Vols Commit, WR Prospects React to Kelsey Pope Hire

Tennessee Head Coach Josh Heupel announced Kelsey Pope would be promoted to wide receivers coach earlier today. The two week search for a position coach

Tennessee Head Coach Josh Heupel announced Kelsey Pope would be promoted to wide receivers coach earlier today. The two week search for a position coach concluded with Pope being elevated from offensive analyst to the on-field role. 

Pope will inherit a talented receiver room heading into the Spring, but he is already to work on the recruiting trail. Volunteer Country reached out to a few prospects Tennessee at the receiver spot to gather their reaction on Pope being elevated to the position, and the returns were all positive. You can read for yourself below. 

Four-Star In-State Wide Receiver Justin Brown

"I think coach Pope is the guy for the job, and he definitely deserves it. He knows how to connect to the players, and he is just straight up with you."

Brown visited Tennessee this and he discussed his thoughts on the visit and Pope with Volunteer Country on Saturday night. To read the full interview, click here.

Four-Star WR Devin Hyatt, Brother of Current Tennessee WR Jalin Hyatt

"I’m excited. He’s still hungry and young with a lot of knowledge. My brother is also excited about him and says a lot of good about him, so that tells me enough. Look forward to getting to know him more."

Prized 2024 California WR Jordan Anderson (Visited This Saturday)

"From the moment I got there in Knoxville, Coach Pope was a great dude. Outside of football , I definitely connected with him a lot during the trip. I think it was a great hire. Honestly, a wide receive like me would love to be apart of coach Pope's wide receiver core.  I feel like he got the tools a WR needs. I could definitely see myself playing for coach Pope."

2023 Vols WR Commit Nate Spillman

I love to see coach Pope as the wide receivers coach. I talked to him a lot throughout my visit this weekend. He’s definitely more than capable of being the receiver coach at UT. This will be his second year at Tennessee, so he knows how things operate over there. So I think he will be a great coach for the job.

2023 Florida WR Jaren Hamilton (Visited This Saturday)

"Coach Pope welcomed me onto Tennessee’s campus with open arms. It was my first real interaction with him & from the experience I took away that he was a real good coach & knew what he was talking about but most importantly, you could tell that he cared about the actual player.”

Elite 2023 WR Noah Rogers

"I told him congratulations and I am looking forward to talking with him soon!"

Rogers, who is not a talkative recruit, recently told Volunteer Country during a separate interview that Pope had picked up the conversation in his recruitment following Burns's departure and liked what he heard from during the initial conversation. 

This article will be updated as more recruits respond to the news.