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Tennessee football adds in-state walk-on at position of huge need

By Caleb Calhoun

Oakland's Antonio Patterson (3) is taken down by Brentwood's Hayden Wilhelm (33) during the first half at Brentwood High School in Brentwood, Tenn., Friday, Oct. 2, 2020.Bhs Ohs Fb 100220 An 009
Oakland's Antonio Patterson (3) is taken down by Brentwood's Hayden Wilhelm (33) during the first half at Brentwood High School in Brentwood, Tenn., Friday, Oct. 2, 2020.Bhs Ohs Fb 100220 An 009 /
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Over the past few weeks, Josh Heupel has been securing transfers, late commitments and walk-ons at crucial positions to offset all the losses Tennessee football suffered in the transfer portal earlier in the year. On Wednesday, he added another player at one of those positions.

Hayden Wilhelm, an unrated linebacker out of Brentwood High School in Brentwood, Tenn., committed to Rocky Top for 2021. According to Ryan Callahan of GoVols247, he will be another preferred walk-on in the program.

Standing at 6’0″ 215 pounds, Wilhelm’s main targets outside of Tennessee football were Division III and NAIA schools: the Birmingham Southern Panthers, Lindsey Wilson College Blue Raiders and Millikin Big Blue. He announced that he was heading to UT on Twitter.

Despite such a low profile, Wilhelm is at arguably the most crucial position of need for the Vols. UT lost Henry To’o To’o, Quavaris Crouch, and J.J. Peterson in the transfer portal this past year, all inside linebackers. Then Martavius French, Aaron Beasley and Aaron Willis all got suspended, and French entered the portal while the other two are still suspended.

By the way, those are just inside linebackers. In recent weeks, Heupel has secured some help at the position with the addition of Texas Longhorns transfer Juwan Mitchell and Michigan Wolverines transfer William Mohan. Still, the competition to play there is wide open, and the spring game showed that the unit needs some serious help.

Given that fact, if there’s any position Heupel could add some walk-on talent, linebacker is that position. Wilhelm already has decent size to play the position in Tim Banks’ 4-3 based nickel-heavy scheme, and he comes from an area that plays high school football at an elite level.

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Simply put, as Heupel installs his new systems on both sides of the ball, walk-ons could be valuable all the way around, but especially at linebacker. Tennessee football has seen success on the walk-on front before. Don’t be surprised if Wilhelm adds to that tradition.

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