Alex Golesh challenges Tennessee wide receivers to step up

Tennessee got excellent performances out of its wide receivers last fall in Alex Golesh’s first year as the Volunteer offensive coordinator. This coming season, Tennessee returned one of its star wideouts but has to replace the other starter.

At a recent press conference, Golesh said he’s challenging the other receivers to be the ones to step up this season, but made it clear he believes the Vols have plenty of talent and depth to maintain the standard set in 2021.

Here was the Tennessee OC on his wideouts:

“It will all play itself out as it goes. A year ago, we were walking into the same situation. Cedric [Tillman] was a guy nobody knew about. You know, Velus [Jones] was a guy nobody knew about. So I think it will kind of play itself out. Whether people feel like they need role coverage that way. Or do something unique to take him away. Obviously, if it becomes a one-man show, that would be really hard offensively.”

Alex Golesh acknowledged Tillman’s great season, but emphasizes that UT needs others to step up around him to lighten the load.

” I think in this system, looking back at it over the years, it’s kind of played itself out. We feel good with who’s going to be opposite of [Tillman] in terms of whether it’s one guy or a group of guys. We feel like this is as deep as we’ve been in the slot going into camp at least. There’s a bunch of guys that have to prove something in that room — I think in the same breath they did a year ago.”

There’s opportunity to be had in the receiver room at Tennessee. And their offensive coordinator is ready to see which guys will step up when needed to.

“I think it will be exciting to see kind of what happens. There’s some really good young players. How fast they grow up? How fast they figure out what’s really going on. What helped was having the three freshmen here in the spring. Now, you’re not teaching them how to play. They can actually continue to perfect their craft. But I think if [Tillman] was a one-man show — it would be really, really hard. I’m pretty confident that it won’t be that way.”