'25 Portal Thread

[Tennessee Golfer]

Always get used as leverage



Nice job from Spyre yet again.

7 WRs and most are freshman while Your most experienced one played soft all yr. Way to maximize Nicos talent! Cant wait to “evaluate” again in the Spring

There’s two perfectly good bridges in town already. No need to wait on the new one.

 

[DD4ME]

I hope I'm wrong, but everyone saying, "Spring portal!", I think you're going to be disappointed. I don't think we get much from the Spring portal. But I think our roster is almost fine as is. We could still make a few key adds from this portal session before all is said and done.

I lean the later too. The line was our true issue. OSU and ND had all day to throw. My genuine question is can Sanders be ready as a true freshman. But if they find a deficit needing a plug we have that window and can sway someone.

 

[Weezer]

@Ericvol2096

It might not be too late to convince one of the other OSU WRs to hit the portal. They might not have the experience, but there's some talent there.

 

[VolunteerVandiver]

@Ericvol2096

It might not be too late to convince one of the other OSU WRs to hit the portal. They might not have the experience, but there's some talent there.

Throw all that money at their WR coach

 

[VOLociraptorr]

Mike Matthews looking at the WR room, realizing he's about to eat!

 

[Weezer]

Throw all that money at their WR coach

Hartline is an excellent recruiter who has put talent after talent in the league. But he won't leave his alma mater unless a promotion is involved.

 

[LaagerVol]

I’m disappointed and hope all know that our strategy was only to get someone who could truly be a huge impact.

We went so large on the offer I got too optimistic but OSU obviously had no issues approaching it.

We will keep working to find someone in the spring to help us in 2025 win big!

I agree with the strategy. We didn’t need JAG, we needed someone the coaches thought would make a difference. Not many of those guys available. I wouldn’t overpay just to get another WR body. Consider me unbothered lol.

I said this earlier, before we missed out on him, i think he’s more a possession guy anyway

 

[deatojl]

I hope I'm wrong, but everyone saying, "Spring portal!", I think you're going to be disappointed. I don't think we get much from the Spring portal. But I think our roster is almost fine as is. We could still make a few key adds from this portal session before all is said and done.

I wonder if Brandon Innis might want in on some of this spending spree action.

 

[Jimmyandjoes]

We are absolutely cooked. No experience at WR. No true WR1. And we don’t have Dylan Sampson to carry the offense. I’m sorry but there is just no excitement or hope that we can have another great season

It's over. We'll never win again. We'll be lucky to hang with Kentucky.

 

[titansvolsfaninga]

8-4, sorry that’s what this team looks like

Why not just go full nega? 0-12, put your chest into it when you say it.

 

[deatojl]

It's over. We'll never win again. We'll be lucky to hang with Kentucky.

Nah, Kentucky is serious about winning. They have signed 19 transfer portal guys.

 

[LaagerVol]

Yeah and their backups are the ones playing this year if you want to go down that route....

I like Mike Matthews a good amount but let's not just act like it's all sunshine and rainbows

Backups from the previous year turn into starters every year in…. Wait for it…. College football. It’s kinda how it works.

 

[PTSDVOL]

8-4, sorry that’s what this team looks like

Pretty funny how spoiled we’ve become. We literally would have killed someone for this record for about 12 of the 15 years post Fulmer. Lmao.

 

[vol94]

Here’s a tough pill to swallow. As much as it hurts to say, there is no elite wide receiver who is looking to play with Nico. I’m just disappointed… I really did not want to see Brazzell starting next season if i’m being honest.

Yeah. I’m disappointed too. I thought for sure we would have more skill players surrounding Nico. Our passing game has been stagnant the past two years and i don’t see anything changing in 2025 unless Matthews and a freshman exploding onto the scene along with Boo.

 

[vol94]

It amazes me that everyone forgets we have a numbers crunch due to the Pruitt fiasco. We can only take someone from the portal if we have someone else go in the portal. We signed 26 high school players this year instead of signing less and hitting the portal hard.

This has been mentioned a bunch, but it just goes over the head of certain posters.

We would’ve dropped someone had we landed a top WR. Let’s not act like Heup didn’t try. The same with DB. We will lose 3-5 more during spring ball so the #s will be there to add new talent.

 

[TheRain]

We'll probably have the best passing attack in the SEC this season. Heupel will push the young skill position players much more then he did last year.

 

[Jimmyandjoes]

Concern is warranted, but guys are allowed to get better. No one would have expected us to count on Hyatt in January of 2022.

No they don't. Haven't you heard or seen. Guys regress here, get worse, no development, no hope. Most of our guys, especially WR, wouldn't start on other SEC teams. Other teams play similar schedules but we get totally lucky and pad our stats against cupcakes to get 30 wins in 3 years.We basically back-doored the playoff.
We should run the option

 

[dmwvol12]

Hartline is an excellent recruiter who has put talent after talent in the league. But he won't leave his alma mater unless a promotion is involved.

Weezer, let’s face it, if you had the money Ohio State does you would be an elite recruiter. What about my alumni will outbid anybody screams elite recruiter? Do you think he’s elite if he’s at Kentucky?

 

[Weezer]

Weezer, let’s face it, if you had the money Ohio State does you would be an elite recruiter. What about my alumni will outbid anybody screams elite recruiter? Do you think he’s elite if he’s at Kentucky?

He was doing it before paying players was legal. Sure, we can argue the big boys were always cheating, but he's been putting guys in the NFL for a good while now.

 

[vol94]

That goes for every team their is.

I don’t understand why some of yall are so dense to ignore the fact we don’t get but about half the recruits we go after in the portal and the main reason we don’t get most of them is others pay more than our coaches think they are worth.

If the $1mil offers for Tate from Texas or Oregon are true,
Do you actually think Heupel believes he’s worth a $Million and he’ll be willing to overpay?

If he wants to improve results in 2025, then he better do what it takes. And please, let’s stop talking about overpaying. We have $$$. It takes one call to a donor or lucrative businessman in Knoxville to get the cash for NIL.

 

[Weezer]

And prominent foreheads.

Are we still pursuing other guys? A DT? A Safety?

 

[vol94]

Concern is warranted, but guys are allowed to get better. No one would have expected us to count on Hyatt in January of 2022.

Let’s not act like Hyatt will be the norm. Our receivers have regressed over the past two years. Is it QB or WR talent? I’ve heard both but not sure as I’m not on the field w these guys. So having concern is warranted.

 

[VolByLaw]

Am I allowed to complain yet @Austin_Price

Sure…7 WR with 4 having not played a college down is rough

Will be spring at earliest to add someone

-AP

 

[GVol1966]

If he wants to improve results in 2025, then he better do what it takes. And please, let’s stop talking about overpaying. We have $$$. It takes one call to a donor or lucrative businessman in Knoxville to get the cash for NIL.

Feel free to go ahead and make that call.
Tell them we’re going to overpay whatever it takes to get Tate, tell them to get out the checkbook, because there’s gonna be 25 more already on the roster that are now wanting to get overpaid, so they will be asking for more $$$.
Glad to know it’ll take just one call to get all the $$$ we’re going to need.

 

[LaagerVol]

If he wants to improve results in 2025, then he better do what it takes. And please, let’s stop talking about overpaying. We have $$$. It takes one call to a donor or lucrative businessman in Knoxville to get the cash for NIL.

Overpaying isn’t about not having the money, it’s about placing a value relative to the rest of the roster and not going beyond it.