Josh Elander makes a major roster shakeup on the eve of Tennessee’s big series with Vanderbilt

The Vols will open their intrastate series with a new pitcher on the mound.

Craig Smith — College Football & NFL Trending News Writer
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The Tennessee Volunteers’ season hasn’t gotten off to the smoothest start in Josh Elander’s first season, but after two conference series, the Vols sit at 18-7 overall and 3-3 in SEC play. Tennessee rallied two take the final two of three games against Missouri last weekend to claim their first SEC series of the season.

Now, they’ll look to pile onto Vanderbilt’s rough start to 2026 while continuing to take another step in the right direction in the SEC standings. The intrastate rivals kick off their series on Friday in Nashville.

However, the Vols will have a new face toeing the rubber on Friday night as they look to get their series started on the right foot. Per GoVols247’s Ben McKee, Elander is replacing Tegan Kuhns with Brandon Arvidson as Friday’s starter.

Ben Arvidson will start on Friday for Tennessee instead of Tegan Kuhns

Kuhns started the season off with a bang with wins over Nichols and Kent State, allowing one earned run over 12.2 innings with 12 strikeouts. However, things have continued to spiral the wrong way for Kuhns since the UCLA game, where he allowed six runs (four earned) in six innings in Tennessee’s loss. In two games in SEC play, he’s allowed seven earned runs in 7.2 innings.

“Just wasn’t crisp,” Elander said of Kuhns after the Friday night loss to Missouri last week. “I thought the pace was really the difference tonight. It just wasn’t, even between pitches and then getting to the plate, I mean, his time at the plates were 1.5, 1.6 (seconds). Wasn’t really giving Stone (Lawless) a chance, and for just whatever reason, wasn’t crisp and that’s why we went to Fred (Brady Frederick) right away, because he just, the command kind of faltered a little bit. Not the usual Tegan we’re used to seeing.

“He was coming out pumping. It was 97, 99 (mph). Cutting it loose. Again (through) the course of the year, him and Reyn (pitching coach Josh Reynolds) need to get with that as they continue to get better in post. It’s you have to be able to throw five, six innings as a starter. We talked about all day in the building winning the starter battle, and we did not do that. But he’s going to need to make some adjustments going into this next outing.”

Tennessee will turn to Arvidson, who’s been strong in the bullpen after entering the season limited with arm soreness. Coming into Friday, he’s thrown 15.1 innings with a 3.52 ERA with 21 strikeouts to five walks.

Tennessee and Vanderbilt get their series underway on Friday at 8:00 pm ET from Hawkins Field in Nashville.

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