The first window for the transfer portal closed Wednesday after being open 45 days following the end of the 2022 regular season.
That doesn’t mean transfer portal action for the 2023 class is over, players still in the portal will be choosing schools in coming days and weeks and the portal will open again for two weeks following spring practices across the country.
But the mayhem will slow down as no new players can enter the portal over the next few months as coaching staff’s across the country turn their attention to offseason training and the 2024 recruiting class.
Tennessee has done plenty of work in the transfer portal to date, adding eight commits including former BYU and Vanderbilt corner Gabe Jeudy-Lally Thursday morning.
The Vols eight-player transfer class ranks No. 26 nationally according to the 247sports transfer rankings. Only five schools ranked ahead of Tennessee has fewer commits than the Vols and all but two of them had seven.
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Tennessee’s transfer class ranks fifth in the SEC coming behind No. 2 Auburn, No. 5 LSU, No. 13 Ole Miss, No. 14 Arkansas and No. 16 Kentucky.
While the transfer portal rankings give a good gauge to what teams are bringing in, they don’t account for players leaving the program. Tennessee hasn’t had nearly as many players (11) enter the transfer portal as other SEC schools like Arkansas, Auburn and Florida.
The Vols have addressed a number of needs in the transfer portal but have also added across the board. Josh Heupel and his staff added two offensive tackles in addition to junior college offensive tackle Larry Johnson III, a receiver, a tight end, a linebacker, an interior defensive lineman, a cornerback and a kicker.
247sports ranks the top 369 players in the transfer portal, giving the top player (Travis Hunter) five-stars, the next 130 players four-stars and the rest three-stars.
Oregon receiver Dont’e Thornton (No. 57), BYU linebacker Keenan Pili (No. 115) and BYU cornerback Gabe Jeudy-Lally rank as four-stars while UC Davis tight end McCallen Castles (No. 236) and Texas offensive tackle Andrej Karic (No. 157) rank as three-stars. Tennessee’s three other transfer commits were not ranked in the top 369.
