Monday Musings: Vols land some big fish quickly

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT’SSSSSSSSSSSSSS MONDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And you Tennessee fans and loyal Rocky Top Talk readers know what that means. It means it’s time to grab a spoon, belly up to the table, and scarf down some Craig T. Smith Tennessee-Vols-related thought soup.

Let’s get after it…

1) Man, what a day for Josh Heupel and the Tennessee football program going back from now to Sunday. Heupel managed to land some very important players in 2024 and beyond, and it starts with QB George MacIntyre. The #2 QB prospect for the 2205 class out of Brentwood Academy committed to the Vols on Monday morning over Alabama and a host of other top programs. And he did it with one of the coolest commitment videos you’ll ever see:

MacIntyre grew up as a Vol fan and seems to certainly have a love for the program embedded in his heart. That seems to be a good thing as far as if anyone tries to pry him away in the coming year.

2) The Volunteers also finally picked up the commitment of LSU transfer offensive tackle Zalance Heard. Heard visited the Vols back in early January, but mum was the word for weeks regarding where he’d end up. As of Friday, he appeared in the University of Tennessee student database as an active student. On Sunday, he announced his commitment on Twitter.

A big question mark on the offensive line for 2024 appears to have been answered.

3) Tennessee also landed the commitment of Stanford transfer DL Jaxson Moi on Sunday. The 303-pound defensive lineman will mix into what should be a big and stout defensive line rotation in 2024. Hey, the more (big) bodies the merrier. And Washington was in play for him as well, so this wasn’t a player out of left field that no one else was chasing. Nice pick up.

4) The basket Vols obliterated Alabama 91-71 on Saturday afternoon inside Thompson-Boling Arena. It never gets old beating Alabama at anything. They’d been a thorn in our side in recent years on the basketball court in addition to the football field, or at least it’s felt that way. And it was especially heartwarming to deliver a blow to Nate Oats after he shoved a Missouri player earlier in the week, for which he received only a public reprimand from the SEC. I guess it took the Vols to deliver some real punishment on the man.

The Vols are off for a week until they travel to Vanderbilt to hopefully drop the hammer on Jerry Stackhouse’s team on Saturday.

Go Vols!