Squirrel White primed to create fireworks in Tennessee offense

Under head coach Josh Heupel, Tennessee has become known for its explosive offenses. In 2023, the Volunteers will look to wide receiver Squirrel White for fireworks in the passing attack.

As On3’s JD PicKell explained on The Hard Count, White is primed to have a breakout season.

“The first firework player for us here is Squirrel White from Tennessee,” PicKell said in reference to Independence Day. “The wide receiver. He’s gonna kind of be in what Jalin Hyatt’s role was a season ago because Tennessee’s offense if you’re playing wide receiver, it’s built on, see ya.”

“What do I mean by that? What does see ya mean? It means when we line up one on one, we’re gonna line you up out wide. So that safety probably can’t get there. It’s probably just you and that DB. Probably you and a corner, depending on how they want to line it up. It’s built on see ya, meaning we’ll see you later. We’ll get past you, ball will be up in the air, we’re scoring touchdowns.”

White fits perfectly into this style of offense, as PicKell explained, because of his burner speed.

“Squirrel White was tracked at practice going 23 mph. Ladies and gentlemen, that is speeding in a lot of school zones. They’d be pulling Squirrel White over, saying, ‘You know how fast you were going?’ He’d say, ‘Yes, sir. I was going 23 miles per hour to the end zone,'” PicKell said.

“Keep an eye on Squirrel White. I think he’s a firework player this coming season, and I think that he’s going to pick up a lot of the production that Jalin Hyatt left off.”

Last season, White even flashed some of this explosiveness, snagging 30 receptions for two touchdowns. White also averaged 16 yards per completion.

Josh Heupel expects the Tennessee receivers to be electric

One person who isn’t concerned about Tennessee’s wide receivers is head coach Josh Heupel. In fact, when Heupel looks around at the team’s wide receiver room, he expects that group to be electric.

“Four of [our] top receivers weren’t playing today. Three of them would certainly be able to play if it was a normal game week. We’ve been banged up a little bit throughout the course of it…[And] there has been extra pressure applied to those guys because of the reps,” Heupel said.

“That group as a whole has been really good in what they’ve done over the course of spring ball…[I] anticipate that being an electric group when we get to the fall. They’re long, they’re competitive, they have speed. They have a pretty good understanding of what we’re doing right now offensively. We’re going to need them to play at a really high level as we get into the fall. The guys that have been playing have absolutely competed extremely hard throughout the course of spring ball….I can’t say enough about what that group has done under Coach [Kelsey] Pope’s direction.”