The transfer portal officially opens on Monday after a number of names across the country announced their intentions to enter the portal this week.

Josh Heupel and his staff have spent the week having conversations with players, figuring out which players plan on returning to Knoxville for another season or leave the program via the transfer portal or professional football.

That gives the Vols an idea of what positions they need to aggressively attack next week when the portal opens.

So what about the quarterback spot?

Joe Milton III is out of eligibility and Nico Iamaleava is poised to step into the starting job in his redshirt freshman season. Tennessee adds four-star quarterback Jake Merklinger to the roster via the high school ranks and current third-string quarterback Gaston Moore has eligibility remaining though he went through Senior Day festivities last week.

The question becomes should Tennessee pursue a quarterback in the transfer portal?

This is pretty simple. Tennessee has zero proven quarterbacks returning and while Iamaleava is almost certainly going to be the starter next season there’s not another quarterback that you’d feel good about stepping in for him if need be.

Merklinger being ready to play feels unlikely and while Moore is a good third-string quarterback for modern college football I seriously doubt Tennessee wants the walk on to be the backup.

There’s two scenarios where Tennessee could need another quarterback on the roster. The first is obvious— if Iamaleava suffers an injury.

But what if Iamaleava just struggles? Tennessee didn’t bring in a transfer quarterback to compete with Joe Milton III last offseason and that was pretty obviously a mistake. A transfer beating out Milton for the starting job seems unlikely even in hindsight but it would have given them another option besides freshman Iamaleava, who Tennessee’s coaches didn’t seemed to poised to play.

It boils down to this simple point: Tennessee’s offense has to be much improved next season. Putting all eggs into the Iamaleava basket is a risk.