Outgoing Tennessee CB announces transfer commitment
The first of a half-dozen Tennessee players to either enter the NCAA transfer portal or announce their intentions to do so has committed to a new program. Cornerback Warren Burrell, the first portal entry for the Vols this cycle, plans to play his final season of eligibility at Georgia Tech after announcing his commitment via social media on Sunday evening. Burrell played the past five seasons at Tennessee, bouncing back from a season-ending injury two games into the 2022 season to appear in 10 games as a reserve on defense and special teams contributor this season.
Joining the Yellow Jackets will be a homecoming of sorts for Burrell, who is from Suwanee in the Atlanta area and played at North Gwinnett High School before heading to Tennessee.
In 41 games for the Vols, Burrell totaled 91 tackles, three tackles for loss, nine pass breakups and one interception.
Burrell started the first four games of his freshman season and the final four games of the 2020 season for Tennessee’s former coaching staff, and he started all 12 games he played in during the 2021 season, the first under Josh Heupel and the current staff.
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The 6-foot, 190-pounder totaled 41 tackles and seven pass breakups in the best season of his career.
Burrell suffered a season-ending shoulder injury late in Tennessee’s win at Pittsburgh last season and wound up using his redshirt. He missed most of spring practice before battling for a role on defense during preseason camp. Burrell was primarily a backup cornerback for the Vols in 2023.
He recorded the first interception of his career in the fourth quarter of Tennessee’s win against UTSA in September. Burrell also recovered a fumble off a muffed punt in the win against Austin Peay two weeks earlier. The turnover set up Tennessee’s first score of the game.
This season, Burrell played the fourth-most snaps (166) among Tennessee cornerbacks, per Pro Football Focus. He played defensive snaps in nine games, getting the most playing time against Austin Peay (40), Virginia (26), UTSA (23) and Connecticut (22). In SEC play, Burrell had two tackles on a season-high 19 defensive snaps at Kentucky and also played 18 snaps and had a tackle for loss against Vanderbilt in his Neyland Stadium finale.
Burrell totaled eight tackles in 10 appearances this season.
In two games in 2022, Burrell totaled 12 tackles with one pass breakup. During his full season as a starter, Burrell had three PBUs and eight tackles against Vanderbilt in 2021 and had a pair of PBUs early in the season against Pittsburgh, and he also broke up passes against Kentucky and Florida.
Burrell completed his degree in communication studies in December 2022 and was working toward his master’s degree at Tennessee. He entered the portal on November 30 as a graduate transfer. Burrell has one season of eligibility remaining.
