{"id":563847,"date":"2026-02-10T08:46:30","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T08:46:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/563847\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T08:46:30","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T08:46:30","slug":"ncbwa-tabs-tennessee-baseball-as-top-15-preseason-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/563847\/","title":{"rendered":"NCBWA tabs Tennessee Baseball as top 15 preseason program"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tennessee once again was named a preseason top 15 program on Friday when the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association ranked the Vols at No. 15 ahead of the 2026 campaign. The final national poll was released Monday afternoon. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tennessee checked in at No. 14 for D1 Baseball, No. 13 by Baseball America and has been preseason ranked as high as No. 3 by Perfect Game thus far.<\/p>\n

Right-handed pitcher Tegan Kuhns and 2-way outfielder\/left-handed pitcher Blaine Brown were named second team\u00a0preseason All-Americas by Baseball America<\/a>\u00a0earlier this week. They join teammates Henry Ford (INF\/OF) and Brady Frederick (RHP) with preseason All-American nods thus far.<\/p>\n

The Vols open the 2026 slate with\u00a0Nicholls on February 13<\/a>\u00a0from the newly renovated Lindsey Nelson Stadium.<\/p>\n

Tennessee has reached five-straight super regionals in NCAA postseason action, topped with a national championship in 2024. Former skipper Tony Vitello resigned from his post in October to accept the managerial position with the San Francisco Giants \u2013 becoming the first sitting college head coach to make the jump to the majors.<\/p>\n

With the move came a flurry of\u00a0coaching changes<\/a>. Elander got the promotion from associate head coach to head coach. Support staffer Josh Reynolds replaces Frank Anderson, who followed Vitello to the Giants. Florida associate head coach Chuck Jerolomon joined Elander on Rocky Top and assistant coach ross Kivett added the tag of recruiting coordinator.<\/p>\n

Additionally, Keegan Knoll takes over as strength coach for Quentin Eberhardt \u2013 who also left for San Franscisco. Craig Bell was also hired away from Florida to be the team\u2019s Director of Program Development.<\/p>\n

Tennessee\u2019s roster, that was released in early January, consists of 39 players \u2013 five more than the 34 number set by the recent passing of the house settlement. The additional five players added are a result of \u2018designated student athletes\u2019 tags that were put in place to protect a portion of new signees.<\/p>\n

Tennessee will go to work with 18 position players, 18 pitchers and three 2-way athletes who will play both the field and pitch. The roster consists of 16 freshmen, 12 sophomores, eight juniors, two seniors and one graduate student.<\/p>\n

Elander released the entirety of the 2026 slate in November and Tennessee will play at the newly renovated Lindsey Nelson Stadium a total of 38 times with 15 away bouts and three contests on a neutral field.<\/p>\n

The 30-game Southeastern Conference slate was previously announced earlier in the offseason, as were the three games set to be played in Arlington, TX. at Globe Life Field for the Amegy Bank College Baseball Series from Feb. 27-March 1. Tennessee is set to play UCLA, Arizona Sate and Virginia Tech in what will be its second trip in three years to the Major League Baseball Stadium. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tennessee\u2019s nonconference slate consists of 38 games with the season-opener against Nicholls State on February 13. The first midweek contest will be against UNC Asheville on February 17. Tennessee will host three nonconference weekend series at home (Nicholls State, Kent State and Wright State) to go along with 14 midweek home bouts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tennessee in Preseason Rankings<\/p>\n

Perfect Game: No. 3
Baseball America: No. 13
D1 Baseball: No. 14
USA TODAY Coaches Poll: No.15
NCBWA: No. 15<\/p>\n

Preseason Accolades for Vols<\/p>\n

INF\/OF Henry Ford: First Team All-American (Perfect Game), Third Team All-American (D1 Baseball), First Team All-SEC (OF)<\/p>\n

RHP Brady Frederick: Third Team All-American (Perfect Game, D1 Baseball)<\/p>\n

RHP Tegan Kuhns: Second Team All-American (Baseball America)<\/p>\n

OF\/LHP Blaine Brown: Second Team All-American (Baseball America)<\/p>\n

RHP Brandon Arvidson: First Team All-SEC (RP)<\/p>\n

1B\/C: Levi Clark: Second Team All-SEC (1B)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tennessee once again was named a preseason top 15 program on Friday when the National Collegiate Baseball Writers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":563848,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2290],"tags":[5,2409,2410],"class_list":{"0":"post-563847","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baseball","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-regwall","10":"tag-tennessee-baseball"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116045466395003116","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=563847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/563848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}