Tennessee football: Tyus Fields transfer means available DBs balled out in spring

Another elite player who signed with Tennessee football under Jeremy Pruitt is entering the transfer portal. Okay, so he’s doing it a year after the wave of players who did it when Josh Heupel took over, but he still joins the list.

Tyus Fields, a redshirt sophomore who has been with the program for three years, will enter the portal as a graduate transfer. Once a four-star across the board out of North Carolina in 2019, Fields appeared in five games over his first two years combined but didn’t play last year.

The 5’10” 186-pound graduate of Hough High School in Cornelius, N.C., has specifically been playing cornerback since joining Tennessee football. He revealed his plan to enter the portal with a post late Monday morning on Twitter.

There’s only one expectation for Fields’ decision: The Vols’ young defensive backs balled out in the spring. Given the loss of Alontae Taylor, Theo Jackson and Kenneth George Jr. and the struggles of Warren Burrell and Kamal Hadden, there would naturally be competition at cornerback.

Burrell, Hadden, Brandon Turnage and De’Shawn Rucker all being out in the spring while Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets transfer Wesley Walker won’t arrive until the summer gave guys like Fields, who had a ton of hype, a chance to really assert themselves. If he didn’t, then it has to be because other players did.

This means that Christian Charles, an elite speedster, and Desmond Williams, showed enough. Willie Martinez was giving Charles a look at cornerback given how thin they were there, and Williams is a junior college transfer who is expected to contribute immediately.

We don’t know what will happen with the four guys out and Walker, as all of them could contribute too, but all of a sudden, Tennessee football’s secondary may be in great shape heading into the year. If Williams and Charles performed well enough to entice Fields to enter the portal, Tim Banks has a lot to work with.

Obviously, Jaylen McCollough and Trevon Flowers have the safety spots locked up. Charles could provide depth there if the guys who return win their jobs back, and Tamarion McDonald, Cheyenne Labruzza and Doneiko Slaughter are still working there too. The question was always at cornerback and nickel.

Of course, if none of those other defensive backs were returning in the summer, it would still be a concern, but Josh Heupel secured enough bodies at the position to make it beyond likely a couple would work out. The two available guys in the spring seem to have already worked out.

That’s a great situation for the Vols to be in. Given the starting experience of Turnage, Burrell and Walker, it’s pretty likely UT will be able to go two-deep at every position in the secondary now given the fact that Charles and Williams seem to be reliable.

Simply put, Tennessee football is better off in the secondary now than they were in the spring despite the transfer of Fields. That’s because such a transfer can only mean other players stepped up and proved themselves, and that bodes well for the Vols in 2022.