Nearly all of Josh Heupel's coaching staff is back for year two on Rocky Top.

Every coach from year one except wide receivers coach Kodi Burns, who accepted the same position with the New Orleans Saints.

Heupel promoted Kelsey Pope to receivers coach shortly before spring practice after Pope spent last season as an offensive analyst. Pope worked closely with Burns and the receivers.

"Smart, competitive, consistent, great communicator, great leader inside of the room and mentor to those young guys," Heupel said about Pope on Tuesday following the first practice of spring. "He has all of the tools to be a dynamic and elite coach. I hired him because there was no doubt that he was the right guy for the job. I believe in who he is and how he will help those guys grow. He has done a great job with those guys in the year that he has been here. We have great trust and confidence in him.

"He is going to be a great recruiter because he is relationship-driven and great communicator. He is going to work at it and those are the traits you need. We are excited and fortunate to have him apart of our staff."

Pope is charged with a tall task right off the bat in his new position. Though All-SEC receiver Cedric Tillman returns, the Vols lose Velus Jones and JaVonta Payton to graduation.

Jones was Tennessee's second-leading receiver with 62 catches for 807 yards and seven touchdowns. Payton only caught 18 passes, but produced 413 yards and six touchdowns off of those catches.

Pope will rely on Tillman to help bring along an inexperienced room. As well as second-year starting quarterback Hendon Hooker.

"I think for both of them it is different this year than it was a year ago," Heupel said of Hooker and Tillman. "They are comfortable and confident in who they are as players and have great understanding of ways they need to improve, and want to improve. They have a great voice inside of the team room and inside their position units. I think they understand that now, so the leadership and ownership from within is completely different.

"Both of those guys have done a great job in the first seven weeks of our offseason, our first quarter of having very purposeful work every single day. They have made great strides in understanding, not just on the strength and conditioning side, but understanding the pure fundamentals of the positions that they are playing and how they can incrementally get better. Being able to reflect back on a year's worth of work, as we move forward, just their intentionality today was really good. Their voice and their leadership was really strong too. They are only going to continue to improve."

Pope inherits one of the best receivers in the SEC, but in order for Heupel's offense to replicate year one's success, his unit will need others to step up.

Jalin Hyatt, Jimmy Calloway and Ramel Keyton all return looking to earn a bigger role in the receiver rotation. As does Walker Merrill and Jimmy Holiday.

Tennessee also add four freshman receivers to the mix. Heupel signed Kaleb Webb, Marquarius 'Squirrel' White, Cameron Miller and Chas Nimrod in the class of 2022 and all four are on campus as early enrollees going through spring practice.

"A little bit like last spring, we had some young guys that had to grow and become really strong players," Heupel said. "Cedric (Tillman), obviously, his experience and ownership inside the wide receiver room is critical and big for us as a position (group), as a unit on offense, and has a program. Expect him to take another big jump in his play and development, as well.

"Outside of him, there are a bunch of guys that need to grow and I thought they had really strong offseasons in the first phase of what we do. They put themselves in a great position and I thought there was a lot of positives today in their ability to operate in our tempo and get lined up. For them, understanding scheme versus coverage. There were really a lot of positives today. They're going to need continued growth and development. These next 14 days after today are going to be big."

Tennessee and it's new look wide receiver room will be back on the practice field Thursday morning for practice No. 2 of the spring.