Tennessee Football’s SEC Struggles Deepen as Transfer Portal Misfires Expose Depth Issues and Stall Program’s Momentum Under Josh Heupel

The Tennessee Volunteers entered the 2025 offseason with promise, ambition, and a sense of unfinished business. After consecutive bowl appearances and a brief return to national relevance under head coach Josh Heupel, the Volunteers were expected to consolidate their position among the SEC’s elite. But that trajectory has taken an unexpected detour. A frustrating shortfall in the NCAA Transfer Portal—one of the most pivotal elements of roster construction in today’s college football landscape—has left Tennessee exposed. As a result, the Vols are in danger of losing hard-earned ground in the ultra-competitive Southeastern Conference.

For years, the transfer portal has evolved from a complementary roster tool into a lifeline. Programs with coaching changes, roster imbalances, or short-term needs have leaned heavily into it, and the most successful ones have learned how to plug holes quickly while building long-term depth. Tennessee, however, finds itself on the wrong side of that equation this offseason. While schools like Ole Miss, Missouri, and even Florida managed to secure high-impact transfers at key positions, Tennessee has come away largely empty-handed.

The Vols did land a few contributors, but none who currently project as game-changers. That’s a critical problem for a team trying to keep pace in a conference that’s not only top-heavy with national contenders like Georgia and Alabama, but also increasingly deep in the middle tier. Programs like Kentucky, South Carolina, and Arkansas are quietly retooling, and LSU remains a perennial threat. With Texas and Oklahoma entering the league, competition for elite talent—whether from high school or the portal—has never been more fierce.

One of the most glaring voids for Tennessee came at the wide receiver position. With star receivers departing and a young quarterback in need of reliable targets, the portal offered a chance to add experienced playmakers. Instead, several top targets ended up elsewhere. Former Oregon State wideout Silas Bolden chose Texas. South Carolina snagged a couple of proven pass catchers. Tennessee missed. That miss compounds the pressure on the Vols’ 2024 recruiting class to produce immediate contributors—an increasingly rare feat in the modern SEC, where freshmen rarely dominate out of the gate unless they’re truly special.

The offensive line, another concern following multiple departures, also needed help. Tennessee struck out on multiple experienced linemen they pursued in the portal. The group returning to Knoxville is filled with question marks, and while there’s some optimism around a few young players, banking on inexperience against SEC front sevens is a risky proposition. The Vols needed a plug-and-play lineman or two. They didn’t get them. That failure now casts a shadow over the offense as a whole. Josh Heupel’s scheme can hum when it’s protected and has weapons; it sputters when the trenches collapse.

Defensively, the story is much the same. The Volunteers lost productive veterans to the draft and to other programs via the portal, but haven’t replenished those losses in kind. A few role players and under-the-radar signings arrived, but no one who strikes fear into SEC offensive coordinators. The front seven looks light on star power, and the secondary remains a work in progress. Considering how much Tennessee has leaned on timely stops and turnovers under Heupel, this version of the defense looks uncomfortably thin.

Perhaps most frustrating for Tennessee fans is that this portal shortfall feels avoidable. The Vols weren’t without resources. NIL collectives in Knoxville are active, and the program’s recent success should’ve made it an attractive landing spot. Yet, in multiple recruitments, Tennessee simply lost out. Some of that may be attributed to NIL offers falling short. In other cases, it was a matter of role, scheme fit, or perceived program stability. Whatever the reason, Tennessee is no longer viewed as the hot destination it was two years ago.

Recruiting momentum has also taken a hit. The 2025 class is solid, but not spectacular. Tennessee is getting beat head-to-head on more battles than it wins, especially for blue-chip prospects who want to see a clear path to the playoff or immediate personal exposure. Heupel’s high-octane offense was once a selling point. Now, without a clear-cut quarterback to replace Nico Iamaleava long-term and with depth issues emerging, that pitch is losing some of its luster.

And that quarterback question is looming larger than ever. With Iamaleava gone, Tennessee is entering a new era at the most important position in football. There was hope that the Vols might dip into the portal to bring in competition or insurance. Instead, they stayed pat, showing faith in young and unproven options. It’s a gamble, and in this version of the SEC, gambles at quarterback can turn a potential 9-win season into a disappointing 6-6 slog.

It’s not all doom and gloom. Heupel remains a capable offensive mind, and he’s shown he can develop talent when given time. The facilities are strong, fan support is unwavering, and there’s still a competitive core on the roster. But college football is not a patient game anymore. Between playoff expansion, NIL, and the portal, the sport has become more transactional, more reactive, and less forgiving. Programs that fail to adjust risk irrelevance. Tennessee cannot afford to slip back into the middle of the pack—not when it took so long to climb out of it.

Heupel’s challenge is now twofold. First, he must coach up the players he has and maximize every ounce of talent and cohesion from a roster that’s thinner than it should be. Second, he has to reestablish Tennessee as a destination program, not just for high school recruits but for proven college players looking for a better opportunity. That will require alignment between the coaching staff, recruiting department, and NIL collectives—a process that other SEC schools have already figured out with more consistency.

There’s also the optics of program trajectory. Tennessee is not just measured against its past anymore. It’s measured against Georgia’s consistency, Alabama’s reloads, LSU’s athleticism, and now the splash of Texas and Oklahoma. Standing still means falling behind. The transfer portal, when used effectively, can vault a team into contention. Just look at what Ole Miss has done in back-to-back offseasons. Tennessee’s failure to fully capitalize on the portal puts a ceiling on what this team can achieve in 2025.

The good news? The calendar still provides opportunities. The portal reopens in windows, and players will continue to move. Injuries, depth charts, and coaching changes will send ripple effects across the country. Tennessee could still add a key piece or two late. But the big wave—the one that could’ve stabilized the roster early—is gone. And the Vols are left trying to play catch-up in a league where standing still means getting trampled.

Ultimately, this offseason is a test of adaptability. The programs that rise to the top in this new age of college football are the ones that can pivot quickly, identify needs, act decisively, and land the players who can fix immediate problems. For Tennessee, the 2025 offseason was a swing—and mostly a miss. That doesn’t doom the program, but it puts the pressure squarely on Heupel and his staff to get more from less, and to ensure that this year’s step back doesn’t become a long-term slide. Because in today’s SEC, there’s no margin for error, and certainly no time for rebuilding through hope alone.