Sometimes football players simply have to grow into their roles.
At least that's how Tennessee redshirt sophomore receiver Chris Brazzell sees it.
"I kind of had a growth spurt out of nowhere my junior year in high school," Brazzell said earlier this week in a news conference. "I just got tall all of a sudden. As a kid, I was playing running back and quarterback. I played point guard.
"I just got tall."
The 6-foot-5, 195-pounder from Midland, Texas, is in his first spring with the Volunteers after beginning his college career at Tulane. Brazzell redshirted with the Green Wave during the 2022 season before erupting last fall, amassing 44 receptions for 711 yards (16.2 yards per catch) and five touchdowns.
He led Tulane in receiving and broke through to start eight of 13 games, and his impact in Knoxville is already being felt.
"Chris has a unique skill set," Tennessee third-year receivers coach Kelsey Pope said. "He's loose like a slot. He's smooth. He can obviously make the deep catches, and you saw that on his film last year. He's really, really subtle and sudden in his transition.
"He's also a big guy who has the ability to play small as well in tight spaces."
The Vols were off Friday following Thursday night's scrimmage inside Neyland Stadium and will resume practicing Saturday morning. Head coach Josh Heupel singled out Brazzell, freshman Mike Matthews and senior Dont'e Thornton as receivers who made nice plays during the scrimmage.
Brazzell (rhymes with dazzle) had 104 catches in high school for 1,596 yards and 21 touchdowns, which included a senior season at Midland Legacy that contained 52 receptions for 859 yards and 12 scores. The success at Tulane resulted in Brazzell being the No. 54 overall player in the NCAA transfer portal during the 2024 cycle, according to 247Sports.com, and the stability Tennessee possesses at quarterback with sophomore Nico Iamaleava factored into his decision.
"With Nico, I know he has about three years left," Brazzell said. "At most places, the quarterback had either just left or had one year of eligibility. Coming here, I'm feeling really comfortable with the quarterback knowing I'm going to be here for two to three years.
"I'm just wanting to win some games. I feel like all of the receivers here better each other. We have a lot of talent on the team, so meshing me with guys like Bru (McCoy) and Squirrel (White) should be fun."
Brazzell and Thornton are Tennessee's two tallest receivers at 6-5, while McCoy, Chas Nimrod and Kaleb Webb are each 6-3, which has given Pope the deepest collection of taller receivers he's had the luxury to work with.
"We're fortunate to have Chris," Pope said. "His presence here has been seen, and it's also forced some other guys to step their game up because they see that there's real competition in that room. It's been awesome to have him."
Said Thornton: "Regardless of him coming in and having to learn the offense, if a ball comes to him, he's going to catch it."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.