I don’t know but I’ve been told that Boo is leaving the Tennessee football team.

Oh, my.

Whether this is pure fact or part fiction, it says there is unrest in the Volunteers’ highly regarded clubhouse culture and includes the real possibility that one of the top talents is focused elsewhere.

Sad to say Josh Heupel has limited influence. As the story goes, he’s forced to straddle the fence between discipline and player retention. Coach will tell us tomorrow if defender Boo Carter is already gone or if a temporary peace treaty has been hammered out with the official players’ council and other disgruntled teammates.

Boo Carter

It certainly would be smart to hold him accountable and allow his response to determine his path.

If Boo says he wants to stay, that he is sorry he missed team meetings and workouts while others were sweating, that he will do whatever is necessary to make amends, so be it.

But, be sure going away will pop up again sometime, during or after the season – but hopefully not at halftime of the Alabama game.

I don’t know but I’ve been told that “Go Vols” has never been Boo’s battle cry. From appearances, Boo is really big on Boo.

I predict that now or later, Coach Heupel will have to repeat his famous Nico line, “Nobody is bigger than the program.”

As a matter of fact, soon after the playoff debacle, Boo wasn’t thinking about the team when he publicly negotiated a pay increase and talked of transferring. He actually requested and received transfer portal papers. He eventually tossed that idea aside and announced that he would return to Tennessee as a sophomore in 2025.

He’s sort of been here.

Before spring practice, he was promoting himself as multi-talented. He insisted on being a defensive back, kick returner and wide receiver as was Travis Hunter at Colorado. Travis won the Heisman Trophy.

Unrest is not new with Boo. If you are keeping score, he was at three high schools as a junior and senior – Chattanooga Christian, Chattanooga Brainerd and Bradley Central in Cleveland. He didn’t change schools for more money.

That might have been a recruiting red flag but ability overwhelmed caution. It took Tennessee’s best effort to beat back Michigan and Colorado. That’s twice I’ve mentioned the Buffs. There may be a third time coming.

 ***

If you know a youngster who thinks he wants to be a college football coach when he grows up, suggest he try televised sky-diving or professional wrestling as a career. Both are easier.

Top coaches are paid well but the profession is hazardous to good mental health. Consider recruiting. It is frantic and confusing. The word “commitment” now means almost nothing.

To even talk recruiting, you need to know who makes decisions – the prospect, father or mother, agent, girlfriend or self-appointed primary advisor. After that, subject matter is flexible but don’t bother with the weather or school tradition or value of degrees and future contacts. Those are now incidental.

NIL numbers will be meaningful. Opportunity will be somewhat relevant. What really matters in most cases is money.

Coaching is now an endless scramble between trying to build a roster and hold it together if you get it built. Depth is almost impossible. Backs, receivers and offensive left tackles do not wait around for play time. Auctions are on-going. Tampering leads directly to higher bidders.

Coaching is a lot more than fundamentals, game plans and motivation. There is solicitation of donations and covering the betting line.

Recruiting never ends. Coaches must try to sign the best players they can find and keep what they get.

 ***

Josh Heupel may never lose his love of coaching.

Heupel concedes that his sport is different off the field. He says things on the field haven’t changed all that much. The opportunity to be part of a team, to compete and exceed expectations is still very satisfying.

“What happens outside the game has changed, right? But the game hasn’t. You’ve got to be tough, smart and physical. You’ve got to play extremely hard. You’ve got to have fundamentals and technique.

“I chose to coach college football because I love dealing with 18- to 22-year-olds.”

He could have added “most of the time.”

Heupel says he takes pride in aiding development, seeing boys mature into men. He and I love the pageantry of college football. Yes, winning is still a thrill.

Josh didn’t mention that he gets paid more than the average traveling salesman.

Marvin West welcomes comments or questions from readers. His address is marvinwest75@gmail.com

Rienk Mast is returning — you have one of the best Turkish prospects in Berke Büyüktuncel, and you picked up some good players from the transfer portal. What are the ambitions for next year?

We have a roster we like; we recovered Mast, who was one of the key players two years ago before getting injured, and overall we are an offensively very talented team. We hope to have a good season. On paper, there are two or three teams that start as favorites in the Big Ten, and then, I know it sounds crazy, there’s a big group of 10-13 teams at the same level, and we’ll see who has the right chemistry with the transfers. The Big Ten will be strong, probably stronger than last year, with teams investing a lot of money. It will be very competitive and our goal is to be competitive with the hope of making the tournament, which is always the ultimate goal.

There have always been Italian players or players trained in Italy in the NCAA — at St. John’s, for example, you had Federico Mussini and Amar Alibegovic — but now it is becoming the first choice for players finishing youth basketball. How do you judge this change and what impact can it have on Italian basketball?

Why do they leave Italy? There is an economic factor that cannot be denied, but there is also a growth plan: they come to play college ball because they don’t play in Italy. Obviously, they earn ten times more than they would in Italy, but I’m not convinced that, in most cases, that’s the main reason. I think many kids are fascinated by the idea of college, but it’s not like everyone has a strong desire to move to the other side of the world to keep studying. But if there isn’t a growth plan and they end up sitting on the bench in Serie A just for the passport and don’t play for 2-3 years, then it becomes difficult. I follow them all, obviously out of passion and recruitment, and 90% of the Italian players who come to college don’t play in Italy, and it doesn’t even make sense to play in Serie B or the under-19 league. There is no real pathway and that’s the part I find hardest to understand. I don’t have a solution, but there needs to be some idea that changes this path and gives these Italian boys more playing time.

Is it the fault of Italian coaches? No, because they have to play whoever wins games, otherwise they get fired. There’s a mindset attached to results that drives our business which is to the detriment of the growth of our young players. In the long run, this possibility that kids come to college will make the Italian basketball movement explode, because they come here and play, and this is fundamental for talent development and individual growth. We have a strong generation, kids recruited by the best universities in the U.S., but it’s no coincidence that France or northern European countries are growing so much because, if you look, they all go to college — even the Spaniards. Instead of complaining about the talent drain, let’s try to understand how to turn it into an advantage for Italian basketball. That is the question to be answered at a federal or league level to get back a national team that competes for medals, exactly as we do now at the youth level.

When will we see Luca Virgilio as head coach?

No no no no, head coach no, I’ll leave that to others. I’ve always been more behind the desk than on the court; I help a few kids here to grow, but I’ve always been more behind the desk.

And will you return to Italy someday?

Never say never. I was born and raised with basketball in Rome; it breaks my heart that there’s no Serie A or Euroleague team in Rome. I hope Virtus Roma keeps growing and it’s nice that Luiss keeps getting results. Investments are needed though, and I know Rome isn’t easy. Italy is home, there’s talk of NBA Europe and we’ll see what happens.