mackenzie Plante, Maggie Dostic, Eryn Jones and Alaina Jarrett, made a group chat. They set the parameters with each other. “This is who we got,” Jaynes said. “We don’t know who else is coming in. The freshmen are coming, and then whoever comes out of the portal. We want to make sure that we can set the standards and expectations high because that’s what we’ve received.” By the time the roster was officially assembled, it was time to put those words into action. The cabin provided the perfect opportunity. “A team retreat where we’re just all in the same house for a weekend and there’s like 18 of you,” Sutton told The Daily Beacon. “You’re definitely going to get close, in a good way though.” Sutton, who is entering her third season with the team, has seen her role become a full-circle moment. From her freshman year, when she started 13 games as a middle blocker, to her sophomore season, when she started all 28 games, she had to become a leader. “It’s been so much fun for me,” Sutton said. “I remember coming in as a freshman. I was actually the only freshman in my position group, and now it’s kind of flipped. I’m the only upperclassman — being able to bring along three new middles that are new to college, it’s been so rewarding as a leader.” For the upperclassmen, this is about maintaining the standard. Only three seniors remain from the team’s 2023 Sweet Sixteen run: Jaynes, Kerr and Plante. Yet from the four incoming transfers that have played previous seasons, all four have at least some experience in tournament play. Stout reached the NCAA Tournament once, her freshman season with
Coastal Carolina, playing just one round. Nia Hall and the Gamecocks were eliminated in the first round of the 2024 tournament. While Hall and Stout’s experience was limited, Raegan Burns from Kansas and Kennedi Rogers from SMU both have reached the Sweet 16 with their former schools, both as recently as the 2025 season. That experience will be crucial for the Lady Vols to make another postseason run with a core who knows what it takes. “From that season, I remember how much work everybody put in the offseason, coming into the season, something that our coaches talk about as well — having a good summer can really show good things in the fall,” Jaynes said. “I really see that in this team,” she said. “We have a lot of talent.” When assessing how to build her roster back up, head coach Eve Rackham Watt had her non-negotiables. She was only going to bring in players who fit the mold of
Graphic By Shelby Perdue
“passion and competitiveness” that her past teams have had. Players like Stout were part of that effort, bringing talent to a roster that needed to come together quickly. But for Stout, fitting into Tennessee meant more than what she could provide on the court. For a team with seven returning players and even more newcomers, becoming a team was never going to happen overnight. It started with a group chat, continued during a two-day stay at a cabin and carried into the preseason. After an offseason of getting closer as a team, the effort of turning camaraderie into results really begins. “This team put a ton of work in the offseason and the summer,” Rackham Watt said. “They really got themselves ready for the season, so even when we weren’t coaching them, they were working on the camaraderie and the cohesion.”
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Lady Vols soccer primed for SEC play TYLER EDMANDS Staff Writer Four games into Joe Kirt’s fifth season as head coach, No. 10 Tennessee looks like the team he had been searching for last fall. The Lady Vols are 4-0 after a homestand that wrapped Aug. 23, with a 4-0 win over Western Carolina at Regal Stadium. They’ve outscored opponents 14-1, and 10 different players already have a goal. To put that number in perspective, Tennessee finished last season with 12 goal-scorers in 19 games. The beginning was the easy part. What’s left in their schedule does not look like the first two weeks. They begin with No. 13 Virginia on the road on Thursday, Sept. 3, before playing the likes of Vanderbilt and Alabama later in the season, both of whom are ranked in the top 10. The past Tennessee posted a 12-4-3 record in 2025, largely because it had one of the best defenses in the country. The Lady Vols tied a program record with 13 shutouts and allowed just 12 goals. They shut out then-No. 1 North Carolina 2-0 in the opener and reached No. 1 in the coaches’ poll themselves. They also spent almost the entire season without their two best finishers. Shae O’Rourke scored five goals in five games, including a brace against North Carolina, before tearing her ACL. Kylee Simmons missed her first season in Knoxville after tearing her ACL before the year even started. In their absences, Tennessee leaned on Kate Runyon, Alivia
Stott and Jenna Stayart, none of whom returned in 2026. The trio scored half of the Lady Vols’ 34 goals before Tennessee was bounced in the first round of the NCAA Tournament after North Carolina came back for revenge at Regal Stadium. “We created chances and defended at a really high level,” Kirt said before the Rutgers opener. “That was not an issue. But to win games, you’ve got to score goals. It’s not rocket science.” Not only did 11 of last year’s 12 goal-scorers not come back, but the Lady Vols lost two crucial starters in the back line too. Ally Brown and Leah Klurman graduated, leaving a less experienced group in front of Cayden Norris. The present It has taken just four games for Tennessee’s offseason work and acquisitions to pay off. The Lady Vols have already scored four goals in three matches this season, a mark they hit just twice all of last season. Simmons has been the focal point offensively, contributing three goals and two assists. Florida transfer Kai Tsakiris and freshman Jayla Blue have two each. Seven more players have one, which was the point of Tennessee’s offseason. “Getting Shae and Kylee back is huge,” Kirt said after beating Western Carolina. “You can see how goals have been spread across the team. We’ve got a lot of pieces and all of them are capable of scoring — not to rely on just one individual.” Early questions about the rebuilt back line have been answered as well. Nyla Blue, Devin Davis, Milee Zych and freshman Cora Fry have given Norris a group that hasn’t
Tennessee soccer coach Joe Kirt talks with athletic director Danny White before a game at Regal Soccer Stadium on Aug. 23. looked like a first-year unit thus far. “As much as they’re new players, they’re not new when it comes to experience,” Kirt said before the season. The only goal Tennessee has given up came against Rutgers, on what Kirt called “our own tackle at the top of the box.” Opponents have just 20 shots over four games, and Norris has had a quiet start to the year. She’s seen only five shots on goal, saving four. The future The rest of the year is when that starts to matter. Tennessee’s slate includes 13 teams that made last year’s NCAA Tournament and 11 regular-season home games, the most since 2022. After opening with four straight at Regal, the Lady Vols go to No. 13 Virginia on Sept. 3,
host Northwestern on Sept. 6, then open SEC play at LSU on Sept. 11 and at Texas on Sept. 18. Mississippi State and Vanderbilt also come to Knoxville to close September. October does not ease up. Auburn and South Carolina are both on the road. Arkansas and Kentucky come to Regal. Alabama is in Tuscaloosa, but the regular season ends Nov. 1 against Oklahoma at home. Virginia will be Tennessee’s first real challenge of the season, and it will be on the road. The Cavaliers were a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament a year ago, and the Lady Vols will be without standout forward Ayva Jordan. The former top-10 recruit will miss that match, and possibly Northwestern, as she competes with the U.S. under-20 national team in Poland. “Now we’ve got to go do it the rest of the year against
Power Four schools,” Kirt said. “I think we’ve got a solid foundation to build from, and now it’s the ability to do it consistently against some really good teams.” Kirt’s contract runs through 2030. The goal attached to it is the same one he keeps repeating — Sweet 16s, Elite Eights and competing for championships. Tennessee was in that conversation during the first weekend last year, but its depth pieces and multitude of scorers will help it avoid that pitfall this season. “There’s a level of expectation for us in the NCAA tournament to put ourselves in a better place, certainly to be in Sweet 16s, back to Elite Eights,” Kirt said. “The expectation is to compete for championships, whether that’s in an SEC environment or a national environment.”
Tennessee volleyball enters new season with fresh hopes THEO COLLI Senior Staff Writer Tennessee volleyball is just two seasons removed from a season where it was just a win away from a trip to the Elite Eight, which would’ve marked the second time in program history it happened. Now two years later, the Lady Vols have found themselves with first-weekend exits in the NCAA tournament, losing in the second round in 2024 and in the first round in 2025. Seniors Caroline Kerr, Sydney Jaynes and Mackenzie Plante are the final three players from that run, and they’ve been bringing leadership and consistency to a team with a handful of returning players and some new faces. “Those three have been kind of through the highest of highs in a season,” head coach Eve Rackham Watt told The Daily Beacon. “And I think their leadership has been unbelievable. Starting from back in January, keeping the group together, recruiting new players and helping to communicate the culture and expectations here.” Kerr, a fifth-year senior who redshirted her first season as a true freshman, has been one of the best setters in the NCAA the last three seasons. She has posted 3,313 assists over her three seasons and remains one of the driving voices on the team. The fifth-year setter also earned preseason All-SEC honors. After her junior season — where she was named to the All-SEC First Team, her third all-conference selection — she is once again poised to be the heartbeat behind the attack. But Kerr can’t do it alone. So, who will she have as her options this season? After a hectic offseason that saw the Lady Vols volleyball team lose seven players to the transfer portal after their firstround exit last season. In response, the Lady Vols went to work in the portal, grabbing five players out of the portal, while also welcoming six freshmen into the mix.
One of the more impressive finds in the portal came from Coastal Carolina, where the Lady Vols signed senior Jayln Stout. For Stout, the numbers speak for themselves. She’s an NCAA record-holder for most triple-doubles with 46. She started 87 matches with Coastal, posting 1,112 kills, 1,545 assists and 1,041 digs over her time with her previous school.
Now, as she joins the Lady Vols, Stout is able to lock in and focus on one position, rather than having to play all over the court. “When you look at Jalyn Stout, who has played in her career as kind of a jack of all trades,” Rackham Watt said. “She’s done everything. She’s leading the NCAA in triple-doubles, which is an out-there stat for a volleyball player. She’s
such a talented kid so we put her in a more singular role, but she’s having a massive impact on our team.” Stout agreed when she was asked about her switch from Coastal Carolina to Tennessee. “Since I’ve been in college, it’s been very hard for me to focus on one aspect of my game,” Stout told The Daily Beacon. “I’ve been either setting, hitting, serving, blocking, and I’ve
Tennessee’s coach Eve Rackham Watt celebrates the teams win against Morehead at Food City Center, on Aug. 29. Camden Hall/The Daily Beacon
I’ve been really happy with how every day, I feel like this team makes each other better. They go hard in practice, and we’ve been talking about this team. There’s really not an A and a B — it’s two A teams going at each other.” EVE RACKHAM WATT Head coach
never really had the time to sit down and focus on one thing, so I’m really excited to see how that pans out.” Stout won’t be alone. She was joined out of the portal by sophomore Kennedi Rogers, a transfer from SMU where she spent her first season. She made seven starts as a freshman, earning 175 kills, good for an average of 2.73 kills per set. While having a big arm for potential kills, she also flexed an ability to defend, with 30 blocks and 53 digs in limited
action time. “When you look at Kennedi Rogers, a sophomore who came in from SMU, had a great freshman season there,” Rackham Watt said. “All-freshman team, an unbelievable arm and a super high volleyball IQ.” Rogers and Stout will be thrown into the fire instantly, and their fellow transfers will be following right behind. Nia Hall, a senior from South Carolina, Raegan Burns from Kansas and Mallory Matheny from Indiana round out the class. While the newcomers take a lot of the attention, there remain returning faces along with Kerr that are set up for big seasons, like sophomore Maggie Dostic, who saw a handful of action her true freshman season last year, and junior Chelsea Sutton. Sutton spent the majority of her offseason rehabbing after surgery, but is ready to go and step into a bigger role not just on the court, but off as well, with a number of the other players in her position group being underclassmen. “Being able to kind of bring along three new middles has been so rewarding,” Sutton told The Daily Beacon. “As a leader and a person, it’s just so much fun to see them grow and really begin to step into their own roles on this team.” One of the many freshmen in Sutton’s group is middle-blocker Anni Tang, who stands at 6-foot-7, without question the tallest player on the roster. Tang may very well see some time as a true freshman given her position and unique frame, which is where having a leader like Sutton can really pay dividends. Tennessee kicked off the 2026 season with three wins in two days with its new-look roster. “I’ve been really happy with how every day, I feel like this team makes each other better,” Rackham Watt said. “They go hard in practice, and we’ve been talking about this team. There’s really not an A and a B — it’s two A teams going at each other.”
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60 Take a chance on 61 Genesis garden 62 Grand Ole ___ 63 Adjusts, as a clock 64 Danson and others DOWN 1 Quite a bargain 2 Wedding color 3 Artery trunk 4 Reason for a tow 5 Puppet maker? 6 Religion defector 7 Hairpiece 8 Iroquois tribe
9 Finish second 10 Clothing fuzz 11 Way back when 12 Garden intruder 15 Flowering shrub 18 Place for a quill 20 Blue hue 24 Neptunium discoverer 26 Flavor detector 27 "Star Wars" pilot Han 28 "Hahaha," in a text 29 American, to a Brit 30 Light pats 31 Grandson of Eve
32 Addition column 34 Coupe's kin 37 High-principled one 40 Proofer's finds 42 Comes down with 45 Works a wedding, maybe 46 High-interest lending 48 Eat away 49 Ran in park 50 Indian flatbreads 51 Bushy do 52 Horse's beat 53 Eye drop? 55 Inquires 57 Deception
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ACROSS 1 Yarn mop 5 Tools with teeth 9 Farm machine 13 God with a hammer 14 Mayberry kid 15 Flared-bottom dress 16 Ireland, poetically 17 Awareness 19 Goes on the offense 21 Passed, as laws 22 Hardly seaworthy 23 Gridiron move 25 MySQL, e.g. 27 Crafty 30 Set off, as explosives 33 Toyota pickup 35 Turn over ___ leaf 36 1965 march site 38 Alda or Hale 39 Baby's headwear 41 Choir member's volume 43 Snake's sound 44 Flute's kin 46 Illinois college town 47 Marketing tactic 51 Behaves badly 54 Longtime Dodgers manager Tommy 56 Saints logo 58 Hit for the Kinks 59 Engine sounds
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The Daily Beacon
SIMPLER THAN IT SEEMS
Vols learn complex defense through ‘to the point’ coaching
Daevin Hobbs (5) makes a tackle during a game against Florida at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on Nov. 22, 2025.
TREVOR MCGEE Sports Editor Jim Knowles has built his reputation on making offenses think. A Cornell University graduate, Knowles has earned his keep as a defensive mastermind, spending decades designing defenses built around complexity and multiplicity. It’s the reason why Knowles’ first-year defenses haven’t always looked like his finished products. His first-year defenses have produced mixed results: His 2010 Duke unit ranked 108th nationally in total defense, while his 2018 Oklahoma State defense ranked 112th. His first-year defenses at Ohio State and Penn State finished 14th and 25th, respectively. Tennessee believes it can move even faster. The Vols’ defenders have repeatedly offered a surprising assessment of the installation: “It’s been really easy,” defensive back Edrees Farooq said during team media day on Aug. 4. The reason, they say, isn’t that Knowles’ defense is simple. It’s that he’s found a way to make it simple to learn. “He’s actually made it more simple for us,” Farooq said. “From everything that we learned in the past years, and just breaking down the different schemes, and just making it more simple for us to learn plays and stuff — that helped a lot.”
simple to easy. “I wouldn’t say easy to learn,” Hobbs said. “But easier than what we’re used to.” Former Tennessee defensive coordinator Tim Banks was dismissed Dec. 8, 2025, after a season where the Vols allowed 28.8 points per game, ranked 14th in a 16-team conference. Banks’ firing marked the first staff change head coach Josh Heupel has made in his previous five seasons as Tennessee’s leader. For that reason, his investment in Knowles was significant. Familiarity helps the learning curve Heupel’s investment included bringing several people to Tennessee who already knew Knowles’ defense from Penn State. It included assistant coaches Anthony Poindexter and Andrew Jackson, along with Derek Jones, who worked with Knowles at Duke. More importantly, every level of the defense features one player that Knowles coached with the Nittany Lions in 2025. Defensive lineman Xavier Gilliam, linebacker Amare Campbell and safety Dejuan Lane all started at Penn State and are expected to play prominent roles with the Vols. After spending last season learning Knowles’ defense at Penn State, Gilliam entered Tennessee’s
But how easy is it, really? How could a notoriously complex system become so easy to understand in one offseason? That can be attributed to Knowles the teacher, less Knowles the coach. Farooq said Knowles has put the defense into categories, rather than having everything spread out, allowing players to learn it concept-by-concept. The key has been keeping the defense “simple and straight to the point,” senior defensive lineman Daevin Hobbs said. Hobbs, though, was hesitant to compare
“Once we all come into the same goal, then it just becomes easy.” TJ METCALF Defensive back
offseason with a year of experience that most of his new teammates didn’t have. That gave him more than familiarity with the calls and a foundation from which he could help teammates who were encountering the system for the first time. “It’s a lot easier,” Gilliam said. “You can help relay that to the younger guys. Whereas last year, where everybody’s learning the defense, (this year) it’s came more like, ‘Okay, so these guys know some of the defense. How can they help the young guys in their approach to learning the defense?’” Gilliam has embraced his role as a teacher on a defensive line filled with players learning Knowles’ system for the first time. He’s ensured to relay to his teammates the level of physicality that Knowles’ defenses like to play with. Linebacker Edwin Spillman, a sophomore returnee, agreed that the transition was made lighter by having guys who have already been in the system to lean on. But even Spillman laid the answer down in a simpler way. “Football IQ,” he said. In Spillman’s view, the system requires players to recognize what they already know and apply it to
Knowles’ terminology. The smarter a player is with football concepts, the less time he has to spend simply figuring out what a call means. It isn’t effortless Much of the defense has mixed answers to how easy the defense actually is. Two-time transfer defensive back TJ Metcalf — who’s played in two different defenses not under Knowles — offered his fair assessment. “It’s somewhere in the middle,” he said. Metcalf said the biggest adjustment wasn’t necessarily learning entirely new concepts. It was learning Knowles’ specific checks, even if it is the same play style. A familiar defensive concept can look different when the checks change, meaning players still have to understand exactly how Knowles wants them to respond in a given situation. That has made the defense something he has had to “really hone in on,” he said.
But the learning curve doesn’t last forever. “I feel like once you know it, then you know it,” Metcalf said. “It’s like no going back to forgetting.” That’s why Tennessee believes this defense has progressed faster than a typical first-year Knowles defense. Knowles himself has said this group is further along than some of his previous first-year defenses. The reasons are apparent to his players: familiarity with the system, a teaching structure that breaks the defense into digestible concepts and enough football IQ to put it all together. None of those factors make Knowles’ defense inherently simple, rather more familiar. And for a group trying to install an entirely new system, familiarity can be the difference between thinking and playing. All in all, it’s a first-year defense at Tennessee. It isn’t a first-year defense for everyone inside Tennessee’s building. “Once we all come into the same goal,” Metcalf said, “then it just becomes easy.”
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Freshmen to impact Vol football
COMING UP
Tennessee football is back Stay tuned this weekend for coverage of the Vols’ season opener as they host Furman. Sports editors Trevor McGee and Alex Sarkis have you covered from Neyland Stadium alongside Beacon contributor Nathan Miles.
On the pitch
TK Keys during practice at Neyland-Thompson Sports Complex on, Aug. 6.
receiver room holds some strong TOMMY BRANCATO names ahead of Keys, he’ll have his Contributor shot to turn some heads in TennesTennessee football possesses a se- see’s early-season matchups with rious youth movement in the locker Furman and Kennesaw State before seeing if he can break through in SEC room. Alongside a massive sophomore play. The Hattiesburg, Mississippi — class, the incoming freshman group features some of the top players from native’s 6-foot-2 frame makes him around the country. While freshman a potential downfield threat, somesignal-caller Faizon Brandon is set thing head coach Josh Heupel values to become just the second of his kind highly in his wideouts. “I feel like me coming in and just to start a season opener for the Vols, some of his other highly recruited listening, being that sponge, that’s classmates are looking to make a big going to make me a better person and a better player,” Keys said. impact of their own. Here are some of the first-year Kedric Golston II names to look out for while Brandon soaks up a bulk of the spotlight. Coming off the defensive edge, Kedric Golston II hopes to make a TK Keys splash in his first college season. The Leesburg, Virginia — prodIt’s rare in modern college football for the same team to get two of the uct brings his 243-pound stature top players at their respective posi- into Jim Knowles’ defense and pass rush. For a Vols’ defense that tailed tions from the same class. Wide receiver TK Keys and Brandon off in getting to the quarterback afgarnered plenty of hype as diamonds ter a hot start a season ago, Golston in their class. Now, both will have the aims to give Knowles more depth at chance to work together in Tennes- one of the most important spots on see’s offense. While the Vols’ wide the field. Golston’s father played for current
Tennessee defensive line coach Rodney Garner at Georgia before making a jump to the NFL for an 11-year career. He spent his entire career in Washington, starting 53 total games. “It’s almost all my motivation, really,” Golston said. “I’m just ready to have my own name.”
Tennessee soccer is already in the swing of things, off to a 4-0 start in its 2026 season. Lady Vols’ beat writer Tyler Edmunds will have the stories as nonconference play continues with a pair of games in the coming days.
Tyreek King This wideout has found himself a firm role as a freshman. Tyreek King didn’t have the recruiting eyes on him as Keys or Brandon did, but Heupel has found a spot for him where impact is possible – returner. The Vols will look to play the Knoxville native in a similar role to Dee Williams on special teams. Speed is King’s game, a showcase of his high school career under the hometown lights at Knoxville Catholic. Once he arrived on Tennessee’s campus, strength coach Derek Ownings got right to work. King added 14 pounds of muscle mass through offseason training. Keys was one of the earliest commits in the 2026 class, verbally committing to the Vols in October 2024.
Volleyball on Broadway Tennessee volleyball is headed to Nashville to take on Indiana at Bridgestone Arena this Sunday in the Broadway Block Party. The Lady Vols will play the second of back-to-back Big Ten opponents after facing off with Illinois on Tuesday.
Vol football’s crucial depth behind lines TOMMY BRANCATO Contributor
DeSean Bishop rushes the endzone during a game against Kentucky at Kroger Field on Oct. 25, 2025.
When it comes to the backfield, it seems as if Josh Heupel’s squad gets it right every single season. In recent years, stars like Jaylen Wright and Dylan Sampson emerged for Tennessee football. The catch is they all had complementary strong backs sitting behind them. Running back DeSean Bishop mans the starting backfield spot for Heupel’s 2026 squad after a breakout campaign a season ago with 1,076 rushing yards. He’ll carry much of Tennessee’s production, but the Vols have plenty of options waiting behind him. Tulane transfer Javin Gordon is next in line. Gordon immediately contributed as a true freshman for a Green Wave team that made the College Football Playoff, totaling 516 rushing yards. “(Gordon is a) hard runner, hard to tackle, so he’s been someone that’s been pushing me to be better,” Bishop said. “And I need that in the room. He was a great addition to the room.” With Bishop in his last year of eligibility, Gordon’s combination of youth and experience is especially valuable. The 5-foot-10, 212-pound back is only a sophomore with three years of eligibility remaining. Gordon is no stranger to being a complementary back, either. In leading Tulane to an 11-3 season and an AAC Championship, Gordon was the third-leading rusher. He followed behind quarterback Jake Retzlaff (634) and fellow back Jamauri McClure, who rushed for 540 yards. The Green Wave often rode the hot hand. That was the case when Gordon broke out for 78 yards and three touchdowns on 15 carries against Tulsa last season. He toted the ball more than 10 times in just six games last season — which should mimic how Tennessee
used transfer back Star Thomas a year ago. “Looking forward to seeing what he does this season,” Bishop said. “Obviously, as we coach and help each other, just become the best version of ourselves we can be every day.” Gordon isn’t the only option Tennessee can turn to behind Bishop. Fellow sophomores Duane Morris and Justin Baker are also in the room — making it a legitimate four-man rotation in the backfield. Morris, a speedster from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, received limited run as a true freshman, but still turned in 133 rushing yards and a touchdown while earning a role on special teams as well. The second-year jump has been pivotal for Morris, who ripped a 99-yard touchdown run during one of the fall camp scrimmages. “It’s always good to be able to show what I can do in certain areas,” Morris said. “Like being able to just be me in the open field and just do what I’ve normally been doing.” Tennessee’s rushing game is the key to making Heupel’s offense explosive. Over the last five seasons, the Vols lead the SEC with 204.2 yards per game and have three consecutive seasons with a 1,000-yard rusher. Though Bishop has always been a workhorse, dating back to his time at nearby Karns High School, the depth should take pressure off the star back. “Those guys are feeding off each other right now,” running backs coach De’Rail Sims said. With a true freshman quarterback calling out the signals this season, Bishop and his running mates will hold an important role as the safety blanket for Faizon Brandon when the lights come on inside Neyland Stadium on Sept. 5. “Just hard workers, man, guys that know what they do,” Bishop said. “Man, they’ve put in the work. I mean, they’ve got me pushing to be better every day.”
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