Now that’s more of what Jalin Hyatt had in mind.
It’s more of what Tennessee’s coaches had in mind, too.
Hyatt, the 6-foot, 180-pound junior receiver for the Volunteers, was an admitted disappointment in Josh Heupel’s inaugural season and spent the spring and summer months claiming this year would be different. He provided the proof last Saturday, collecting a career-high 11 receptions for 73 yards in Tennessee’s 34-27 overtime topping of Pittsburgh in Acrisure Stadium.
“I’m not going to be happy until the end of the season,” the former four-star signee out of Dutch Fork High in Irmo, South Carolina, said this week in a news conference. “I feel like I haven’t done anything yet, and it’s actually making me more hungry. I really believe that I can just keep getting better and better, and that’s on my mind every time I get out on the field.”
Hyatt’s 11 receptions against the Panthers represented more than half of his 21 catches he compiled in 13 games last year. Given his two catches for 28 yards in the 59-10 rout of Ball State, including a 23-yard touchdown on Tennessee’s first offensive play from scrimmage, Hyatt’s 13 receptions for 101 yards so far has him hunting the productive season he has always desired in Knoxville but not always worked toward.
In April, Hyatt admitted, “When Coach (Jeremy) Pruitt got fired and Coach Heupel came in, I just got complacent. I wasn’t working as hard as I usually work.” He is now being used as a model for those who need to dig deeper for motivation and learn from past mistakes.
“He’s a huge symbol of the things that we talk about paying off,” Heupel said this week. “You guys heard me talk about (former safety) Theo Jackson a lot last year and how mature he was and how he competed, and it resulted in the way that he played. Jalin in the back third of last year and certainly this entire offseason is just a different individual in the way that he approaches every day and his process to getting himself to be ready play during the course of a game week.
“Those examples go a lot further than me just talking about something inside of the team meeting room. Everybody inside of our program can see the difference in that guy.”
Hyatt’s 11 catches at Pittsburgh accompanied Cedric Tillman’s 162 yards and one touchdown on nine receptions and Bru McCoy’s four catches for 58 yards and a score. That trio has quickly emerged to supplant last year’s combination of Tillman, Velus Jones and JaVonta Payton.
Vols offensive coordinator Alex Golesh didn’t hesitate when asked this week why Hyatt, McCoy and Tillman were targeted 35 times last weekend out of Hendon Hooker’s 36 passes to wide receivers.
“You are going to play the guys at the current moment situationally who give you the best opportunity to win,” Golesh said. “That is our job. That game was so unique in how we knew we would get defended. We knew that we were going to have to win the game on the outside and there wasn’t going to be a whole lot in there in terms of running the football down to down. For eight years, people have not been able to run the football on Pitt.
“For us and our best chance to win, it was going to be on the outside in a lot of ways. We have a long season with some really good defenses ahead of us, and I absolutely hope more guys can play. At the end of the day, I don’t think any of us are going to apologize for playing situationally the guys who we thought were going to win us the football game.”
Hyatt actually had more receiving yards (276) as a freshman under Pruitt than in year one (226) of Heupel’s offensive awakening. His first collegiate touchdown transpired from 38 yards out against Alabama in 2020, when he developed a deep-threat reputation with six of his catches that year going for 20-plus yards.
Now it’s a different role for Hyatt, who plays in the slot and had a long gain of 10 yards against the Panthers.
“It’s always good to show something different that a lot of people haven’t seen,” Hyatt said. “With me, a lot of people see speed and deep balls, but to get those underneath throws, too, shows that I can be versatile.”
Scheduling change
The Southeastern Conference on Wednesday directed both Georgia and Tennessee to postpone scheduled games against Oklahoma because the transition of the Sooners into the league will not allow the involved institutions to fulfill their respective contractual nonconference home-and-home obligations.
In each situation, the second scheduled game was to take place after Oklahoma joins the SEC in 2025. The Sooners were set to host the Bulldogs next year, then visit the Vols in 2024.
“While we are disappointed that we won’t be hosting Oklahoma in 2024, we are extremely excited about the marquee games that Oklahoma and Texas will bring to Neyland Stadium in the future as fellow members of the Southeastern Conference,” Vols athletic director Danny White said in a released statement. “In the meantime, we are actively exploring the best possible replacement opponents for 2024.”
Georgia quickly announced it was replacing next year’s trip to Oklahoma with a home game against Ball State.
Odds and ends
The Vols will wear orange jerseys and orange pants Saturday against Akron, their third uniform combination in as many games. … Tennessee announced Wednesday that next week’s game against visiting Florida is sold out.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.
Updated with more information at 6:45 p.m. on Sept. 14, 2022.