Vols player who is entering the transfer portal is one that Tennessee reportedly didn’t want to lose

The Tennessee Vols are attempting to successfully navigate the NCAA transfer portal.

Zach Ragan — Tennessee Volunteers News Writer
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Brianna Paciorka/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK

The Tennessee Vols have lost a couple of key contributors to the NCAA transfer portal over the last couple of days.

And at least one of those contributors was a player that Tennessee reportedly didn’t want to lose.

The Vols were hoping to keep cornerback Rickey Gibson

CBS Sports’ Matt Zenitz reported earlier this week that Vols cornerback Rickey Gibson III is entering the transfer portal.

Gibson, who nearly entered the portal last spring, missed the majority of the 2025 season after suffering a season-ending injury in the Vols’ win over Syracuse on Aug. 30. The Alabama native, however, was expected to hold down one of the starting cornerback spots for Tennessee in 2026 (with rising sophomore Ty Redmond starting at the cornerback spot).

CBS Sports’ Chris Hummer suggested on Friday that Tennessee didn’t want to lose Gibson to the portal.

“Tennessee has lost a lot of guys that they didn’t necessarily want to,” said Hummer.

“Some of them they wanted to lose, some were contract negotiations. Rickey Gibson isn’t someone they wanted to lose. Tennessee has been making some tough decisions.”

EDGE Caleb Herring and offensive tackle Lance Heard are other key contributors that Tennessee is unexpectedly losing to the transfer portal.

VolQuest’s Austin Price joined WNML’s Josh and Swain on Friday and questioned if Gibson is a player that Tennessee could possibly convince to return to Knoxville.

“With Rickey Gibson hitting the portal, is that one that they can pull back in?” said Price. “Or is that one that, you know, is gone, gone?”

Cornerbacks command a significant amount of cash on the transfer market, so this could just be a negotiation tactic by Gibson. But if it’s not, Penn State transfer cornerback AJ Harris would make a lot of sense for the Vols.

Buckle up, the transfer portal craziness is just getting started.

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