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Is there trouble in paradise with the Tennessee Volunteers football program?
It certainly appears that way.
After an 11-2 season in 2022, including a victory in the Orange Bowl and a victory over Alabama, the Vols hauled in one of the nations top recruiting classes.
The 11th-ranked class in the country according to 247Sports included three-star safety Jack Luttrell out of Georgia. But less than a year later, Luttrell has entered the transfer and created questions about the program’s NIL funding along the way.
“Genuinely do not understand the point of a collective if players aren’t getting anything,” Luttrell posted on his Instagram story in July.
Luttrell did not clarify the post and later deleted it. The true freshman appeared in three games this season for the Vols but did not record a statistic.
Now, the first day the transfer portal is open, he’s in it.
That’s led some to question Tennessee’s NIL capabilities. But the Vols allegedly have one of the largest NIL budgets in the country.
Tennessee’s top NIL collective is considered one of the top in the country. And On3 Sports listed the group as one of the nation’s most ambitious.
“We realized being involved in recruiting was going to be a priority. Then we realized how much money we were going to need to be elite. And we’re shooting to be No. 1,” Spyre president and co-founder Hunter Badour told The Athletic.
The Vols also reportedly paid five-star quarterback Nico Iamaleava in the are of $8 million to sign with their program as part of the 2023 class.
Iamaleava, a California native, is expected to compete for the starting job in 2024.
Was Luttrell promised something he didn’t receive? Or did he just see the writing on the wall.
Only he and the Vols will know.