Upon his arrival at Tennessee, Josh Heupel preached patience to the current roster of Volunteers.

“To the current members of this football program and this roster: We need to be a family. We need to act like a family,” Heupel said during his introductory press conference. “Everybody’s got a different perspective based on their background, of what a family is at times… Let’s stay a family. Let’s trust the people that are in place to help you become what you’re capable of.”

So far, that message has fallen on deaf ears for some.

Not long after Heupel issued those words, running back Eric Gray announced his transfer to Oklahoma, and on Friday, senior kicker Brent Cimaglia announced his decision to leave the program via transfer.

Now comes an interesting tweet from four-star Tennessee signee, Cody Brown. The Parkview High School product from Lilburn, Ga., rates as one of the top prospects to sign with the Volunteers during the Early Signing Period but he clearly wishes he didn’t do that following Jeremy Pruitt’s firing.

Brown is now the second Tennessee signee to issue this tweet, as the program’s highest-rated signee, linebacker Dylan Brooks issued the same message before later deleting his tweet. For what it’s worth, Brooks has retweeted Brown’s “#freemee” tweet.

Brooks has also publicly made it known he wishes to be released from his letter of intent to Tennessee.

While this isn’t likely the news Heupel was hoping for upon his first week on the job, Tennessee would be wise to release all the players that desire to leave the program. When you consider this is the era of the transfer portal, it would be unwise to fight to keep a player that has no interest in playing for a program or coach.