Devastating loss of talent: Media reacts to Tennessee losing 3 top players to transfer portal

The upcoming rebuild on Rocky Top has a drastic new outlook. On Wednesday, Tennessee had four players enter the transfer portal in a matter of minutes. Quavaris Crouch, Eric Gray and Henry To’o To’o made for the headlining trio of the portal entrants. It was a tough blow for a program that has already seen former 5-star OL recruit Wanya Morris transfer to Oklahoma and Ty Chandler, who rushed for over 2,000 yards in his time at Tennessee, transfer to North Carolina. On top of that, Big Kat Bryant deleted his tweet announcing his transfer from Auburn to Tennessee.

Below you can check out how some of the media, both Tennessee and national, is reacting to the big news out of Knoxville. In addition to assessing the mass exodus of top talent, there are some thoughts on where certain transfers may land as well as a few jokes.

Here’s a small sample of the posts on Twitter:

From a pure talent perspective, that Tennessee roster really wasn’t that far away from being OK. Really. It wasn’t.

Not now. This is gonna be a to-the-studs rebuild.

— Wes Rucker (@wesrucker247) January 20, 2021

This is about as close as it gets to a major college football program giving itself the dealth penalty.

— Wes Rucker (@wesrucker247) January 20, 2021

Can’t be overstated how devastating this day has been for Tennessee Football. Any illusion of keeping the ship afloat through this has evaporated.

— Josh Pate (@LateKickJosh) January 20, 2021

Tennessee did this to itself. Think about that for a moment.

— Aaron Suttles (@AaronSuttles) January 20, 2021

Vols writers are about to start reporting which players haven't entered the portal.

— Dave Matter (@Dave_Matter) January 20, 2021

Smokey might be next. https://t.co/DKNemWOj43

— Chase Goodbread (@ChaseGoodbread) January 20, 2021

How much longer are folks going to confidently attempt to convince me that Tennessee has “enough talent on the roster to compete immediately” ???

— Cole Cubelic (@colecubelic) January 20, 2021

To recap the last five minutes for Tennessee in the portal:

Henry To'o To'o
Eric Gray
Quavaris Crouch
Jahmir Johnson

Throw in Wanya Morris from last week, and I don't think any team has had a worse stretch in the portal. Ever.

— Chris Hummer (@chris_hummer) January 20, 2021

Tennessee beat six teams in a row whose combined record was 38-38 and decided to sign Jeremy Pruitt to a contract extension right before the next season began *during a pandemic*, then willingly nuked its program to get out of paying it less than four months later

a masterclass

— Justin Ferguson (@JFergusonAU) January 20, 2021

Last one out of Knoxville, make sure you throw away the leftover Filet-o-Fish from your dorm fridge. https://t.co/TiFYsWq3SJ

— Heath Cline (@heathradio) January 20, 2021

Bottom of the SEC East could be pretty ugly in 2021. https://t.co/fzc9uNp7yb

— Robbie Weinstein (@rwweinstein) January 20, 2021

Floodgates are opening in Knoxville. Wonder if some will be calling @vincemarrow https://t.co/H3pJFbVw4t

— Vaughts' Views (@vaughtsviews) January 20, 2021

#Gators are expected to make a strong push for the star sophomore linebacker. https://t.co/UWW921q142

— Corey Bender (@Corey_Bender) January 21, 2021

SDS Staff

Saturday Down South reports and comments on the news around the Southeastern Conference as well as larger college football topics.