Along with the group of freshmen, Tennessee also signed four incoming transfers on Early Signing Day.
This included Holden Staes, Jakobe Thomas, Jermod McCoy and Eli Purcell.
Here's what Josh Heupel had to say about the transfers and the portal as a whole.
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Notre Dame TE Holden Staes
Heupel: "Holden's got the physical attributes. You can see in his footage already, that he's got the ability to play out in space, connected in the line of scrimmage. Has the body type, the frame to do everything that we're going to ask him to do inside this league, inside of our offense. He’s bright, competitive, he's got the makeup to help us immediately. And obviously that's the position over the last couple of years that we knew we were going to have to go attack in the portal."
MTSU DB Jakobe Thomas/Oregon State DB Jermod McCoy
Heupel: "The secondary guys. They're athletic. They've got great short-area quickness. They're willing to be physical, stick their face off people. They have multiple years left, that can grow inside of what we're doing. I feel like both of them can make an immediate impact, obviously, as well."
MORE FROM VOLREPORT: Josh Heupel discusses top signees in Vols' 2024 class
On looking to add a transfer QB
Heupel: “I think quarterback is one of the positions, you look across the country, it's hard to have the depth at that position that you historically may have had. We're going to continue to always evaluate. That's true at quarterback but it's true at every position here as we go through January."
On landing more players out of the portal
Heupel: “I mean, the recruiting process for those guys, some of those guys make quick decisions. Some of those guys you've been in communication with that are already in the portal that may elect to take a visit in January or they're nearing the decision process but don't have it finalized by a day like today when I'm speaking in front of you. There are going be guys that will continue to get in the portal on the back end of some of these bowl games, too. That's where it's different than it used to be, personnel that would become available, you have to constantly monitor and evaluate the player and the person here is as you go through Christmas, through January.”
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