Tennessee will welcome a true freshman receiver Saturday afternoon, while Alabama brings Ryan Williams to town. Could they counter this with a five-star freshman receiver of their own? According to Josh Heupel, it is possible.

Mike Matthews, one of the crown jewels of last year’s recruiting class for Tennessee, has officially cracked the wide receiver rotation. Matthews handled 13 snaps against Florida, most of which came early in the game. It’s possible some of that was due to some lingering injuries to Dont’e Thornton, Bru McCoy and Squirrel White.

Matthews battled injuries in camp, which most likely affected his playing time early on. Now he appears ready to make an impact, and Heupel says he’s ready to roll against Alabama.

“He played a lot early in the (Florida) game, and as the game went on, he didn’t have the same amount of reps as he did at the beginning,” Heupel said. “Mike is someone who took a hit during training camp and limited some of his development early this year. We really like what we see from him. He has had a great week of preparation. Expect him to play in this.”

According to On3’s Industry Rankings, Matthews was a five-star prospect. He was the 26th-ranked prospect in the class of 2024, at 6-1, 180 pounds. Matthews is from Lilburn, Georgia.

He’s already found the end zone once this year, catching this ball from Gaston Moore on mop-up duty against Kent State.

While Matthews isn’t expected to play a major role, it will be interesting to see how much run he gets. None of the Tennessee receivers appeared on their initial injury report on Wednesday, but we’re coming off a game where Thornton saw just four snaps and White was visibly sore.

Kickoff for Tennessee and Alabama is Saturday at 3:30 PM ET. ABC will be called.