Thursday was departure day for a trio of Tennessee Volunteers via the NCAA transfer portal.
Sophomore edge rusher Tyler Baron, redshirt freshman running back Dee Beckwith and redshirt freshman long snapper Will Albright are looking to continue their football careers elsewhere, though a player who enters the portal has the ability to withdraw and remain at his university. Former Tennessee tight end Austin Pope entered the portal in December 2020, withdrew a month later and eventually retired from football last summer due to multiple back surgeries.
Baron easily has been the most productive of the three who entered the portal Thursday.
The 6-foot-5, 260-pounder out of Knoxville Catholic has played in all 23 games the past two years and started the first four games this season before being supplanted by Byron Young. Baron amassed 30 tackles, seven tackles for loss and four sacks for the 7-6 Vols, with his biggest sack transpiring in the fourth quarter of the 45-42 win at Kentucky.
Baron's freshman season consisted of 21 tackles, three tackles for loss and a sack of Florida quarterback and Heisman Trophy finalist Kyle Trask.
The 6-5, 227-pound Beckwith expected to vie for playing time in Tennessee's backfield after the portal departures of Ty Chandler and Eric Gray following last season, but the opportunity never arose due to the emergence of Jabari Small and the arrivals of junior-college transfer Tiyon Evans and freshman Jaylen Wright, though Evans entered the transfer portal in November and signed a month later with Louisville.
Beckwith had two carries for 24 yards during the win at Vanderbilt in 2020, but his lone carry this season yielded a 2-yard gain against South Alabama. His two-year career with the Vols consisted of five games.
According to Tennessee's statistics for the 2021 season, Albright did not play after getting in just the opening game at South Carolina in 2020. Albright worked some at linebacker during practice this past spring due to a significant lack of depth at that position.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524. Follow him on Twitter @DavidSPaschall.