If you watched the Alabama-Georgia game on Saturday night in Tuscaloosa, you were in for a treat.
Saturday night’s main event SEC showdown featured two heavyweight teams in a knockdown brawl that saw Alabama survive a Georgia comeback to complete the statement early-season win over Kirby Smart’s Bulldogs.
Now, if you’re anything like me, you came away impressed with the incredible performance by Alabama wide receiver Ryan Williams.
As RTI’s Ryan Schumpert posted to X on Saturday, did you know Williams is only 17 years old? Man, who knew?
All jokes aside, though, what Williams is doing right now is wild. The 17-year-old reclassified to the 2024 class in high school, foregoing his senior season in order to start his Alabama career earlier than normal. Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe told the coaching staff that Williams needed a role during the season, and here we are just a month into the year with Williams making an impact Alabama’s victory on Saturday night. Williams recorded 177 yards and a touchdown on just six receptions, including a 75-yard g0-ahead touchdown reception with just two minutes left in the game.
Not every team is in a position where a freshman, even one as talented as Williams is, can come in and not only compete for a starting position but quickly be considered a game-changing player on the team. Alabama has that with Williams.
Tennessee’s receiver core has shouldered a bit of criticism this season with a slower pace of production than some expected, but it makes sense why. First and foremost, Tennessee hasn’t had a game yet where the Vols need to rely on their passing game to either climb back into a game or separate a close-scoring contest. Tennessee has decimated their first four opponents by a combined margin of 216-28.
Only the Oklahoma game was close from a scoring margin and even in that game Tennessee found themselves up 22-9 in the second half. Tennessee didn’t need to throw to close out that game – heck, look what happened to Auburn on Saturday trying to throw the ball with a lead on Arkansas… it didn’t go well.
Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava is a Heisman candidate but only has the 10th most passing yards in the SEC at this point in the season. That’s not a knock on Iamaleava, that’s saying that Tennessee’s wide receivers haven’t had a Jaxson Dart-type passing offense to pad stats with.
This isn’t meant as a public call for the benching on Squirrel White, Dont’e Thornton, Bru McCoy, or Chris Brazzell – at all. Josh Heupel and Kelsey Pope have more than enough credibility to know how to rotate their players and use them at the most effective marks.
But, for Tennessee fans watching that Alabama-Georgia game on Saturday, it has to be a bit exciting knowing that the Vols also have a (potentially) game-breaking freshman wide receiver who could make a massive impact at some point down the road, too.
Tennessee freshman receiver Mike Matthews was a five-star prospect in last year’s recruiting class, ranked as the No. 6 wide receiver compared to Williams ranked as the nation’s third-highest receiver. Matthews and Williams weren’t too far off in their ratings, either, with Williams rated at 0.9982 and Matthews at 0.9882. While a hundredth of a point does stretch far in the world of recruiting ratings, it’s also close enough to be very comparable skill sets.
Matthews’ start to the season has been fairly limited for two reasons. On one hand, the freshman receiver suffered a preseason injury that limited the start of his season. On the other hand, though, Tennessee just has a deep group of receivers – White and McCoy are two veterans that have the coaching staff’s trust, Brazzell was brought in from Tulane for a specific reason, Thornton has turned into a deep-threat favorite of Iamaleava’s, and even rotational players like Chas Nimrod upped their game across the offseason. As talented as Matthews is, it’s not the easiest rotation to crack through.
Matthews hauled in two receptions for 35 yards and a touchdown during the Vols’ 71-0 win over Kent State, showing off impressive body control and catching skills with his endzone reception.
“Mike is a guy that we’ve had great trust just, you know, through spring ball,” Josh Heupel said about Matthews after the Kent State game. “Early part of training camp got nicked up, you know. We were able to use our four wide package now with him being healthy tonight and so it was good to have him out there. He made plays, he handled himself within the flow of the game extremely well. Really excited about what he did, but a lot of our young guys, too.”
5⭐️ WR Mike Matthews first career touchdown as a Tennessee Vol pic.twitter.com/bqu0hLVq3X
— Vol Report (@AllVolReport) September 15, 2024
More from RTI: Tennessee Football At Program Record Pace Through Four Weeks
This isn’t a public declaration for Tennessee to switch up their receiver rotation – I can’t pretend to know more about the unit than Kelsey Pope and Josh Heupel, obviously. But there’s no doubt that Tennessee has a wickedly talented, 6-foot-1 wide receiver named Mike Matthews who will certainly be a game-breaking player for Tennessee at some point in his career.
“Must keep evolving as a player and getting better at all the little things, but should be viewed as one of the top wideouts in the 2024 cycle that can be a difference-maker on Saturdays and then eventually Sundays,” 247’s Andrew Ivins wrote in an evaluation for Matthews in 2023. “Likely to find most success in a modern spread attack that wants to utilize space and push the tempo.”
Matthews might not have the same early-career trajectory that Williams has through the first third of the season but the talent is there.
So for any Tennessee fans watching Alabama, wanting a young and talented player for the Vols like Ryan Williams, just know that Tennessee is getting Mike Matthews ready behind the scenes and his emergence – whenever that may be – will be loud.
