Alex Golesh assesses Tennessee's deep wide receiver room

Tennessee was dynamite on offense last season once Hendon Hooker took over starting quarterback duties. Obviously a talented cast — and en elite duo — of receivers helped too. So heading into this season, Hooker is back. As is star wideout Cedric Tillman. But how is the rest of the WR room looking?

That was a question asked by a reporter and answered by Tennessee offensive coordinator Alex Golesh at a recent press conference. When asked about how many guys he feels good about, Golesh hesitated to give an exact number but noted he likes their depth at receiver right now more than he did in the middle of SEC play last year.

You can read his answer below in full. Where he talks wide receivers and explains how starting college back up in the classroom and on campus — outside of football — is a challenge they’ll have to deal with in terms of maintaining focus on the field.

Alex Golesh on Tennessee’s WR depth

“Yeah, I think we’re as deep at the receiver spot in terms of guys we feel good about playing. Right now, I think they’re still continuing to, one, get healthy. It was good to get a couple days off, get some guys that we were being really careful with with Jimmy Calloway, Chas [Nimrod], Squirrel [White] running around. Get those guys back healthy.

“Think a lot of it will depend on on how this next week and a half goes. I think I’ve said this before. How they handle camp and spring ball is one thing. How they handle what a real college football player is supposed to be and how they can handle the students on campus — now is rush week. I’m driving down to Neyland, so I get it. How do they handle all of that? How do they go through a normal Tuesday, Wednesday into a Thursday or Friday, game day, throwing 15 hours of class at them. I’m not trying to downplay who can play who cannot play. But who can not feel like a freshman as a freshman? And if we can play a bunch of guys that would be awesome.”

A lot of distractions offered by the UT-Knoxville campus, apparently. So it’ll be a test for especially the young guys not to get too wrapped up in extracurricular activity on campus.

Lastly, Golesh explained that he has eight guys he feels good about in that WR room.

“I don’t have a number. I feel like we’re we’re two-deep two-and-a-half deep there, which a year ago I felt like we started that way and then I did not feel that way after we started conference play. So the hope is that we can be at eight guys that can roll through, that can keep us fresh so we can play as fast as we possibly can. But that would be the goal is to have seven to eight that can go. I feel that like we do at this point.”