For a second straight January, the Tennessee Volunteers dipped into the NCAA transfer portal to snag a running back.
For a second straight March, the early results appear promising.
A year after Tennessee added Star Thomas from Duke, the Vols acquired Javin (pronounced JAY-vin) Gordon from Tulane. The 5-foot-10, 210-pound Gordon is from Toccoa, Georgia, and he joins a running back room headed by redshirt junior DeSean Bishop and also containing sophomores Daune Morris and Justin Baker.
“JG is a smart and really fast learner,” Tennessee third-year running backs coach DeRail Sims said Saturday afternoon in a press conference. “He’s picked up on the system really fast. You can tell he played on a high-quality team last year, and you still kind of forget he’s a freshman. Last fall was his first semester in college, and this is his second semester.
“He’s done a really good job in terms of interacting with his teammates. He’s just an old-school football player.”
The Vols conducted their eighth of 15 allotted spring workouts Saturday morning. They will take Sunday off before resuming Monday.
Gordon rushed 128 times for 516 yards (4.0 yards a carry) and five touchdowns for last season’s Green Wave, who went 11-2 before getting bounced 41-10 at Ole Miss in the first round of the College Football Playoff. He started six times and wound up playing 418 offensive snaps.
Tennessee last season had Bishop, Thomas and Peyton Lewis as its top three running backs, with Thomas being a senior. Lewis was a sophomore but transferred to Virginia.
“I saw an opportunity to come here and stack the running back room with the hope of making it better and play, of course, this fall,” Gordon said. “I think I bring downhill running and physicality and leadership.”
Gordon was a three-star prospect at Stephens County High School during the 2025 recruiting cycle, ranking as the nation’s No. 1,203 overall prospect, the No. 99 running back and the 136th-best recruit in the Peach State. Sims was familiar with Gordon before joining Josh Heupel’s staff and said Gordon had gotten a little overweight as a high school senior before getting that under control.
“He’s a guy who went out there and played early as a freshman on a playoff-caliber team,” Sims said. “You just see a guy who’s got a really high ceiling that’s not maxed out from that standpoint. You saw his pass-catching ability and his pass-protection ability.
“He was a guy who was on the radar for me at some other spots I had been, so I had watched him practice before. This is a kid who had Harvard and other Ivy League offers coming out of high school, so I knew he would be able to process fast.”
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Helping Gordon process is Tennessee’s returning 1,076-yard rusher.
“JG is the new guy in our room, and Bish has taken him under his wing,” Sims said. “JG sits on his right in the meeting room, and when there are questions that need to be answered when I’m not in the room, Bish is the guy doing it, and it’s the same in walkthroughs.”
Said Bishop: “He has attacked every day, and he has shocked me a lot. He has accepted our offense and our tempo, and that’s not always easy. I’m excited to see what he can do. He’s going to be a monster.”
Last time around
The only running back in Tennessee history with multiple 1,000-yard seasons is Johnnie Jones, who rushed for 1,116 in 1983 and 1,290 in 1984.
Bishop could join him during the 2026 season, which he plans to be his last in Knoxville.
“I’ve set myself up to be done after this year,” Bishop said, “and I have aspirations to go to the league as well.”
Bowman commits
Tennessee picked up its sixth commitment for the 2027 signing cycle and the fourth from within the state Saturday afternoon when the Vols received a nonbinding pledge from Brentwood Academy receiver Kesean Bowman.
The 6-1, 176-pound Bowman is the nation’s No. 41 overall prospect in the 247Sports.com composite rankings and the No. 7 receiver. He is also the No. 2 recruit in the Volunteer State behind Baylor School running back David Gabriel-Georges.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.