Sometimes your first big move ends up being your most important. That’s exactly the case for Tennessee’s football team in the transfer portal with the 2024 regular season coming to an end. The star ratings of the prospects are totally irrelevant.
Arizona Wildcats transfer offensive lineman Wendell Moe Jr. committed to UT on Wednesday. Rated a three-star transfer on 247Sports Composite, Moe stands at 6’2″ 339 pounds and has two years of eligibility remaining with 27 games of starting experience. He announced his move on X.
Because of his experience as an interior offensive lineman, Moe is a proven commodity to fill a direct need for the Vols. UT guard Andrej Karic is fighting for an extra year of eligibility, but the Vols have to replace Cooper Mays at center and Javontez Spraggins at right guard next year.
Those two have been anchors for the offense setting records under Josh Heupel dating back to 2022.
With Vysen Lang in the portal, it looks like Tennessee will have to turn to William Satterwhite at center or go for another transfer offensive lineman. That leaves a huge opening at guard, maybe two, and that’s exactly the void Moe should be able to fill when he arrives at UT. He’s almost the exact same size as Spraggins, so he should replace him easily.
In terms of quality, Moe was second team All Pac-12 as a redshirt freshman in 2023. He didn’t earn conference honors this year in Arizona’s move to the Big 12, but it’s also worth noting that he had to switch between left and right guard this year, which could have caused some issues. he also had to play for two different head coaches.
If Josh Heupel, Joey Halzle and Glen Elarbee lock him in at just one of the guard positions, he should be a perfect fit for this offense. Moe has experience running tempo playing for Dino Babers this year, who was the offensive coordinator to first-year Arizona head coach Brent Brennan.
Taking all this into account, it’s safe to say Moe is a huge pickup for the Vols. They may get more highly-touted transfers when it’s all said and done, but they will not have gotten a more direct, proven fit to fill a void. As a result, the Vols’ first transfer pickup is easily going to be their biggest.
Before committing to Arizona, Moe was a prospect out of Long Beach Poly High School in Los Angeles County, Calif., sharing a hometown with current Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava. He also continues a California Polynesian pipeline to UT that Josh Heupel has established.
