Where Phil Steele ranks Tennessee's Mike Matthews among freshman wide receivers
Tennessee’s Mike Matthews is the No. 2 freshman wide receiver in college football this season, according to Phil Steele. The ranking from Steele of the top 25 freshmen wide receivers entering the new season was topped by Ohio State’s Jeremiah Smith.
Matthews came in ahead of Alabama’s Ryan Williams, Texas wide receiver Ryan Wingo and Texas Tech’s Micah Hudson in the top five.
Auburn’s Cam Coleman, Notre Dame’s Cam Williams, Miami’s Joshisa Trader, Oregon’s Gatlin Bair and Clemson’s Bryant Wesco round out the top 10. The remaining 15 in Steele’s ranking can be seen here.
Mike Matthews was a five-star prospect in Tennessee’s 2024 recruiting class
Matthews, the 6-foot-1, 186-pounder out of Lilburn, Ga., headlined Tennessee’s 2024 recruiting class. He was a five-star prospect ranked No. 26 overall in the On3 Industry Ranking. He was the No. 6 wide receiver in the class and the No. 4 overall player in the state of Georgia.
“He’s a guy that goes about his business every day and competes extremely hard,” Tennessee coach Josh Heupel said during his press conference after the Orange & White Game in April, “playing without the ball in his hands. He’s got a high-competitive care factor, makeup.”
Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava said in April that his biggest takeaway from his first spring with Matthews was his catch radius — not something seen often from players making their college football debuts.
“He can go up and get the ball at a high,” Iamaleava said. “As you know, it’s rare seeing that from young guys coming in, but I think Mike Matthews, him coming in, I think we’ve expected that of him. And he’s showing that every day in spring.”
Mike Matthews added to a veteran Tennessee wide receiver group
Matthews joined a Tennessee wide receiver group that returns Bru McCoy, Squirrel White, Dont’e Thornton, Kaleb Webb and Chas Nimrod, among others, while adding other highly rated newcomers in transfer Chris Brazzell and freshman in Braylon Staley.
Brazzell at Tulsa last season caught 44 passes for 711 yards and five touchdowns and was one of the biggest names in Tennessee’s transfer class.
Staley, out of Aiken, S.C., was a four-star prospect ranked No. 83 overall in the 2024 class and No. 17 nationally among wide receivers.
“(Matthews) and Braylon Staley are in the building on their own every single day,” Tennessee wide receivers coach Kelsey Pope said in April, “getting extra meetings, doing walkthroughs on their own. They’ve kind of seen the way we operate here, and they jumped right in, which is why they’ve seen success so far.
“Those freshmen have done a huge, tremendous job of coming in here and just getting to work. It’s been paying off on the practice field for them.”
