“I would just say the chance to play quality competition, Power Five football, that kind of just interests me a lot,” said Webb, who’s ranked by 247Sports as the No. 191 overall prospect and No. 34 wide receiver in the 2022 class. “With the teams leaving the American (Athletic) Conference, like Houston and UCF, it kind of just made the conference a little weaker, and I want to play the best of the best each and every week.”
Webb, who vaulted into the Top247 in 247Sports’ rankings Wednesday coming off a breakout senior season, already was plenty familiar with Tennessee before his official visit with the Vols over the weekend. He had attended two of their home games in October and participated in one of their camps in June. He even remembers going to a game at Tennessee more than two years ago.
There wasn’t much more he needed to see during his weekend stay in Knoxville, but he said the Vols again made a good impression on him. He said the visit “just gave me a better feel” for Tennessee.
“It went well,” Webb said. “I’ve been up there a couple times, so I would say the only thing really new to me was getting a more in-depth tour of kind of, like, the facilities and buildings there, and the academic support and what they plan to do to try to further your career. But I enjoyed my time up there. …
“I kind of feel like it just gave me a better feel for them — really, just for, like, the school portion and not just the football portion of it.”
First-year Vols coach Josh Heupel’s staff has made Webb a priority over the past few months. He said Tennessee’s coaches, led by wide receivers coach
Kodi Burns, showed him plenty of attention over the weekend. Webb and offensive coordinator
Alex Golesh took the opportunity to reiterate that he could play early in the Vols’ fast-paced, high-scoring offense.
“Coach Golesh and Coach Burns sat down and talked about what I can do in their offense,” Webb said. “They just explained what they liked about my game and how I could come in as a freshman and make an immediate impact at Tennessee.”
Webb said Burns “was around me a majority of the time” during the official visit. Burns has developed a strong relationship with Webb since the summer.
“We’ve kind of been getting close ever since I went to camp in June,” Webb said. “We’ve kind of just built a strong relationship as time has gone on. I like Coach Burns. He has a competitive mentality. Also, I feel like he’s going to tell you the truth no matter what it is, and I like that about him — that he can be honest with you, and you’re basically going to get the dead-honest truth from him every time.”
Tennessee wide receiver
Cedric Tillman, who was the Vols’ leading receiver this season, has stayed in contact with Webb since his visit for Tennessee’s game Oct. 16 against Ole Miss. That made Tillman a natural choice to serve as Webb’s player host during the official visit.
Webb said Tillman talked with him over the weekend about “just how different things are with Coach Heupel, and the difference between Coach Heupel and (former) coach (Jeremy) Pruitt.”
“That’s really, basically, all we talked about, to be honest — and how he’s gotten, I feel like, a fair chance with Heupel, which has allowed him to put up pretty good numbers this year,” Webb said, recalling his conversations with Tillman.