Ohio State player says that offseason rumor that some Tennessee Vols fans bought into was never in play
For a couple of weeks in January, there were some Tennessee Vols fans who believed there was a legitimate chance that Ohio State Buckeyes wide receiver Carnell Tate was going to enter the NCAA transfer portal.
Tate signed with Ohio State over Tennessee during the 2023 recruiting cycle.
The idea was that Tate might want to play for a program where he’d be the top receiving option (which won’t be the case at Ohio State with stud wide receiver Jeremiah Smith on the roster).
If Tate had entered the portal, Tennessee would’ve been a logical destination for the Chicago-area native due to the Vols’ in-depth involvement in his recruitment.
Tate, however, never entered the NCAA transfer portal.
The talented wide receiver, in fact, told 10TV’s Adam King this past week that he has no idea how those transfer rumors started.
“The plan was never for me to leave,” said Tate. “I don’t know where that came from or where that started. I bleed Ohio State.”
I never thought the Tate rumors made much sense. For starters, why would Tate leave a program where he just won a national championship? I know lucrative NIL deals have changed the way players think about transferring, but Tate is obviously in a great spot at a program that has a tremendous reputation in recent years when it comes to developing wide receivers.
Plus there’s the comments that Tate made about NIL deals when he committed to Ohio State a couple of years ago.
“It (NIL) hasn’t mixed up the thought process for me at all,” said Tate to The Athletic in 2022. “Because I know the big bucks come at the end when you go to the league. I don’t think NIL money can touch the league money as of right now. I know that picking money over development won’t get you into the right spot. Because the NIL money doesn’t help you get to the league.”
I’m sure Tennessee’s coaches would love to have Tate on the roster, but this was never a realistic scenario that was in play.
