Hometown: Las Vegas, Nev.
He was only a two-star on Rivals in Tennessee football’s 2018 recruiting class out of Bishop Gorman High School in Nevada. However, at 6’3″ 215 pounds, Cedric Tillman showed something to Jeremy Pruitt’s staff, and last year, he was one of the guys who saw a decent bit of action off the bench as a redshirt freshman.
Now, Tillman did only have four receptions for 60 yards, but he scored a touchdown in the process. Meanwhile, he was ninth on the team in receiving, and four of the players ahead of him are gone, which makes him fifth among returning players. Among wide receivers specifically, only two returning players had more yards than he did last year.
Simply put, if there’s a consistent replacement of talent, Tillman could benefit significantly from the departures of Marquez Callaway, Jauan Jennings, Tyler Byrd and even tight end Dominick Wood-Anderson. There are clearly major openings at receiver, and with Josh Palmer expected to be the go-to guy, the fight for the other wideout has a lot of names popping up.
Don’t be surprised if Tillman becomes the shocking breakout player at the position. One wideout having his redshirt lifted, which we’ll get to later in this post, could push him back a bit, but Tee Martin and Jim Chaney clearly see some value in him. As a result, he’ll likely see a good bit of action at different points this year, and if things break a certain way, he could stand out.