Tennessee Vols Morning Report: New QB Coach, Pro-Baseball Vol, Softball Preview

A new Tennessee Vols quarterbacks coach, a former UT baseball player retiring, and softball previews lead the Volunteers news for Thursday, Jan. 19, 2017.

Yes, springtime is approaching. One day away from naming a new president of the United States in the depths of winter, the heart of the news surrounding the Tennessee Vols is still the football offseason and the midst of men’s and women’s basketball.

But the spring sports are right around the corner, and the administrative changes still dominate the news in Knoxville.

As a result, there’s lots of news to still bring you about the Tennessee Vols.

Today, that news still focuses on football staff changes. But there are also the first updates surrounding the spring sports to bring you, as they are a month away.

Let’s start with the football news, though.

Mike Canales hire as quarterbacks coach imminent – GoVols247Staff

It looks like the Tennessee Vols have found their quarterbacks coach in football. Mike Canales appears to be the leader. He spent last year at Utah State and was at North Texas as the interim coach before that. Canales’s resume also includes stops at South Florida, Arizona, with the New York Jets, and at N.C. State, where he helped coach Phillip Rivers.

Former Vols Catcher J.P. Arencibia announces retirement – Rhiannon Potkey, The Tennessean

He was part of the last Tennessee Vols baseball team to reach the College World Series in 2005, but J.P. Arencibia appears to be hanging up his cleats a bit early after a pretty successful career in the MLB. He announced his retirement on Twitter.

Tennessee softball picked to finish fifth in the SEC – UTSports

Four other teams got first-place votes, which Ralph and Karen Weekly’s team did not receive. This was the softball coaches’ poll, and it was released Wednesday afternoon. Of course, given how loaded the SEC is every year in softball, the Top 6 teams in the conference are all national contenders. So at least the Vols are in the mix.