assessing the requirements for Tennessee’s transfer portal at every offensive position.

Undergraduate FBS players have access to the NCAA transfer portal through Monday, and Tennessee has already begun scouting and reaching out to players from other programs whose records are in the database in order to pursue other opportunities. After being chosen for the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl on Sunday, the Vols still have one game left in the 2023 season: they will play Iowa in Orlando on New Year’s Day. However, the coaching staff will spend the majority of the upcoming weeks evaluating their needs and assembling the roster for 2024. With the Early Signing Period approaching later in December, this is a big recruiting month. Tennessee’s coaches will be focusing on portal targets during their travels and remaining visitation days.

Tennessee’s preference, according to third-year head coach Josh Heupel, is to build the majority of the program through traditional high school recruiting. The Vols currently have a 20-member class of committed players ranked No. 12 for 2024, which includes 12 blue-chippers. This class comes after a top-10 2023 class. However, the Vols demonstrated a year ago that they will make use of the transfer portal to add players to the roster when needed and to acquire plug-and-play starters.

Which positions should the Vols focus on with the openings they intend to use on transfers as roster-management season gets underway? There are several tiers of portal targets, from players who are more likely to be depth or rotational pieces to players who are immediate impact additions you are adding to cover a void. There are also more developmental transfers, some of whom may have graduated from high school a year or two ago and still have several seasons of eligibility remaining.

The 2023 college football season’s All-American teams were unveiled on Wednesday by 247Sports/CBS.

Together with Notre Dame offensive lineman Joe Alt and Oklahoma State running back Ollie Gordon II, Iowa punter Tory Taylor was chosen unanimously for the first team.

Cooper DeJean, an Iowa cornerback, was one of five defensive backs and two cornerbacks chosen for the first team. Jay Higgins, a linebacker for Iowa, was chosen for the second team.

There were two players from each of Alabama, Georgia, LSU, Notre Dame, Texas, and Iowa on the first squad. With five overall All-America selections, the Crimson Tide took the lead. The Hawkeyes had three total, while the Longhorns, Missouri, and Bulldogs were ranked fourth and fifth, respectively.

For Taylor, the season was amazing.

This season, Taylor’s yards per punt (47.9) placed third nationally. Before the Big Ten Championship, HawkeyeSports provided these two Taylor statistics.