Vols’ junior wide receiver Deangelo Gibbs has elected to not participate in the 2020 football season, Tennessee head coach Jeremy Pruitt revealed to the media on Friday afternoon. Pruitt did not specify if it was due to COVID-19 concerns.
“Deangelo has elected not to play this fall,” Pruitt said. “He’s going to focus on his academics. He’s still with our team and he continues to do a really good job academically, but he’s going to sit this fall out.”
Coming out of high school, Gibbs was rated as a four-star and was ranked as the No. 49 overall player and No. 4 safety in the 2017 class according to the 247Sports Composite rankings. The 6-foot-1, 205-pound athlete played for Grayson High School, the same high school current Tennessee offensive tackle Wanya Morris played at this past season.
Tennessee recruited Gibbs while he was in high school. The Vols’ previous coaching staff hosted him twice on unofficial visits in the fall of 2016, and he unofficially visited UT twice at the beginning of 2016 as well. But he ultimately signed with Georgia and enrolled early at UGA.
Though Gibbs was used as a defensive back for the Bulldogs, he spent all of the 2019 season learning the wide receiver position while sitting out due to transfer rules.
In two seasons with Georgia, Gibbs appeared in 13 total games, totaling 10 tackles. Gibbs never quite lived up to his billing as a defender at Georgia, and part of that had to do with off-field issues.
Gibbs’ decision to not play this season leaves Tennessee with 10 scholarship wide receivers. The Vols are tasked with replacing nearly 70 percent of their receiving production from a season ago following the departures of Jauan Jennings and Marquez Callaway.
