The Tennessee Vols lost seven wide receivers to the NCAA transfer portal this past offseason.

Squirrel White, Kaleb Webb, Chas Nimrod, Dayton Sneed, Nathan Leacock, Cam Seldon, and Nate Spillman all left Tennessee last winter.

The mass exodus of wide receivers from Tennessee’s roster led to plenty of questions about the Vols ahead of the 2025 season.

Quote from Vols wide receivers coach Kelsey Pope leaves no doubt about how Tennessee felt about losing numerous wide receivers to the transfer portal

Tennessee entered the season with very little returning production at the wide receiver position. But Braylon Staley, Chris Brazzell, and Mike Matthews have each turned in terrific seasons so far in 2025.

Through the first 10 games of the season, Brazzell leads the team with 873 receiving yards. Staley is second on the team with 761 receiving yards. Matthews isn’t far behind with 667 receiving yards. The trio has also combined for 18 receiving touchdowns.

Dont’e Thornton, who was selected by the Las Vegas Raiders in the fourth round of the 2025 NFL Draft, led the Vols last season with 661 receiving yards.

Some folks may be surprised by the level of production from Tennessee’s wide receivers this season given the amount of attrition the program suffered at the position.

Tennessee’s offensive coaching staff, however, is not among those folks.

Vols wide receivers coach Kelsey Pope told reporters earlier this week that there was a “lot of peace” about the wide receivers this offseason between him, offensive coordinator Joey Halzle, and head coach Josh Heupel.

Pope noted that Tennessee’s staff essentially trusted their evaluations of the young wide receivers on their roster.

“I think what we do an incredible job of in this building is we’re spot on a lot of times on our evaluations,” said Pope. “There’s a bunch of young guys in the room. Mike, too — he was a freshman last year who played some. But we trusted our evaluations. We trusted how those guys looked last year. And at that point, honestly, there’s a lot of peace amongst me, Coach Halzle, Coach Heup, and everybody on the offensive staff. We felt like we had the pieces we need.

“Now, at that point, you got to go work and make it happen. But there weren’t a lot of long faces. There weren’t a lot of guys that weren’t confident in those players. And I think that came from our evaluation. We knew who they were in high school when we recruited them. We confirmed that when they got here and they worked the way they did. And so when you come to that crossroad where you got maybe an experienced player and a young player, I think you got to trust your eval. And that’s what we’re seeing right now.”

By the way, here’s how the wide receivers that left Tennessee this past offseason have fared so far this season at their new schools.

Chas Nimrod — USF — 23 receptions, 466 yards, 3 touchdowns
Squirrel White — Florida State — 5 receptions, 52 yards, 0 touchdowns
Kaleb Webb — Maryland — 14 receptions, 229 yards, 2 touchdowns
Nathan Leacock — North Carolina — 5 receptions, 48 yards, 0 touchdowns
Dayton Sneed — North Carolina — 1 reception, 12 yards, 0 touchdowns
Cam Seldon — Virginia Tech — 23 receptions, 165 yards, 2 touchdowns
Nate Spillman — Austin Peay — 3 tackles, one forced fumble (not sure what the deal is here, but Spillman is still listed as a wide receiver)

Tennessee obviously would’ve preferred to keep some of those guys for depth (especially Nimrod), but that’s a tough task to accomplish in NIL era. The Vols, though, clearly kept the right guys.

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