{"id":60069,"date":"2024-07-10T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-10T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/?p=60069"},"modified":"2024-07-10T11:00:00","modified_gmt":"2024-07-10T16:00:00","slug":"where-phil-steele-ranks-tennessees-mike-matthews-among-freshman-wide-receivers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/where-phil-steele-ranks-tennessees-mike-matthews-among-freshman-wide-receivers\/","title":{"rendered":"Where Phil Steele ranks Tennessee\u2019s Mike Matthews among freshman wide receivers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tennessee\u2019s Mike Matthews<\/a><\/strong> is the No. 2 freshman wide receiver in college football this season, according to Phil Steele<\/a>. The ranking from Steele of the top 25 freshmen wide receivers entering the new season was topped by Ohio State\u2019s Jeremiah Smith<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Matthews came in ahead of Alabama\u2019s Ryan Williams<\/a><\/strong>, Texas wide receiver Ryan Wingo<\/a><\/strong> and Texas Tech\u2019s Micah Hudson<\/a><\/strong> in the top five.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Auburn\u2019s Cam Coleman<\/a><\/strong>, Notre Dame\u2019s Cam Williams<\/a><\/strong>, Miami\u2019s Joshisa Trader<\/a><\/strong>, Oregon\u2019s Gatlin Bair<\/a><\/strong> and Clemson\u2019s Bryant Wesco<\/a><\/strong> round out the top 10. The remaining 15 in Steele\u2019s ranking can be seen here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mike Matthews was a five-star prospect in Tennessee\u2019s 2024 recruiting class<\/h2>\n

Matthews, the 6-foot-1, 186-pounder out of Lilburn, Ga., headlined Tennessee\u2019s 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a guy that goes about his business every day and competes extremely hard,\u201d Tennessee coach Josh Heupel<\/strong><\/a> said during his press conference after the Orange & White Game in April,<\/a> \u201cplaying without the ball in his hands. He\u2019s got a high-competitive care factor, makeup.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava<\/strong><\/a> said in April that his biggest takeaway from his first spring with Matthews was his catch radius \u2014 not something seen often from players making their college football debuts.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe can go up and get the ball at a high,\u201d Iamaleava said. \u201cAs you know, it\u2019s rare seeing that from young guys coming in, but I think Mike Matthews<\/strong><\/a>, him coming in, I think we\u2019ve expected that of him. And he\u2019s showing that every day in spring.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mike Matthews added to a veteran Tennessee wide receiver group <\/h2>\n

Matthews joined a Tennessee wide receiver group that returns Bru McCoy<\/strong><\/a>, Squirrel White<\/strong><\/a>, Dont\u2019e Thornton<\/strong><\/a>, Kaleb Webb<\/strong><\/a> and Chas Nimrod<\/strong><\/a>, among others, while adding other highly rated newcomers in transfer Chris Brazzell<\/strong><\/a> and freshman in Braylon Staley<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Brazzell at Tulsa last season caught 44 passes for 711 yards and five touchdowns and was one of the biggest names in Tennessee\u2019s transfer class.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Matthews) and Braylon Staley<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0are in the building on their own every single day,\u201d Tennessee wide receivers coach Kelsey Pope said in April, \u201cgetting extra meetings, doing walkthroughs on their own. They\u2019ve kind of seen the way we operate here, and they jumped right in, which is why they\u2019ve seen success so far.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThose freshmen have done a huge, tremendous job of coming in here and just getting to work. It\u2019s been paying off on the practice field for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The post Where Phil Steele ranks Tennessee\u2019s Mike Matthews among freshman wide receivers<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tennessee\u2019s Mike Matthews is the No. 2 freshman wide receiver in college football this season,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60069"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60098,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60069\/revisions\/60098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}