Vols football's big finish, Vols hoops' big start

GoVols247’s full staff — Wes Rucker, Patrick Brown, Ryan Callahan and Grant Ramey — convened from their various Knoxville-area homes via the magic of Al Gore’s Internets to discuss Tennessee football and basketball.Second-year head coach Jeremy Pruitt and his Tennessee football team had their final open date of the regular season last week, and now the stretch run begins for the Vols, who need to beat either Missouri on the road or Vanderbilt at home the next two weekends in order to secure bowl-eligibility for the first time in three years.Obviously the Vols hope to win both of their final two regular-season games, though, and there’s probably a big carrot on the end of that stick if they accomplish that task. The way things are shaking out, it looks like two wins could perhaps get the Vols to a January bowl game in Florida.But Tennessee was at this exact same point after 10 games last season, and we all know how that ended, don’t we?Will this team be any different? Why or why not? That’s the primary discussion point in the first segment of this episode, though there’s also recap from around the SEC, particularly Missouri’s loss to Florida over the weekend in Columbia.Hoops takes center stage in the second segment of this episode, with Grant joining the podcast shortly after he arrived back in the U.S. and got back to the Blount County Satellite Office in Maryville.Grant was in Toronto over the weekend to discuss Tennessee basketball’s 75-62 win over 20th-ranked Washington in the James Naismith Classic.It was a big weekend for Rick Barnes and his Vols, and there’s plenty of good news to discuss on that front. But there are still some questions to answer, and those concerns are discussed, as well.The next GoVols247 Podcast episode will be released Thursday morning, unless breaking news occurs before that point.