Nate Snead picked up some more preseason recognition one week out from Tennessee's season opener.

The Vols' right-handed pitcher was named a First Team All-American by the National College Baseball Writers Association Friday, his third preseason All-America honor.

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Snead was previously tabbed a First Team All-American by Baseball America and Second Team by Perfect Game.

A transfer from Wichita State, Snead became a fixture out of the Tennessee bullpen during the Vols' first-ever College World Series title run. He ranked second on the team in appearances with 29 and led all non-starting pitchers with 75.1 innings pitches.

Snead finished with a 10-2 record, tossing 61 strikeouts and totaling six saves. He finished with a 3.11 ERA.

With the departures of veteran arms in Drew Beam and A.J. Causey, Snead is competing for a starting spot in the Vols' weekend rotation.

"(Snead) is a guy who still carries the value that he had last year," Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello said last week. "He’s a fun-loving kid that’s a great personality to having it dugout and in the locker room and then he switches, that switch turns on for him into game mode. And he constantly wants the ball, he constantly wants to compete. He’s resilient physically so he always wants to be out there regardless of what day it is or what he did the day before.

"And so he’s been a Swiss Army knife for us, not just last year but including in these scrimmages. I think he’s capable of doing whatever we ask."

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Snead was one of six Vols players that were named All-SEC earlier this week and is among the returning leaders from a team that has a number of key pieces to replace at several positions.

"The coaches are going to put me in whatever position they think fits," Snead said. "I'm going to go out there and do my job. Honestly, there's not much of a role that I didn't face last year that I can't overcome. It's whatever Coach (Vitello) wants."

Tennessee begins the defense of its national championship in the first of a three-game series against Hofstra on Feb. 14 at Lindsey Nelson Stadium (4:30 p.m. ET, SEC Network+).

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