The Tennessee Wide Receiver Question Is Complicated
What are the Vols going to look like at WR in 2025?
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Tennessee’s wide receiver room is going to look very different in 2025. It’s going to look even more different than I had anticipated going into the offseason. Granted, as of this writing, it is still unclear what is going to happen with freshman blue-chip wideout Mike Matthews.
There were a lot of Vols fans who, understandably, expected to see a bit of a change this offseason at the position with Dont’e Thorton Jr. and Bru McCoy moving on to the NFL and the natural attrition of a roster in the transfer portal era. However, I don’t think anyone expected that Tennessee could have three new starters going into next season with slot wideout Squirrel White entering the portal and Matthews’ future on Rocky Top up in the air at the moment. Both seemed like good bets to go into spring practice as starters – Matthews a better bet on the outside than White, I’d say, but the conventional wisdom was the Vols would need to get one big fish out of the portal at wideout and be able to call it a day.
That’s the not the case anymore. With the departures of White, Thornton Jr., McCoy, Nate Spillman, Nathan Leacock, Chas Nimrod and Kaleb Webb, the WR room got thin in a hurry. If Matthews is out the door, too, you’re looking at Braylon Stayley and Chris Brazzell being your lone returning wideouts in 2025. Still, Tennessee is bringing in three blue-chippers in the 2025 class in Travis Smith Jr., Radarious Jackson and Joakim Dodson. That’ll help with the numbers in that room pushing it to five but the Vols are now in a position where they’re going to have to be major players in the transfer portal for wide receiver help with or without Matthews.
All fall it seemed like the defensive and offensive line would be where Tennessee would have to be most aggressive in the portal this offseason. The Vols are losing longtime playmakers in the interior in Omari Thomas, Omar Norman-Lott and Elijah Simmons. They’re also at least three starters on the offensive line, with a fourth still being up in the air with left guard Andrej Karic. The Vols’ early, lone addition out of the portal reflected that in former Arizona guard Wendell Moe picking Tennessee for 2025. The Vols were at one time a reported favorite for former Northwestern guard Josh Thompson who wound up at LSU. They’re also linked to a few defensive tackles at Power 2 schools, too. It all made sense early on.
Things have changed, though. Tennessee is reportedly interested in former USC blue-chip wideout Zachariah Branch who makes a ton of sense in the slot for the Vols. It should help that Tennessee has done well with former USC wideouts in Velus Jones Jr. and McCoy under Heupel. Who knows if the Vols are going to be able to land the highest-rated wideout in the portal right now in Branch, but they have to swing and they have to swing hard.
Perhaps what’s most concerning about the situation that Tennessee finds themselves in right now is that so many of the big-name entries at wide receiver have already picked their next school for the 2025 season. Eric Singleton committed to Auburn. Dane Key committed to Nebraska. Micah Hudson committed to Texas A&M. Of the top-20 wideouts who have entered the transfer portal this winter cycle, Branch is the only uncommitted player of the bunch. This all puts the Vols in a precarious position at the moment.
Tennessee’s passing offense struggled mightily in 2024. It struggled in 2023, too. The Vols were 74th in passing yards per game this season – they were 94th in conference play. (They were 51st in 2023 overall, too.) What’s helped is having two NFL-level running backs in back-to-back seasons carry the load for the offense in Jaylen Wright and Dylan Sampson, respectively. With the latter declaring for the 2025 NFL Draft, there is more uncertainty about the running back room next season. Sampson carried this Volunteer offense for the better part of the 2024 season, and it’s fair to expect third-year quarterback Nico Iamaleava to take over that mantle in 2025. That’s why he was a five-star recruit coming out of high school and why you invested so much in recruiting him to Tennessee was to be The Guy for the Vols in 2025 after two years of learning and growing and playing in the system.
What you didn’t expect, though, was how different everything would look around Iamaleava in 2025. How uncertain the entire offense is around Iamaleava. Outside of Iamaleava, there is a realistic path where just two other starters from the 2024 team on offense – tight end Miles Kitselman and left tackle Lance Heard – are starters for the 2025 team. That’s a whole lot of change in a pivotal season for Heupel and for Nico and for the program as a whole.
I don’t know how it is all going to shake out for the Vols in the portal over the next several weeks. I do know Tennessee has to be aggressive, though. Circumstances have changed and fixing the vertical passing game is critical this offseason for the Vols to get back to the College Football Playoff in 2025. Tennessee needed to get better wide receiver this offseason, in a similar way to how the team had to get better in the secondary last offseason. It worked out last offseason for the Vols, and Tennessee is going to need to pull off a sweeping change for a key position group once again this offseason just on a different side of the ball.
Tuesday Update On The Chase Thomas Podcast
With it being another weird week with New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day happening in the middle of the week we may only have one new podcast episode for you.
We’ll back to the normal schedule next week, but look out for a new episode of ‘A Pod Divided’ with Matt Green and I following the CFP games on Thursday.
With the time off, an easy to support the program going into the new year would be taking a second and giving the podcast a 5-star rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and writing the show a review. It helps!
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Make it a great Tuesday, everyone.
Best,
Chase