For the first time ever, the No. 4 Texas Longhorns and the Tennessee Volunteers are playing a regular-season series as conference opponents as head coach Jim Schlossnagle’s team travels to Knoxville to play at Lindsey Nelson Stadium against first-year head coach Josh Elander and his Volunteers.
All five previous games in the all-time series between the two programs came at neutral sites, including a Texas win in the College World Series in 2021 and an SEC Tournament win for Tennessee last year. The Horns and Vols have also met three times in Houston.
The bigger storyline? Schlossnalge facing off against his former player and assistant, Elander. A Round Rock product, Elander signed with TCU over Texas A&M after a hotly-contested recruitment the Horned Frogs were fortunate to win as a Mountain West team.
A catcher and left fielder in Fort Worth, Elander helped lead TCU to its first-ever berth in the College World Series as a freshman in 2010 and eventually served as a team captain before becoming a sixth-round draft pick by the Atlanta Braves in the 2012 MLB Draft.
After Elander’s playing career, he returned to TCU as a student assistant before following Tony Vitello to Arkansas to work under Clay Van Horn. When Vitello took over at Tennessee, Elander joined his staff, where he spent eight years as an assistant before taking over the program when Vitello was hired as the manager of the San Francisco Giants.
Looking back, Schlossnagle isn’t surprised to see Elander become a head coach because he was always mature as a player.
“He’s energetic, but not over emotional, so you could see him have the temperament to be a super successful at anything, but especially as a coach, and then he had a chance to go learn under Coach Van Horn, and then under Coach Vitello. So he’s well groomed and I’m sure he’s going to do great,” Schlossnagle said.
Picked to finish sixth in the SEC in the preseason poll, Tennessee returned some key contributors while making big additions from the portal and the core of a recruiting class signed by Vitello. But navigating the nation’s toughest baseball conference isn’t easy and the Volunteers are tied for 11th in the SEC with a 11-13 record, which puts them only two wins behind the three teams tied for sixth place. The margins are small.
And the Volunteers are also a dangerous team with a home series win over then-No. 13 Alabama and a road sweep of then-No. 9 Mississippi State.
At the plate, Tennessee’s power prompted Schlossnagle to call them a “super physical team,” a trait that has carried over from the Vitello era — the Vols have slugged 31 home runs over the last 10 games, giving them 91 homers this season, 10th nationally, and putting them on pace to surpass 100 for the fifth consecutive season, something no SEC program has ever accomplished.
In a 13-5 win over then-No. 25 Ole Miss last month, Tennessee hit a season-high six home runs and four players have 10 or more home runs this season, led by star Virginia transfer Henry Ford with 15. Ford is batting .305 with a team-high 49 RBI. First baseman Levi Clark, a preseason second-team All-SEC selection, has struggled most of the season, batting just .221 overall, but has been dangerous in conference play, hitting .297 with seven home runs, including two home runs in last Sunday’s win over Kentucky.
Tennessee will start right-hander Tegan Kuhns (3-4, 3.46 ERA) on Friday, left-hander Evan Blanco (5-3, 4.36 ERA) on Saturday, and right-hander Evan Mack (4-4, 4.67 ERA) on Sunday.
A highly-rated 2025 MLB Draft prospect, Kuhns is one of the top draft-eligible sophomores with a mid-90s fastball and a plus curveball, but hasn’t been able to find a dependable third pitch. Last weekend against Kentucky, Kuhns gave up a season-high six earned runs on 10 hits because the Wildcats were able to get to the 6’3, 195-pounder for three doubles and two home runs.
The Vols rank eighth in the SEC with a 4.41 staff ERA with opponents batting .235, backed up by a fielding percentage of .986 that is tied for first nationally, on pace to set the program record and a sharp improvement over last season.
Tied for second place in the SEC with Texas A&M, Texas enters the weekend 2.5 games back of first-place Georgia, although for NCAA Tournament seeding purposes, the Longhorns are No. 3 in the RPI, well ahead of the No. 16 Bulldogs. Only Florida has more Quad 1 wins (15) than Texas (13).
“I think at this point the season, we know as much about our team as we’re going to know — not that we’re at our best spot yet, I think the teams are ever evolving — but we’ve proven we can go on the road and play well in tough environments and against good teams. So looking forward to getting to getting to Knoxville,” Schlossnagle said.
The Horns are 7-6 overall on the road this season and 6-5 in conference play, including series wins over the Gamecocks and Commodores.
The biggest question mark for Texas entering the weekend is the health of freshman left fielder Anthony Pack Jr., who only made a late appearance in Tuesday’s win over UTSA due to a wrist injury sustained lifting weights. Pack struck out in his only plate appearance, looking notably uncomfortable on his final swing.
“I just want him fully healthy for the weekend. So he should be fine,” Schlossnagle said after the game. “We did the imaging, and there’s nothing physically that anybody can find wrong with him.”
On Thursday, the Texas head coach said that Pack probably won’t swing for another day after receiving treatment on Wednesday, with the medical staff indicating that he’ll be fine.
First pitch on Friday is at 5:30 p.m. Central, followed by a 6:30 p.m. Central first pitch on Saturday, and the series finale at noon Central. SEC Network+ airs the first game before ESPN2 broadcasts the final two games of the series.
