Tennessee Football: Josh Heupel has a big test he needs to pass this summer
Tennessee Vols head coach Josh Heupel has a big test he needs to pass this summer. A big recruiting test to be specific. The Vols are one of the programs in the mix to land 2024 five-star wide receiver Mike Matthews, the No. 10 overall player in the 2024 recruiting class. Matthews, 6-foot-1/180 lbs from Lilburn, GA, […]
Tennessee Vols head coach Josh Heupel has a big test he needs to pass this summer.
A big recruiting test to be specific.
The Vols are one of the programs in the mix to land 2024 five-star wide receiver Mike Matthews, the No. 10 overall player in the 2024 recruiting class.
Matthews, 6-foot-1/180 lbs from Lilburn, GA, caught 48 passes for 1,031 yards and 10 touchdowns as a junior at Parkview last season.
As a prospect, Matthews is similar to former LSU Tigers wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase (who is now a star player for the Cincinnati Bengals).
Chase was also listed at 6-foot-1 coming out of high school. And like Matthews, he was rated as the No. 3 overall wide receiver in his recruiting class (both players were also exceptional high school basketball players).
Now, that's not to say that Matthews is going to be the next Chase — that's impossible to predict. But Matthews has that kind of upside. And that kind of upside would be incredibly exciting to see in Heupel's offense.
The good news for Tennessee is that it appears the Vols are the favorites for Matthews ahead of his expected summer decision.
On3 director of recruiting Chad Simmons noted this week that while he's not ready to predict that Matthews will commit to Tennessee, he think the Vols are the program that's "in the best position" for the talented wide receiver.
Simmons' co-worker, Josh Newberg, feels a bit more confident about Tennessee's chances with Matthews. Newberg said earlier this week that he feels even more confident about Matthews heading to UT after his recent visit to Knoxville.
I think it's safe to say that Tennessee is the favorite for Matthews. And if the Vols don't land him this summer, it'll be a major disappointment.
If the Vols miss on Matthews, the program will still continue to trend in the right direction. Heupel and his staff have proved they can find a high level of offensive success without a roster full of five-star wide receivers. But if Tennessee wants to take the program to the next level, they have to start landing elite five-star wide receivers. That's when the Vols will truly be able to dominate against upper level programs.
Heupel has pushed all the right buttons so far at Tennessee. He's accomplished far more than anyone expected during his first two years in Knoxville. Tennessee, however, is a program that has the potential to live among the Alabamas and Georgias of the college football world. But to live in that world, the Vols have to recruit like those programs.
The next step for Heupel at Tennessee is to show that he can close the deal with elite five-star recruits like Matthews. If he can pass this massive recruiting test and land a commitment from one of the top players in the nation (and one of the top players in the state of Georgia), it will show that Heupel truly has what it takes to get Tennessee back to where the program is competing for championships on an annual basis.
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Featured image via Brianna Paciorka/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK
