Tennessee tight end Miles Kitselman, an Alabama transfer, has a chance to play a bigger role on offense after joining the Vols earlier this year
Ryan Callahan
Miles Kitselman entered the NCAA transfer portal in January in hopes of finding a program where he could play a more significant role after spending the past two years at Alabama. His move to Tennessee has given him the opportunity he was awaiting.
Kitselman, the Vols' senior tight end, said Thursday that he feels plenty of excitement and "joy" going into what's likely to be the final year of his college career. After primarily playing on special teams and as a reserve tight end for the Crimson Tide, he's now in line to be one of Tennessee's top tight ends this season, and he said he's excited about having a chance to be an important part of the Vols' offense.
"Just blessed and grateful," he said Thursday after Tennessee's seventh practice of preseason camp. "(I was) just praying, while I was at Alabama, just, 'God, like, show me a sign.'
"And ending up here, and then you can kind of, like, get in the loop of things. And then all of a sudden it'll hit me, and I'm like, 'Man, this is everything I prayed for.' So just excitement, joy. Ready for this season —very ready for this season."
Kitselman played on the offensive and defensive lines as a senior at Lyndon (Kan.) High School before enrolling at Hutchinson (Kan.) High School and moving to tight end. After appearing in just three games as a freshman at Hutchinson, he transferred to Alabama and played sparingly on offense for the Crimson Tide, catching just two passes for 18 years during his two seasons in the program.
He was known as more of a blocking tight end when he arrived at Tennessee in January. But he has gotten more involved in the Vols' passing game this year, and he has spent plenty of time working with their first-team offense since the start of spring practice in March. He caught a touchdown pass in Tennessee's first spring scrimmage.
Going into Tennessee's first preseason scrimmage Friday night at Neyland Stadium, the 6-foot-5 Kitselman — who said he now weighs approximately 248 to 250 pounds — is one of at least three tight ends who appear to be in line to handle most of the workload for the Vols this season. Notre Dame transfer Holden Staes and redshirt freshman Ethan Davis are also getting plenty of work and are expected to play this season.
Kitselman said he's not necessarily worried about winning the starting job at tight end because Tennessee is planning to use multiple tight ends.
"I don't know if winning the job is necessary," he said. "Like, obviously, last year you saw Jacob Warren and Cali (McCallan Castles) play a lot. We've got three dudes. We've got a lot of dudes, but me, Holden and Ethan, we can all play. So I don't think it's going to necessarily be like, 'Hey, you're the dude. You're going to play 80 snaps and that's it.'
"And so I think I'll just continue to compete and grind and continue to push each other, because we're all going to be on the field this year."
Kitselman's skill set has lined up well with the way the Vols use their tight ends in coach Josh Heupel's fast-paced offense.
"I think this offense is a really good fit because I love how loose it is with the ballplayers," Kitselman said. "The coaches say, like, 'Hey, this is what we're looking for,' and then they kind of just let us loose and be like, 'Hey, go be a ballplayer,' and I really like that.
"We've got some really skilled tight ends that are ballplayers, and they kind of just say, like, 'Hey, this is what we're looking for. This is what you need to do. But at the end of the day, just go be a ballplayer.' And in the box, it's everything that I can kind of transfer my skills over into the box, as well, so it's been really good."
Staes, a former four-star prospect from Atlanta who was ranked by 247Sports as the No. 2 transfer tight end for the 2024 cycle, spoke highly Thursday of what Kitselman has added to Tennessee's offense.
"Miles brings a savvy player, kind of grits his teeth, doesn't turn down anything that comes his way," Staes said. "He's going to put his face in there in the run game, and then in the pass game. Just a really good ballplayer. Can feel space really well and make plays in the open field."
Kitselman said he has improved the most "out in space" this offseason, adding that he has been "kind of leaning up a little bit, taking off some weight so I can move a little better out in space, and I would say just playing wide and playing on those —releasing on (defensive backs), second-level releases, that kind of stuff."
He said he has dropped several pounds since he first joined the Vols, when he weighed "about 255, 257."
"Playing out in space, it's all about reading bodies, coverages — all that kind of stuff —and Coach Abes has done a great job at coaching those tight ends up on that, and just feeling space and feeling bodies, so it's been a really good adjustment," Kitselman said, referring to second-year Tennessee tight ends coach Alec Abeln.
His opportunity with the Vols has turned out to be exactly the way Abeln described it earlier this year after Kitselman added his name to the transfer portal on Jan. 3. Kitselman said he believed what Abeln was telling him because their conversations were "genuine right off the bat."
"The more and more you deal with coaches, the more and more you can kind of separate the genuineness, so I knew right off the bat that they were not just lying to me, and they weren't going to bring me in here with one year left just to waste it," Kitselman said.
"I did have a previous coach here from Hutch, (former offensive graduate assistant) Kody Cook, and he said, 'Man, listen. You can come in here and work. We've got some great tight ends, but you're going to fit in. You're going to get on the field.'"
It all seems to be playing out just as Cook said it would. In the meantime, Kitselman is doing everything he can to get himself ready for the opportunity he has wanted for years. That includes putting in work with redshirt freshman quarterback Nico Iamaleava to improve their connection on the field.
"Every day, me and Nico just continue to grow, especially outside of the facility," Kitselman said. "Obviously, as a tight end and a quarterback, your connection is everything. And then the stronger that connection is off the field, the stronger it is on the field, so getting off the field and just hanging out all the time.
"And then we transferred to on the field and just getting one-on-one time and knowing, like, 'Hey, during this coverage, I'm going to do this,' and just getting on the same page. It's really starting to come together."
