A player just entered the transfer portal that would be a perfect fit at Tennessee and would fill a big need for the Vols
A player entered the NCAA transfer portal on Monday that would be a perfect fit for the Tennessee Vols (and would also fill an important need for UT football).
Tennessee has several elite young wide receivers on the roster (Mike Matthews, Braylon Staley, Travis Smith, Radarious Jackson, Amari Jefferson, as well as returning starter Chris Brazzell) that are expected to be key contributors in the Vols’ offense in 2025.
UT, however, doesn’t have much depth beyond that group thanks to several wide receivers leaving the program this past offseason (Kaleb Webb, Chas Nimrod, Nathan Leacock, Squirrel White).
Vols head coach Josh Heupel was asked about Tennessee’s lack of wide receiver depth on Monday.
“Yeah, you want to come try out here? Listen, you know, ultimately it’s always about the guys in the room,” said Heupel when asked by a reporter if he has any concerns about Tennessee’s wide receiver depth. “A year ago, we had some guys that departed through the transfer portal. Hard to keep everybody happy at that position. I love the group that we’ve got. As a staff, you always evaluate where you’re at on the back end of spring ball, and we’ll certainly do that.”
On Monday, USF wide receiver Naiem Simmons, who started his career at Wagner, entered the transfer portal. Simmons, who has one year of eligibility remaining, missed the 2024 season due to injury. In 2023, however, Simmons caught 39 passes for 637 yards and five touchdowns.
Simmons would be a perfect fit for the Vols because he would already be familiar with Tennessee’s offense thanks to playing under former Tennessee offensive coordinator Alex Golesh at USF.
Of course, it won’t be easy to land Simmons if he’s looking for guaranteed playing time, which is something that Tennessee can’t necessarily offer.
But maybe Tennessee and Simmons could work out an above-market NIL deal for the 5-foot-10 wide receiver. Programs across the country are struggling to build depth at key positions thanks to the transfer portal (and NIL deals). One way to combat that would be to pay backup players a bit more than they might get to be a starter at a “lesser” program.
I don’t know what Simmons’ future goals are, but landing at Tennessee after starting at Wagner would be quite an accomplishment for a player who was unrated coming out of high school. And who knows what it could lead to for Simmons.
It’s not going to be easy for the Vols to find a wide receiver in the transfer portal that could be a plug-n-play option due to the amount of time it typically takes wide receivers to learn Heupel’s offense. That’s why Simmons is an ideal portal target for the Volunteers.
