Vols insider provides insight on why Tennessee hasn't been able to land a wide receiver out of the NCAA transfer portal
The Tennessee Vols would love to add a transfer wide receiver to their roster during the spring transfer window. Tennessee has a talented group of wide receivers on the roster, but outside of returning starter Chris Brazzell, that group doesn't have much on-field experience. Unfortunately for the Vols, the search for a transfer wide receiver […]
The Tennessee Vols would love to add a transfer wide receiver to their roster during the spring transfer window.
Tennessee has a talented group of wide receivers on the roster, but outside of returning starter Chris Brazzell, that group doesn't have much on-field experience.
Unfortunately for the Vols, the search for a transfer wide receiver hasn't gone well over the last couple of weeks. Several wide receiver targets have canceled planned visits while others have elected to commit elsewhere.
VolQuest's Austin Price joined 104.5 The Zone's Ramon, Kayla, and Will on Tuesday morning and he was asked why Tennessee's had so much trouble finding a transfer wide receiver.
"Tennessee is searching for a backup wide receiver," explained Price. "And the receivers that are out there are wanting a much bigger bag, in terms of NIL, than Tennessee is wanting to spend. Because, if you're watching the receivers in the portal, and you feel like basically all the players you had this spring are better than that kid, then why would you give that kid a bunch of money and more money than you may be giving to your own current team? You wouldn't….and so there lies the rub.
"They're not looking for a starter. It'd be much easier if they needed to get a starting linebacker or a starting receiver or a starting defensive tackle. It's a lot easier to give money to that. It's not as simple when you're trying to find backups. Those backups want starter-ish type money, and they also want to play. And so I think the more that you have conversations with players, and you're transparent and you say, hey, listen, we've got our starters, but we're looking for somebody that's going to play X amount of reps a game and be a nice piece for us, that type of thing, I think certain kids are just put off by that."
Building depth is arguably the toughest thing to do in college sports right now (thanks to the transfer portal and NIL deals). In a perfect world, Tennessee would've been able to keep the wide receivers that left during the winter window (Kaleb Webb, Chas Nimrod, Squirrel White, and Nathan Leacock) to serve as depth options in 2025.
But when other programs were offering those players starter-ish type money (we assume….no one really goes on the record when it comes to NIL deals), it became impossible for Tennessee to keep them. Now the Vols are in a spot where they want to add a wide receiver that has some experience, fits the culture at Tennessee, and can quickly pick up Josh Heupel's offense (without wanting to be paid like a starter or receive any sort of guarantee when it comes to playing time).
Quite simply, the transfer wide receiver that Tennessee is looking for might not exist.