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Josh Heupel addresses Tennessee players who opted out of Orange Bowl

IMG_3593by:Grant Ramey•12/29/22•

GrantRamey

WR Jalin Hyatt
Donald Page | Getty Images

Josh Heupel on Thursday addressed Tennessee football’s three players opting out of the Orange Bowl — wide receivers Cedric Tillman and Jalin Hyatt and linebacker Jeremy Banks — as a product of the success the Vols are currently having. 

“I think at the end of the day that’s kind of the landscape of what happens at times inside your program,” Heupel said, “when you’re having success and during the course of bowl season. You can see that across the country.”

No. 6 Tennessee (10-2) faces No. 7 Clemson (11-2) in the Capital One Orange Bowl on Friday (8 p.m. Eastern Time; TV: ESPN) at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami.  

“The unique thing is you have a couple extra weeks to prepare and plan for those situations,” Heupel said. “You’re not dealing with it in a seven-day span. We lost some really good players. I think that provides unique opportunity (for others).”

Jalin Hyatt had 1,267 receiving yards, 15 touchdowns during breakout junior season

While Tillman, Hyatt and Banks opted out of the Orange Bowl to prepare for their NFL careers, Darnell Wright, Tennessee’s All-SEC First Team offensive tackle, announced he’s entering the NFL Draft, but will play in the bowl game.

Hyatt, a consensus All-American and Tennessee’s first Biletnikoff Award winner, finished his breakout junior season leading the country in touchdowns, with his 15 setting a new Tennessee program record. He had 1,267 receiving yards, only 31 yards short of matching the Tennessee record held by Robert Meachem, who had 1,298 yards in 2006.

Tillman had a breakout redshirt junior season in 2021, catching 64 passes for 1,081 yards — fifth most in Tennessee football history — and 12 touchdowns. 

This season he was limited to just six games played due to a high-ankle sprain suffered in a 63-6 win over Akron in September at Neyland Stadium. Tillman caught 37 passes for 417 yards and three touchdowns over his final six games with the Vols.

Up Next: No. 6 Tennessee vs. No. 7 Clemson, Orange Bowl, Friday, 8 p.m. ET, ESPN

Banks in five seasons at Tennessee recorded 219 tackles, 18.0 tackles for loss and 5.5 sacks. He had three interceptions, eight passes deflected, a fumble recovery and a forced fumble. 

In 11 games this season, Banks had 53 tackles and 4.5 tackles for loss. He had a breakout redshirt junior season in 2021, with 128 tackles, 11.5 tackles for loss and 5.5 sacks, to go with one interception.

“That’s the tough thing,” Heupel said of the opt outs, “and the great thing about college football is that essentially a quarter of your roster is graduating every single year. With that provides new opportunity to go make plays because you’ve got more snaps on the football field. It provides opportunities in leadership. It’s the great thing about college football.

“You’re essentially building your roster and your football team every single January, and that’s always true, but I think in the landscape of college football, it’s certainly true, and more evident and more prevalent now with the transfer portal, too.”

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