There has been a lot of talk on Rocky Top lately about the University of Tennessee being the everything school and with the success of its athletics programs recently, who could argue?
For starters, Tennessee can boast of three consecutive all-sports SEC titles, the first in the program’s illustrious history. Coach Rick Barnes has the Vols basketball program on arguably the most successful run in Vol hoops history with two SEC regular season titles, a tournament title and multiple NCAA tournament appearances during his tenure.
Barnes team back in 2018-2019 held the top spot in the AP poll for over a month before being ultimately ousted in the NCAA tournament in March but no other Vol squad has held onto the top spot that long, not even close. The 2007-2008 squad earned that elusive ranking following a victory over top-ranked Memphis, but that team lost its next game to Vanderbilt in Nashville.
The Tennessee football program was resurrected from the dead by Coach Josh Heupel who came into town in 2021 with a so-called gimmick offense, and he had the Vols ranked number one in the land in year two after an 8-0 start. They would hold the top spot for only one week, but it planted the Vol program firmly back on the national stage. His 2022 team finished with eleven wins and finished the season off with an impressive Orange Bowl victory over ACC champion Clemson, and he followed that up with a solid 2023 season culminating with a convincing win over Iowa in the Citrus Bowl.
The Lady Vol softball team took home the SEC title this season with a 19-5 record and was announced as the No.3 national seed in the 2024 NCAA Softball Tournament.
Yes, things are good on Rocky Top but with all the success the Vols have enjoyed there has been one thing missing, a national championship. Vol fans hope that Tony Vitello and his boys can put an exclamation point on the narrative that says Tennessee is the all everything school. You can’t very well make that claim unless you have won at least one national title, right?
Regular season championships and tournament championships are becoming quite common on the Hill but not national titles. For the record, no UT sport can make that claim in the past fifteen years. The last UT team to bring home a national title was the 2009 Lady Vol track and field team.
Vol fans are hoping that this Vol baseball squad can end the drought. Oddly enough the words national championship was not heard during Coach Vitello’s last press conference prior to tomorrow’s game. He never mentioned Omaha and Northern Kentucky was the only team he mentioned by name.
The Vol players have talked little about a national title, but they have talked a lot about winning each game one at a time and playing their best baseball.
So for now, the focus of the team seems to be on playing their best baseball and taking it one game at a time. If the Vols do play their best baseball they will have a great chance to bring home a Natty to Rocky Top and my guess is, it won’t be long before Tony Vitello has a street named after him in Knoxville.
And...Vol fans can confidently call the University of Tennessee the “everything school” with pride.