Jordan Murphy, Terrell Bailey leaving Tennessee football program

Tennessee receiver Jordan Murphy has left the football program, according to head coach Jeremy Pruitt. The speedy receiver did not play in week one against Georgia State, but ruffled some feathers afterwards, retweeting a tweet making fun of the amount of money that Tennessee paid to get beaten by the Panthers.

Murphy has since deactivated his Twitter account.

The former four-star recruit didn’t see much playing time last year until the end of the season, where he became a big play threat for the Vols. Murphy made a couple of plays to help the Vols knock off Kentucky, but was still buried on the depth chart this season.

“He’s no longer on our team. Jordan Murphy’s no longer on our team,” Pruitt said on Wednesday. He said that it was Murphy’s decision to leave.

Elsewhere, Pruitt confirmed that reserve defensive back Terrell Bailey opted to leave the team as well. Bailey entered his name in the transfer portal yesterday.

Murphy reacted to that news with this post on Instagram, saying “they freed my guy.”

What does this mean for Tennessee? Not much on the field. Both were reserves, but Murphy did have a chance to make an impact in the offense. But it’s a “if you’re not with us, you’re against us” situation here. Coming off that embarrassing loss, Tennessee needed to eliminate any possible distraction. Whether it was Murphy’s decision or not is irrelevant — it’s done now and the program is likely better for it.

Tennessee can now move on, full steam ahead to BYU.