Tennessee has to replace two competent tight ends from last season. The Vols may have three.
Ethan Davis, Holden Staes and Miles Kitselman have all had their standout moment in preseason camp and are all seemingly competing for playing time. Kitselman doesn’t see it like that.
“I don’t think of it as necessarily winning a job,” said Kitselman, who transferred from Alabama. “We’ve got three dudes…and we can all play. I’ll just continue to compete and grind. We will continue to push each other because we’re all going to be on the field this year.”
Kitselman should know what it takes to play in the SEC. He played in 13 games for the Crimson Tide, mostly on special teams and a reserve tight end, last season. While he may or may not be the answer to the Vols’ tight end needs, it’s good to have options with Staes and Davis. Tennessee’s recent history of playing multiple tight ends in a game helped the Vols land Kitselman and Staes, who transferred from Notre Dame as the No. 1 tight end transfer in the 2024 class.
“That was a big part of my decision to come here,” Staes said of the Vols’ utilizing multiple tight ends. “All the different ways we get involved in the pass game and all the stuff we do in the run game is very versatile. It puts us in a lot of good positions to makes plays for the offense, so I like what we’re doing.
“That’s what you want as an offensive player. You want to be involved in everything that makes the offense go. It’s definitely been a fun thing for me and something that I have taken pride in, to help our offense be the best that it can be.”
While Kitselman may not provide the production needed based on his previous experience in Tuscaloosa, he could serve another very important purpose: mentoring Davis, a redshirt freshman with plenty of athletic ability to star in the SEC and beyond.
“I consider Miles like my best friend,” said Davis. “Just being able to get to know him more throughout this year, we have grown a very close relationship. We hang out outside of football a lot. He’s one of my best friends up here.”
Davis has put on nearly 20 pounds since arriving at Tennessee last season. The challenge of changing his body has affected his entire life.
“When I go home, I cook some stuff up,” said Davis, who is listed at 6-foot-5 and 246 pounds. “I’m majoring in culinary arts now, so I have been falling in love with cooking and stuff like that, so I just cook at home.”
The key for Davis and his new bulked-up physique is that he retains the speed that made him a top prospect. That, he said, hasn’t been a problem.
“I feel like I really haven’t missed a beat, and that’s credit to our strength staff,” Davis said. “I mean, I put the weight on and they do the rest.”
The Vols hope Davis can do even more.
