Tennessee Vols HC Josh Heupel eases one potential concern after first spring practice
Tennessee Vols head coach Josh Heupel eased a potential concern on Monday after UT's first spring practice of 2024 that a lot of folks probably haven't thought about. Building a roster in college football used to be all about high school recruiting. But now, thanks to the NCAA transfer portal and the new world of […]
Tennessee Vols head coach Josh Heupel eased a potential concern on Monday after UT's first spring practice of 2024 that a lot of folks probably haven't thought about.
Building a roster in college football used to be all about high school recruiting. But now, thanks to the NCAA transfer portal and the new world of lucrative NIL deals, adding transfers is just as important as high school recruiting.
One big difference between high school recruiting and the transfer portal, however, is that coaches, in a lot of instances, have far less time to get to know a player.
With high school recruits, coaches are usually building relationships over a multiple year period. The portal, however, is a much quicker process. Visits and commitments happen in a matter of weeks, and sometimes days. Coaches don't always know for sure what kind of player they're getting — specifically when it comes to culture fit.
And culture is something that's extremely important to Heupel.
The fourth year Tennessee head coach wants elite playmakers, but not at the expense of the elite culture that's been created in Knoxville over the last few years.
So when it comes to the eight transfers that Tennessee added earlier this offseason, there was a bit of a gamble on whether or not each of those players would be good culture fits. Heupel and his staff certainly felt like they'd be good culture fits, but you never really know until a player arrives on campus (the Vols have had a couple of transfer additions under Heupel, that have since transferred again, that weren't great culture fits).
Fortunately for the Vols, it sounds like each of Tennessee's new transfer additions have been terrific culture fits so far.
"The guys that we took from the transfer portal, that recruitment happens really quickly, man," said Heupel on Monday. "It's been a great group that's come into the building and tried to blend in and mesh in with with our team culture extremely quickly. They've handled themselves with a lot of maturity."
That's a great sign for Tennessee in 2024 because the Vols will be relying heavily on a few of those transfers this fall. LSU transfer offensive tackle Lance Heard is expected to start for Tennessee. The same goes for Oregon State transfer cornerback Jermod McCoy, Middle Tennessee transfer safety Jakobe Thomas, and Temple transfer cornerback Jalen McMurray.
It's tough to win without a strong culture. And it sounds like Tennessee landed some transfers that fit in perfectly with the thriving culture on Rocky Top.
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