Tennessee expected to lose All-SEC OT to transfer portal, per report
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Tennessee took a hit on the field with that last-second Music City Bowl loss on Tuesday night, and now the Volunteers look to be absorbing another blow in the transfer portal.
The portal opens on Friday, and All-SEC offensive tackle Lance Heard is expected to be hitting that portal when it opens, according to a report late Thursday afternoon by Matt Zenitz of CBS Sports. Heard was a 3rd-team All-SEC selection in 2025, when he started all 13 games at left tackle for Tennessee.
Heard was a mainstay for Josh Heupel‘s program this past season, playing a whopping 887 snaps, which according to Pro Football Focus was 2nd on the team, trailing only starting quarterback Joey Aguilar. The star tackle was a key piece in allowing Aguilar to thrive in his first season in Knoxville, allowing just 2 sacks in 2025.
If Heard decided to go pro, he could’ve been a big-time NFL Draft prospect for this coming spring. But he won’t be going pro, and he apparently won’t be coming back to Knoxville either, choosing to head elsewhere in the college ranks for the 2026 season.
The 6-foot-6, 330-pound Heard will have one season of eligibility left, wherever he winds up playing this fall.
It’s been a bit of a whirlwind college career for Heard, who spent the 2023 season at LSU before transferring to Tennessee, where he started 23 games at left tackle across the 2024 and 2025 seasons.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
