Lucas Panzica talks about the impact of Colton Hood on the Tennessee Volunteers defense, after he transferred from Colorado this week.
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00:00Tennessee grabbed a huge pickup out of the transfer portal last week that immediately
00:04makes one position group for the Vols one of the best in the SEC.
00:11Hey, Lucas Panzeke here from 104.5 The Zone and A-Z Sports. That's right, late last week,
00:17Tennessee got a pledge out of the spring transfer portal for former Auburn and Colorado cornerback
00:23Colton Hood headed to Rocky Top to play for the Vols. Hood started his career at Auburn
00:29before really shining with the Colorado Buffaloes last season as a coverage corner. Now, there is
00:36one thing that really sticks out about Colton Hood. Number one, his numbers from last season
00:42are impressive. According to PFF, Hood faced 215 coverage snaps in the 2024 season for the Colorado
00:50Buffaloes. He allowed only two touchdowns, allowed a passer rating of 51.7 and had two interceptions
00:57on the year. Now, there is one thing that makes those numbers particularly impressive for Colton
01:03Hood, and that's the player that was lining up across from him in that Colorado secondary. That's
01:08right, Travis Hunter, the Heisman Trophy winning playmaker, cornerback and wide receiver hybrid that
01:15went number two overall in the NFL draft to the Jacksonville Jaguars. That means teams were throwing
01:21away from Travis Hunter and towards Colton Hood, which makes his season that much more impressive
01:27for Colorado. So he comes over and joins a Tennessee defensive backfield that suddenly at the cornerback
01:33position is extremely deep, especially if all American corner Jermon McCoy can be available in week
01:40one coming off that ACL injury that he sustained early in the 2025 calendar year. Now that is not a sure
01:48thing. We're not sure what that progress or timeline will look like for Jermon McCoy, but there's no
01:53doubt that picking up Colton Hood suddenly makes a position group that going into spring practice had
01:59a bit of a question mark around it, a huge strength for the Vols. Think about where we were just going
02:04into spring practice at the cornerback spot. Jermon McCoy had just sustained the ACL injury. There was
02:10reporting around Ricky Gibson, the other Tennessee cornerback that started opposite McCoy last year,
02:16that he might enter the portal after spring practice. That did not happen. Gibson figured out
02:21his NIL situation with Tennessee, practiced throughout the entirety of spring ball, and is
02:26looking like we'll be on this roster after not entering the portal for the spring window. So
02:32suddenly Tennessee is extremely deep at the cornerback spot. If Jermon McCoy is back healthy early next
02:39season, Ricky Gibson is expected to be in the fold, and now Colton Hood is in the mix. Tennessee has
02:45options and will be a tough team to throw against at the cornerback position in 2025.