Josh Heupel and the Tennessee Volunteers have excelled at adapting as the college football landscape continues to dramatically change thanks to NIL and the NCAA transfer portal.
The Tennessee Vols were one of the college football programs hurt the most by a change that came to the sport this year.
On3's Nick Kosko named Tennessee as one of the eight programs hurt the most by the spring transfer window going away.
The Vols benefited from the spring transfer window a year ago when they landed Colorado transfer cornerback Colton Hood and UCLA transfer quarterback Joey Aguilar (who replaced Nico Iamaleava as UT's starting quarterback).
If the spring transfer window was still a thing this year, the Volunteers could've had a second opportunity to land a starting-caliber quarterback out of the portal.
"Tennessee could've been in hot pursuit for another quarterback in the spring transfer portal window," wrote Kosko . "Instead, they are settling with Ryan Staub , George MacIntyre and freshman Faizon Brandon. With a spring window, could Tennessee find a more experienced QB? Maybe. But the Vols will roll with what they have."
CBS Sports' Cody Nagel had a similar take this week.
"Tennessee ultimately botched its pursuit of an experienced quarterback through the transfer portal this winter," wrote Nagel
. "There was minimal hope that last year's starter, Joey Aguilar, would return, but his lawsuit seeking an extra year of eligibility was unsuccessful. The Volunteers made an offer to No. 1 overall portal prospect Sam Leavitt
before they were outbid by LSU
.
"The transfer Tennessee ended up landing was Colorado's Ryan Staub, leaving the quarterback room to sort through an offseason battle between redshirt freshman George MacIntyre and five-star true freshman Faizon Brandon. With no spring portal window available, Tennessee lost any chance to re-engage the market for an experienced option."
George MacIntyre — 6-foot-6 — Redshirt freshman
Faizon Brandon — 6-foot-4 — True freshman
Ryan Staub — 6–foot-1 — Redshirt junior (started career at Colorado)
Vols head coach Josh Heupel was asked last month about the lack of a spring transfer window.
In true Heupel fashion, he didn't reveal much about his thoughts.
"[It's a] big difference," said Heupel. "How you wrap up spring ball, finish out the semester, and being able to go all the way back to January and know who your football team is, build it together and then compete through the course of spring ball. There's still a lot of competition left as we get into training camp."
Heupel seems content with his quarterback situation. And there's no guarantee that Tennessee would've pursued a quarterback during the spring transfer window if it existed this year, but you have to imagine that Tennessee would've at least checked out their options.
