Tennessee Vols are flirting with a potentially disastrous situation and they need to fix it immediately
A potential post-Christmas nightmare for Tennessee Vols fans became a reality on Saturday night. Well, kind of. On3 reported just before midnight that Vols true freshman wide receiver Mike Matthews is planning to enter the NCAA transfer portal. Matthews, 6-foot-1/197 lbs from Lilburn, GA, is a former five-star recruit who signed with Tennessee during the […]
A potential post-Christmas nightmare for Tennessee Vols fans became a reality on Saturday night.
Well, kind of.
On3 reported just before midnight that Vols true freshman wide receiver Mike Matthews is planning to enter the NCAA transfer portal.
Matthews, 6-foot-1/197 lbs from Lilburn, GA, is a former five-star recruit who signed with Tennessee during the 2024 recruiting cycle.
VolQuest's Brent Hubbs reported late Saturday night that Matthews has filled out the paperwork to enter the portal, but it won't be official until Monday.
According to Hubbs, Matthews could still choose to withdraw his transfer request before Monday.
That information would seem to suggest that this is a negotiation tactic by Matthews. Former Vols defensive lineman Tyler Baron did something similar after the 2021 season when he entered the portal, but then withdrew his name shortly after and stuck around at Tennessee.
Matthews, who was rated as the No. 6 wide receiver in the 2024 recruiting class, is a player that Tennessee absolutely has to keep in Knoxville.
The Georgia native has NFL-caliber talent. He should be one of quarterback Nico Iamaleava's go-to options in 2025. Tennessee simply can't let Matthews get away.
NIL money is probably a factor to some extent with Matthews (it's a factor with almost every player that's entertaining the idea of the portal), but it's likely not the only factor that the dynamic young wide receiver is thinking about.
This past season, Matthews watched as other true freshman wide receivers around the country saw significant playing time and were heavily involved in offensive game plans. Ohio State's Jeremiah Smith, Alabama's Ryan Williams, Texas' Ryan Wingo, and Auburn's Cam Coleman are wide receivers who were ranked similarly to Matthews and saw plenty of action as true freshmen in 2024.
Matthews, who finished the 2024 season with seven receptions for 90 yards and two touchdowns, could've provided a big spark for Tennessee's offense this past season — especially considering that UT's wide receiver group wasn't exactly elite (everyone saw the talent gap between Ohio State's wide receivers and Tennessee's wide receivers in the playoff). Matthews, however, needed more than 15 snaps a game to make any sort of impact for the Vols (it's worth nothing that Matthews did start to see an increase in snaps near the end of the season, playing 36 snaps against UTEP, 43 snaps against Vanderbilt, and 28 snap against Ohio State).
Josh Heupel and his staff need to give Matthews some assurances that he'll be one of Tennessee's go-to options in 2025. If Matthews doesn't produce, then that's on him. But he needs a legitimate opportunity to prove that the elite talent he showed at Parkview High School will translate to the SEC.
Losing Matthews to the portal would be an absolute disaster for a Tennessee team that's in dire need of elite wide receiver play. The Vols need to take care of this situation as soon as possible, otherwise there will be plenty of outside noise on Rocky Top this offseason.
The top 3 plays of the 2024 season for the Tennessee Vols
What a year for the Vols
