GoVols247’s full crew — Wes Rucker, Patrick Brown and Ryan Callahan from (rebuilt) Fort Rucker Studio, and Ramey from the GoVols247 Blount County Satellite Office in Maryville — convened to break down a weekend of news so wild we had to push this week’s first full episode back a day.

The absence of star sophomore cornerback Bryce Thompson following an unfortunate weekend incident means the Vols might head into the season opener against Georgia State without the best players at all three levels of their defense. GSU isn’t a stout season-opening opponent, but that’s still slightly concerning for a Tennessee team looking to build momentum following a wretched finish to the 2018 season.

Week One in any season always (unless you’re Jim Harbaugh) includes the season’s first official depth chart. Rather comically, though, Tennessee’s depth chart was beyond ambiguous, with nearly as many ‘or’s as players. The Vols do have a freshman walk-on named Fred Orr, but he wasn’t able to crack the Week One depth chart. Many of his teammates were with him in spirit, though. Just without the extra consonant there at the end.

Regardless, we did learn some things from that depth chart, and the things we know — Trey Smith being a game-time decision, for starters — coupled with the things we don’t know made for an interesting segment in this episode.

Another Tennessee player — third-year sophomore wide receiver Maleik Gray — has left the program, transferring down to the junior-college level in hopes of kick-starting his once-promising career.

Plenty more football nuggets made their way into this episode, but let’s not forget about Tennessee basketball.

Ramey couldn’t make it to Fort Rucker Studio during Monday’s recording of this episode, but we caught up with him via the magic of Al Gore’s Internets, and we had plenty to discuss following Ramey’s weekend visit with several of Tennessee’s players — including five-star freshman point guard Josiah-Jordan James — as well as Vols coach Rick Barnes.

GoVols247 Podcast episodes occasionally run long, but this one needed to be that way. There was a lot to discuss — including some hate for the host of the GoVols247 Podcast from the lovely wife of one of his coworkers.