Alex Golesh 'so proud' of what Jalin Hyatt has become

Against Alabama, Tennessee wide receiver Jalin Hyatt introduced himself to the American football public and etched himself into Third Saturday in October lore with an eye-popping six catches for 207 yards and five touchdowns — including 60 and 78 yard connections for scores in a nationally televised game. Oh, and he snagged this photo after the game in the locker room.

Along with helping the Volunteers finally vanquish Nick Saban’s Alabama, Hyatt has become an example of what the Tennessee program aspires to under head coach Josh Heupel. Offensive coordinator Alex Golesh explained how.

“But long run who Jalin Hyatt has become is totally a credit to what coach Heupel has built here in terms of, we’re process-oriented, we just continue to plug, and the end result is what the end result is gonna be,” Golesh said. “But, what Jalin has done is a true example of what this program, what we have worked so hard as a group, to build here. Which is a process-based program that continues to develop young men. And I’m so proud of him and what he’s been able to do.

‘And you see him at practice today and it’s like nothing ever happened. Like all he’s work on is perfecting his craft and coaching Squirrel [White] and coaching Jimmy Calloway and just who Jalin has become. If you can have that, every day, from an entire program, special things can happen.” 

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Hyatt’s caught 33 passes for 595 yards and 10 touchdowns this season. He’s No. 21 nationally in receiving yards and leads the nation in receiving touchdowns now. That far outpaces the 21 catches for 226 yards and two touchdowns Hyatt tallied in 2021 — and he’s got a half dozen games, at least, left.

But what’s impressed Golesh more than Hyatt’s ascension on the field, and that’s plenty impressive, is how consistently he — and others — worked on it relentlessly to fuel that rise.

“He’s the same guy that, every evening in the summer, he’s on the jugs machine. Every single time Hendon [Hooker] was out there throwing, Jalin Hyatt was who he was throwing too. And I’m not singling Jalin out because Ramel [Keyton] is there and Cedric [Tillman] is there and Bru [McCoy] when he got here. And really that whole wideout group. Kelsey [Pope]’s done an incredible job of creating, taking what we had going and just continuing to build on the culture in that room. And really the culture in all of our rooms.

“And you don’t always see the end result of that. You don’t always end up on the winning side of it. And all we talk about daily is ‘Control your process.’ And we talked about it again on Monday: The only thing that matters is our process,” Golesh said. “And Jalin is a byproduct of that. And I couldn’t be more proud of how he’s attacked his process. And that’s the result that happened.”