KNOXVILLE – Tennessee redshirt freshman Kurott Garland, who entered his name in the NCAA’s transfer portal in late July, returned to the Volunteers on Tuesday.
The 6-foot-3, 304-pound defensive lineman could provide depth to an inexperienced position group. He appeared in only four games last year, and under NCAA rules implemented in 2018, that means he still has four seasons of eligibility remaining.
“The portal, a lot of people look at it as a bad thing,” Tennessee coach Jeremy Pruitt said. “I’m not one that looks at it that way. You’re talking about a young man that comes here as a freshman and had several obstacles to go through physically. He was thinking about possibly transferring, we supported him all the way through and in the end he decided to come back here.
“He’s here, we’re excited that he’s here and I think the guy has lots of ability. He didn’t get to go through spring (practices), but he took some reps out there today. He’s got to go through a little bit of acclimation here, but we have a plan for him. He’s a guy that I think has lots of upside and has done everything we’ve asked him to do in this program since he’s been here. We’re excited that he’s here, and we’ll see how he responds over the next couple of days being back out there.”
Who makes the call?