The Tennessee Volunteers have been playing baseball since 1897.
They’ve never entered a season as reigning national champions until now.
Outfielder Hunter Ensley, infielder Dean Curley, catcher Cannon Peebles and pitcher Nate Snead headline some of the top returning players from last season’s Tennessee team that set a Southeastern Conference standard for total victories with its 60-13 record and became the NCAA tournament’s first top overall seed since the 1999 Miami Hurricanes to come home from Omaha, Nebraska, with the College World Series crown.
Yet the 2025 Vols are way more overrun with new faces, and that is sure to be on display Feb. 14, when they open Tony Vitello’s eighth season in Knoxville by hosting Hofstra. Tennessee opens SEC play March 14, when Florida visits an upgraded Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
“We lost a lot of guys who contributed to that team,” Snead admitted Wednesday during a news conference to preview the season. “Obviously the expectation for everybody outside of the team is always there, and they always want us to win. We want to win, too, but it’s just baseball.