Tennessee’s punt game turned into a hidden weapon against Auburn last week, and freshman defensive back Joel Wyatt was a big reason why.
The Vols were struggling to get much going on offense, but their kicking game kept Auburn buried deep and never really let the Tigers breathe in the return game until a turnover changed things. Jackson Ross handled the punts, but Wyatt was the one winning his battles on the edge as a gunner and preventing Auburn from getting anything meaningful back.
That work did not go unnoticed by Josh Heupel.
“Young guys continuing to grow. I think a great example of that is Joel Wyatt’s impact on the football game last Saturday,” Heupel said.
“A guy that has been playing gunner for us. He’s playing on really all of our (special) teams and just continues to grow.
I talked about it on Monday with our guys. That’s a guy that we challenged late in training camp to really start taking some ownership and taking strides to be ready to go play at a high level.
He’s continued. He’s become a great practice player.
That’s parlayed itself into him playing consistently out on the edge. Last Saturday, he changed the way the game was played.”
Auburn coach Alex Golesh pointed to the same problem afterward, even if he never named Wyatt directly. When asked why his team couldn’t do more in the return game, Golesh said, “The plan wasn’t a fair catch, and if we are able to cover up the gunner - it seemed to be the gunner on the left side every time,” Golesh said.
“The calls are to go return it. But if you don’t feel like you can return it, fair catch it.”
Wyatt arrived at Tennessee with plenty of pedigree. Out of Oakland High School in Murfreesboro, he was ranked the No. 63 player in the country by 247 in the 2026 class, the No. 3 athlete in the nation and the No. 3 player in Tennessee.
Now he and the Vols are headed to Arkansas. Kickoff is set for 4:15 p.m. ET on SEC Network.
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