Mark Wiedmer

How badly does junior quarterback Logan Carroll want to help his Meigs County teammates stay alive in the TSSAA Class 2A state playoffs by doing all he can to avoid the coronavirus?

At some point during his Monday afternoon press conference, Tennessee football coach Jeremy Pruitt made the following observation regarding his team's 30-17 loss at Auburn last Saturday night: "We played much better in this game than we did against Missouri."

Howard School football coach John Starr could have been forgiven for not answering his cellphone Friday afternoon.

At 11:15 Tuesday morning, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga basketball coach Lamont Paris was discussing what it felt like to have the first game of the somewhat delayed 2020-21 season scheduled to tip off one week from today at 2 p.m. against Bellarmine inside McKenzie Arena.

Joe Biddle was in no mood to mince words.

In a few minutes, Tim Tebow would take the stage at Redemption to the Nations Church on Bailey Avenue in Chattanooga and deliver an inspirational, spiritual message.

"You need to write a book."

At least once a week I get an email from some guy named Jimmy Shapiro about gambling odds on all matter of sporting events and subjects.

Fifty-two Veterans Days have come and gone since Harold Boozer left Dian, Vietnam, as a major in the First Infantry Division of the U.S. Army.

Just before Tennessee began its sixth game of an all-Southeastern Conference season, SEC Network analyst Gene Chizik said Saturday of the Volunteers' trip to Arkansas: "I think it's imperative they win tonight. Their schedule is brutal the rest of the way."

Because Hugh Enicks is a pretty good distance runner in his own right - five national age-group championships and counting - the recently retired Red Bank High ROTC instructor has spent more than a few hours on and around the school's track.

Girls Preparatory School athletic director Jay Watts was on his way home from Murfreesboro on Sunday evening following the previously undefeated Bruisers' crushing 3-2 loss to Father Ryan in the TSSAA Division II-AA girls state soccer final when he began to reflect on what he'd just witnessed.

It was early, early Saturday morning, his Grace Baptist Academy football team making its way back from its 34-30 road win at Franklin Grace, its final game of a 2-7 season, before Bob Ateca could finally reflect on all he and his family — both his own family and his family of players — had overcome the past eight months.

So let's get this straight: For telling the truth about one of the more atrocious calls Southeastern Conference football officials have made this season — and that's saying something — Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin is fined $25,000?

When what could have been one of the biggest victories in recent University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football history has just been stolen from you by inept officials, when your one-game season could have become the first undefeated season in school history, you'd expect the head coach to be besieged with phone calls from frustrated fans for days on end.

So which assistant is University of Tennessee football coach Jeremy Pruitt going to part company with now?

In some ways, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga's football game at Western Kentucky on Saturday afternoon will feel a lot like the 46 years worth of Mocs road trips that have come and gone before it for Mike Royster.

For the first time in nine years, all Rick Honeycutt could do was watch from his Ringgold, Georgia, home.

If you're a member of the Big Orange Nation and you expected to see what happened to your University of Tennessee Volunteers on a spectacular Saturday afternoon in Knoxville, raise your hand.

Alabama football coach Nick Saban has faced former assistants 21 times during his exceptional career.