‘I could have handled that situation a little bit better’ – Former Vols QB makes honest admission about leaving Tennessee
The Tennessee Vols have had quite a few quarterbacks on the roster in the transfer portal era.
Former Tennessee Vols quarterback Tayven Jackson is having the best season of his career in 2026.
Jackson, who spent just one season at Tennessee, landed with North Texas ahead of the 2026 season.
The Indiana native has already set a career high with 2,577 passing yards and 22 passing touchdowns, and there’s still a month of the season left.
Jackson is on his fourth school. He first transferred from Tennessee to Indiana (where he spent two seasons) before transferring to UCF for the 2025 season.
The former Vol spoke to CBS Sports this week about his college football journey, and he admitted that he could’ve handled his exit from Tennessee after the 2022 season in a better way.
Jackson left Tennessee after his true freshman season because of a crowded depth chart that included Joe Milton and Nico Iamaleava, who had one of the first mega-NIL deals in college football. Jackson was in a weird spot in the recruiting cycle where NIL wasn’t a major part of his recruitment, but it quickly became a big deal once he got to college.
“NIL totally, totally changed everything,” said Jackson to CBS Sports.
Jackson told CBS Sports that he first realized how big of a deal NIL was when he walked out of a quarterbacks meeting at Tennessee and Vols quarterback Hendon Hooker got in a brand new Mercedes.
“I could have handled that situation a little bit better,” added Jackson of leaving Tennessee. “But no one’s in that situation before. I wouldn’t change my decision. But it was tough. That’s like the first of it and then it just constantly NIL just grew. Everyone had to adapt.”
I’m not exactly sure Jackson thinks he could’ve handled better. He was nothing but complimentary of Tennessee after he transferred.
“Coach (Joey) Halzle and Coach Mitch (Militello) are great quarterback coaches, great offensive geniuses,” said Jackson in 2023 after transferring to Indiana. “And what I learned from them is really just how to approach the game. Just how to approach the game right and know what to take in and what not to take in and how to be a pro. How to study well. How to, you know, block out the outside noise and just try to really understand and grasp what we’re doing. And they taught me that well and I couldn’t thank them enough. They’re great coaches. I still think that quarterback room and the way they coach their kids is the best in the nation. So I hope that they have a great season.”
Jackson has also talked about how incredible Neyland Stadium is in the past and how crazy the 2022 season was at Tennessee.
“A lot of people said Penn State is the loudest (stadium) out of all of them,” said Jackson in 2024. “I’m always going to be ride or die Tennessee all the way because the Alabama game was unreal. I couldn’t even hear myself think. That’s how loud it got. It took me 45 minutes to get from one end zone to the locker room.”
“Dude, when we started winning games at Tennessee, I was cool with Hendon (Hooker),” added Jackson. “So after our Thursday night meetings at like 9 PM, he was like ‘let’s go out to dinner’. So all the quarterbacks went out to dinner. And so I was like ‘Alright, I’m gonna ride with you’. This dude’s got an AMG. So I’m like duh, I’m riding with you, I want to see an AMG, I’ve never seen one before. We get to his car, there are fans on a Thursday night waiting, they have football helmets for him to sign. And we walk out and I’m like ‘Dude, do you know these people?’ and he’s like ‘Nah’ and he goes ‘First of all get in the car, lock the door, we’re leaving’. And so we dead sprint to the car and they see him and they sprint to him and he locks the car and pulls out. And I was like ‘Hey man, why don’t you just sign some stuff?’ and he’s like ‘Bro, if I stop and sign, there’s going to be a mob and won’t make it to dinner.'”
Jackson has been nothing but class when discussing his time at Tennessee, and there was drama when he left Knoxville, so, again, I’m not sure what he thinks he could’ve handled better.
