Tennessee Vols true freshman wide receiver Braylon Staley made a comment on Thursday after UT’s second fall practice that sounded a lot like a bold comment that former Vols wide receiver Jalin Hyatt made before Tennessee’s huge 2022 season.
Just before the start of the 2022 season, Hyatt told reporters that Tennessee was going to have the best offense in the nation.
“This offense is going to be the best in the country, I can tell you that right now,” said Hyatt a few weeks before the start of his junior season.
Several rival fan bases laughed at that quote from Hyatt, but his words proved to be accurate — Tennessee had the No. 1 scoring offense in the nation in 2022.
Staley’s comments on Thursday weren’t quite as bold as Hyatt’s from two years ago, but the true freshman still sounds very confident about Tennessee’s offense this fall.
“I feel like we’ve got a chance to be one of the best groups in the SEC,” said Staley when asked how explosive he thinks the Vols’ offense can be in 2024. “The offense, the tempo is fast, get the defense on their heels. I feel like we got a chance to be special.”
It definitely feels like folks outside of Knoxville are sleeping on Tennessee’s offense heading into the 2024 season (mostly because of UT’s “down year” in 2023).
But there’s a feeling on Rocky Top that this offense can be the best that Josh Heupel’s had so far during his time leading the program.
Tennessee has more overall depth than they had in 2022. They have a quarterback in Nico Iamaleava with limitless upside. And they have an experienced offensive line with three returning starters that have experience in Heupel’s offense (plus they have a former five-star offensive tackle in LSU transfer Lance Heard).
That talent combined with the fact that Joey Halzle is going into his second season as the program’s offensive coordinator (Heupel is still calling plays, but it’s a group effort along with Halzle and offensive line coach Glen Elarbee) and you have a recipe for a special season.
Hyatt was right about the offense in 2022. And it wouldn’t surprise me if Staley ends up being right, too.
