Tennessee football still loaded at WR despite Andison Coby in transfer portal

Developments at wide receiver this past year made it likely that Tennessee football would lose some players to the transfer portal. Even with Velus Jones Jr. and JaVonta Payton leaving, Josh Heupel simply had too many players at the position who could be productive.

Well, it looks like UT finally lost one. Andison Coby, a junior college transfer who committed to the Vols while Kevin Steele was interim coach last year before Heupel was hired but after Jeremy Pruitt was fired, has entered the transfer portal, according to Patrick Brown of GoVols247.

The product of Northeast Mississippi Community College in Booneville, Miss., who is originally from Deerfield Beach, Fla., stands at 6’2″ and weighs 180 pounds. Coby graduated from American Heritage High School in Florida’s Broward County.

When he committed last year, he seemed to be a guy the Vols would desperately need, especially with the departure of Josh Palmer, the transfer of Brandon Johnson and the move of Julian Nixon over to tight end. A three-star across the board, he had just one catch for five yards.

What happened was the emergence of Cedric Tillman, who again, shocked the world. Tillman never had more than 67 receiving yards in a season before 2021, but he led the team with over 1,000 yards, and he had 12 touchdowns. He is also coming back.

Even with Jones gone, Tillman is the go-to wideout. Also, Jalin Hyatt and Ramel Keyton are both likely to see bigger roles, and Wyoming Cowboys transfer Isaiah Neyor gives them more size. That doesn’t even include all the young guys who have a ton of potential.

Simply put, receiver is a position where the Vols were bound to lose somebody to transfer, and it’s likely that Coby is not the only guy. They still have Walker Merrill, Kaemen Marley, Jimmy Calloway and Jimmy Holiday among their promising young guys, and four receivers have committed to Heupel’s 2022 class.

There’s just not enough room for all these guys. Heupel certainly wants to run tempo and needs to rotate players in and out to do so, meaning he does need a lot of depth at the position, but this is insane. That’s especially the case when you know that really no more than three guys will get the bulk of the yards based on what we’ve seen this year.

Given his limited years of eligibility, it makes sense that Coby would want to transfer somewhere else to see more action immediately. Everybody should wish him the best in that effort. Tennessee football will be fine going forward regardless, and that was going to be true the minute Tillman and Hendon Hooker decided to come back.