Bruce Pearl is everywhere. After being at Tennessee for 3 seasons, we all know this about him. We expect it. He is always quick with great stories and clever one-liners that keep us all entertained and begging for more.

Junior College point guard Bobby Maze has verbally committed to play basketball at Tennessee next season. This comes after Ramar Smith and Duke Crews were dismissed from the team just last week.

That’s right, today’s blog post is about a former Lady Vol basketball player. Why? I’m not sure any Lady Vol aside from Candace Parker has ever been the recipient of as much message board and blog chatter as Brittany Jackson [a quick search of the Volnation forums returned 92 threads].

We learned today from a thread in the forum that the Athlon Sports 2008 SEC Football Annual showcases Eric Berry on the cover [click image for larger version]. This particular cover is the Tennessee-Vanderbilt version. The magazine will go on sale June 6, 2008 for a listed price of $5.99. You can pre-order them at AthlonSports.com.

Tennessee picked up their fourth football commitment for 2009 over the weekend from Milton High School (GA) running back Toney Williams.

If you that didn’t get to see the Jordan Brand Classic a couple of weeks ago, here are some of the highlights of Tennessee class of 2008 signee Scotty Hopson.

It was announced yesterday the the basketball Vols will play in the 2008 Old Spice Classic on Thanksgiving weekend. Teams participating include Georgetown, Gonzaga, Maryland, Michigan State, Oklahoma State, Siena, Tennessee and Wichita State.

Two more former Vols were selected on the second day of the 2008 NFL Draft on Sunday raising the final tally to three. Tight end Brad Cottam was taken by the Kansas City Chiefs in the third round with the 76th overall selection and quarterback Erik Ainge was drafted by the New York Jets in the fifth round with the 162nd overall pick.

Tennessee linebacker Jerod Mayo, who decided to forego his senior season at Tennessee, was selected with the tenth overall pick in Saturday’s NFL draft by the New England Patriots. The position was a bit surprising since he had initially been given a second or third round grade by the NFL draft’s advisory committee.

I don’t believe it comes as a huge surprise to anyone but the VolNation can breathe a bit easier as Tyler Smith has officially announced that he will return to Tennessee for his junior season.