An obvious target.
One of the more obvious moves of Tennessee’s offseason has been made — the Volunteers have offered transferring tight end Justin Joly, just one month after Joly had a big game in Neyland Stadium. Josh Heupel’s team has a huge need at tight end, and it wasn’t all that difficult to project a fit for Joly at Tennessee.
After entering the transfer portal last week, Joly announced an offer from Tennessee on Monday morning.
After a great talk with @AlecAbeln I’m blessed to receive an offer from The Univeristy of Tennessee pic.twitter.com/KfYS6vGukU
— Justin Joly (@jjoly_17) December 4, 2023
Joly caught nine passes for 89 yards in UConn’s 56-3 loss to Tennessee in November. Just a sophomore, Joly caught 56 passes for 578 yards and two scores during the 2023 season. He stands in at 6-3, 232 pounds.
Joly also announced offers from Houston and NC State on Monday morning.
Tennessee will see Jacob Warren and McCallan Castles exit the program this offseason, leaving a massive hole in the offense. Ethan Davis is a natural next man up after redshirting this season, but there’s not much left behind him. Raw true freshman prospect Emmanuel Okoye will be going into year two behind him, while four-star athlete Jonathan Echols will join the roster as a true freshman.
Simply put, Tennessee has to add at least one veteran body, maybe even two. Joly makes sense as a dynamic threat that can naturally fit into Tennessee’s passing game. He has two years of eligibility remaining, and would be a big boost for Nico Iamaleava going into 2024 and 2025.