The Tennessee Vols will have one of the deepest wide receiver rooms in the nation in 2024.
Tennessee returns several key contributors from last season, plus the Vols added some elite talent via the NCAA transfer portal and their 2024 recruiting class.
Bru McCoy, Squirrel White, Dont'e Thornton, Kaleb Webb, and Chas Nimrod return from last year's squad. Additionally, the Vols brought in Tulane transfer Chris Brazzell and they signed five-star wide receiver Mike Matthews and four-star wide receiver Braylon Staley.
During the first three years of the Heupel era, the Vols have mostly stuck to a rotation of just three or four wide receivers.
In 2021, it was Velus Jones Jr, Cedric Tillman, and JaVonta Payton that saw most of the snaps for Tennessee. In 2022, it was Jalin Hyatt, Bru McCoy, Ramel Keyton, and Squirrel White that saw most of the action (Keyton stepped up after Tillman suffered an ankle injury against Akron early in the season).
Last season, it was White and Keyton that saw most of the action with Kaleb Webb and Chas Nimrod filling in the gaps after McCoy and Thornton suffered season-ending injuries.
In 2024, we could see the Vols use more wide receivers than they typically have under Heupel thanks to the program's depth.
Heupel joined Always College Football this week and he was asked by host Greg McElroy about the Vols' wide receiver rotation and how it could shake out this fall.
"At the end of the day, you want to play as many guys as you can as long as they're going to play at the level that you need them to," explained Heupel. "Without a doubt the deepest we've been at the wide receiver [position] in our tenure here at Tennessee. Those guys handle it the right way. They're highly competitive. They've made a bunch of plays throughout the course of spring ball.
"The young guys that you mentioned, love their physical traits. They have a good understanding of what we're doing. They've got to continue to grow in it, which is typical of anyone that comes into any offensive system. But they all have playmaking ability. Some of the guys that have experience -- really like the growth of Kaleb Webb [and] Chas Nimrod. Dont'e Thornton's had a great spring. So you're looking at a group -- Bru's not on the field with us yet, he's doing great in his rehab process, he's been a great coach on the field with us this spring -- it's a group that has an ability to impact the game. And the depth of [the wide receiver room] is going to give us an opportunity to play more guys than we have."
Tennessee's wide receivers are battling each other this spring for opportunities. But based on Heupel's comments, it doesn't sound like there's going to be an odd man out. If a wide receiver is performing at a high level, he's going to get an opportunity this fall. It's not going to be a numbers crunch deal where a talented wide receiver gets buried on the depth chart. Instead, the only thing keeping any of Tennessee's wide receivers off the field in 2024 will be performance related.
The Vols are clearly excited about the talent they've compiled at the wide receiver position. And it sounds like Heupel is eager to give all of them a chance to shine this fall.
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